Is this an actual press release? If so I would not begin with the word "steal", I would let the quotes and dates speak for themselves.
This is getting ridiculous. Can someone explain how this press release is moving the dialogue forward? This is the crass style of politics that I would expect from the Kerry campaign, not from the straight talker. I am really starting to get nervous that Dean is just another politician after all.
What exactly is wrong with other candidates adopting some of Dean's rhetoric? Isn't imitation the ultimate form of flattery?
This campaign needs to regain it's original focus. It should discuss policy and not personalities.
Don't forget what the real enemy is here: Bush's policy. Explain why and how Bush is taking America in the wrong direction. Show America Howard Dean's solutions. Finally, tell them how they are superior and why they will work.
Stop the nitpicking. No one cares, and it only makes Dean look petty. This 'press release' accomplishes nothing.
The Democratic nominee will have to face a Bush juggernaut with agressive tactics. One way that works is pointing out when someone changes their position. After all, last fall, Rep. Gephardt et. al. campaigned as Bush-lite for control of Congress; he did not (which I suspect is the real issue) put political capital into universal health care. Score by pointing it out.
When facing Bush, it will be necessary to hilite differences between Bush's policy and his campaign rhetoric. Governor Dean is demonstrating his ability to deal with this.
Besides, do you really want Rep. Gephardt to get such credit for his idea when Governor Dean has been passionately campaigning on this issue for more than a year?
honestly, i don't want dick to get credit for howard's line. but i do agree that "steal" is a bit harsh. i would rather have seen something along the lines of "dr dean thanks gephart for finally realising what dean's been saying since january: we can't be bush lite to win the campaign."
but i am extremely bothered by the co-opting coming from the democratic field. sure, i am happy that they are picking up on the rhetoric, but damn, they have sold us out for quite some time. what bothers me is that i know they are not being sincere when they repeat what howard's been saying for so long. will, you might want to keep that in mind when thinking about this flap: this is yet another flip-flop from the spineless dems in congress. they are co-opting a winning platform, but who among them has the guts to follow through? my answer is howard dean.
wait wait, i've got it!
"you can't beat bush by being dean-lite."
Dean should tone it down a bit here. I love his attacks, but he's a little harsh and they can come back to him.
The recent CBS profile of Dean showed a clip where Dean's next sentence after saying the Democrats shouldn't be Bush-lite was 'I'm Howard Dean and I'm here to represent the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.' We all know Dean at first didn't credit Wellstone (though I have seen him since do that). It seemed that in two sentences, Dean used a phrase he said Gephardt is now 'stealing', followed by a phrase he 'borrowed' from Wellstone. Wellstone's phrase was far more of a unique catchphrase.
What a stupid press release. I hope this is a joke, but if not, then the campaign needs to seriously step back and examine what its goals are. I thought that the press was going a little overboard with their description of Dean being an "attack dog," but with the activity in the last week and this press release, they might be right. Dean attracted so many people to him with his message and vision for America. He did it without tearing down his opponents. He has to get back to his message, or his momentum will surely peter out and he will have peaked in April. Quit the silly press releases!
This is a joke, right? Trippi & Co. did not really send this out as a post-debate press release, did they? If so, this is totally Bush-league (perhaps a decent double-entendre, but I digress). Let's see, attack Kerry (which may or may not have been a bad thing), but now just move down the line and attack Gephardt? This is pretty weak -- STAY ON MESSAGE!!!
agreed, ziggy.
mr. trippi, please please please stop it.
dr. dean sounds pathetic and childish...the exact opposite of the good doctor's message and ideas.
it's good if other candidates want to co-opt your ideas.
if you need to draw attention to it, how about a simple, "I am happy to see that Representative Gephardt has come to beleive what I beleived all along - that Democrats must be *Democrats* to beat this President. It's unfortunate that Rep. gephardt has only come to beleive this recently as he's voted with this President on x, x, and x. Hopefully, representative Gephardt's renewed faith in the principles of the Democratic Party will last..."
Tie it to actual policy stands...not just, "hey, he said what I said."
Howard sounds like a brat.
...
shux
It's really bad. I sincerely doubt that Dean invented the term 'Bush-lite'.
Dean should have called Little Dicky on this at the debate...not the day after. He should have said..."yo Little Dicky...I invented Bush-Lite" And put Little Dicky in his place on the spot in front of a national audience ABC, C-SPAN. Dean was far too reserved last night.
This attacking people not at the debates isn't going to cut it and makes Dean look weak. If he were to speak up on this last night and then have this press release today...it would be smart. Dean dropped the ball last night. His question should have been not to Graham but to Little Dicky asking "Why the fuck are you stealing my Bush Lite slogan?"
Dean is not capitalizing on what is presented to him and is now pushing today. Eh.
Come on Howard...be a little more original.
Shux,
And I agree with you, too -- if Dean wants to call Gep on his co-optation of message, he should do it in a way that doesn't make him sound like he's just whining about it. The way you presented what he *should* have said was very well framed... also agree with him doing AT THE DEBATE instead of the day after.
I just sent in another contribution to the campaign - maybe they will use it to get a media director who can put out these damn fires before they start!
Dean's performance in the S.C. dabate was a little disappointing I expected more; but Bobby Kennedy did'nt "catch his stride" for some peroid of time too. Its not who is first out of the gate that matters. I can't stand Gephart or Sharpton; Edwards was good Kerry, not bad. Braun was excellent but is she electable? and Graham is boring, Liberman doesn't excite me and then there is Dennis Who?
Reminds me of people cutting into Dean when he "stole" the late Senator Wellstone's line about the "democratic wing". Those attacks weren't substantive, and neither are these on Geppy.
Remember the chicken hawk from the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons? Diminutive guy, strutting around, chip on his shoulder, picking fights? I do not want Dean to be the chicken hawk of this campaign; he deserves much better.
Besides, the real chicken hawks are in the White House, the Pentagon, and on talk radio. 
I have no reservations about "Candidate" Dean catching stride, but "Campaign Headquarters" Dean is starting to make me nervous with some of this sniping. It's not so much about *JUST* getting noticed now; virtually every press outlet considers him in the top tier of candidates, and his message plays well once people hear it -- and they will now that he is being covered. But if/when people start talking about this sorry excuse for a progressive press release, chinks in the armor will start to show.
BTW, have we even confirmed if this is, in fact, an *official* press release?
Uh...where did this press release come from? It's not on the Dean for America website. It's not on the call to action blog. Is it really *official*? Frankly, I doubt it. If you wrote it Matt, that's totally cool, but we need to make it clear that if that is the case, this was not produced by the official campaign. Anything that we can do to distance Dr. Dean from such attacks that might be construed as "petty" would be beneficial.
Uh...I am not sure folks have a true understanding of how these things work -- so let me explain. During the debate each campaign has a team that literally anwsers any exchange in the debate within moments of the exchange occuring. The SC Democratic Party assigns runners between the campaign and the press to each campaign -- so the press is getting almost instant response and has the facts to shape the story of what is happening in the debate. There had to be dozens of releases last night from serveral of the campaigns each. No reporter is going to use any of those releases -- but if they had not thought of the "Bush lite" line being Howard Dean's for instance-- at least they are all aware of it. Experience teaches that if you even want them to look at it you have to say something in the "release" headline that makes them take a second look at what you are saying. We actually got a release out within seconds for instance of Joe Lieberman saying he wanted to strangle George S. saying "The Dean campaign conceded only one point in the debate tonight -- that the best line was delivered by Joe Lieberman...." Alot of the flurry included health care stats during John Kerry's question of the Governor's record -- which many in the press concluded was unfounded on Kerry's part. All of this is unseen by the public -- and as I have said -- not one of those releases from any campaign will make it into a news story. Lieberman actually put one out in the middle of the debate that said something like "Howard Dean tonight stood firm in his opposition to the war" Seriously it was a one line release -- and we are still scratching our heads over that one.
Aside from building the strongest grassroots organization of any Presidential campaign in history -- one of the other things I hope occurs in this open discourse -- is from time to time -- help explain how things really work -- and why they happen -- so there is a better more open understanding of the process. If you read ABC's notepad tomorrow -- we have a tongue in cheek parody which includes the Joe Lieberman press release exchange noted above in this post.
I hope this explains this.
Joe Trippi
Campaign Manager
Dean for America
I was also disturbed when I saw this release on dean2004. It doesn't _look_ good, but I appreciate your explanation Joe. Matt, can you put an update on the website indicating that this was a tongue in cheek comment alla stuff you'd see on the Note?
All,
This campaign is a first for me and I am learning right along with Governor Dean about just how intense and emotional a national campaign for President can get. This is a marathon and we all need to pace ourselves. In my opinion we (Dean supporters) would all do well to take some of Dean's advice and try to develop some more backbone.
Thanks for the explanation...I've done some press work but never on anything on this scale--but I guess I should have known if city councillors flood local papers with 1-3 press releases presidential candidates will do several times that volume.
Joe,
Kudos to you and Team Dean for actively engaging with us here on the "finer points" of how the debate was organized, the inner machinations of the "instant responses," and so forth. It is refreshing to see. Keep up the good work!
Joe Trippi et al...
Thanks for the explanation and the near constant communication with us - the ground troops, so to speak.
Keep working, keep learning...we're right there with you.
...
shux
So Dean was the FIRST to ever use the phrase "Bush-Lite"??? Amazing rhetorical land grab.
Thanks Joe for the insider information.
This reminds me of the what Joe Stracynzki, the creator of Babylon 5, tried to do while his show was on the air: he spend an hour or two every day online discussing the behind-the-scenes details of making a regular television show because he wanted the fans to have a better appreciation of the difficulties and compromises that go into making a great show work.
Joe Trippi appears to be adopting the same approach. Instead of remaining stand-offish with the campaign supporters he is giving us an inside look so that we can better understand the thinking behind their tactics and, hopefully, come to appreciate why they do things a certain way.
That doesn't mean they always do things the right way, but it does give me a greater appreciation of why they chose to do things they way they do.
Here's hoping Joe can keep this up as the campaign moves into higher gears. Just wait till we get into the heart of campaign season. We'll see then if he has the perserverance to confront online critics with "behind the scenes" reports.
I appreciate the explaination.
Here's my thought on how to deal with Gephardt taking Dean's lines and positions (like health care): Treat him like a cute little puppy that's just trying to copy his master.
"Oh, cute, Gephartdt has a universal health care plan, too. Isn't it just darling?!"
We really are trying to run a different kind of campaign -- but I will make my share of mistakes, there is no such thing as a perfect campaign. But on the debate press release issue -- nothing any of the campaigns did was of consequence.
Thanks
Joe Trippi
Joe - I want to reiterate this yet again, thank you very much for keeping in such strong communication with us on the blog. I think I speak for everyone when I say we are incredibly appreciative of your paying such close attention to we Dean's most loyal fans.
I agree with Scott, and Joe I am sorry that I'm gonna miss meeting you this Friday in Dallas (I go on vacation on Wednesday). So when are we Deanbloggers gonna have enough campaign cred that you'll rearrange Dean's trips to suit us? 
Seriously though, please keep this in mind (this is my meme for the week): You can't beat Dean by being Dean-lite! Nuff said!
But it still wasn't your line. The explanation is appreciated, and it's a good thing for the campaign since you would have looked extraordinarily petulant had it been printed, but Greenpeace used Bush-lite in reference to Daschle 2 years ago...Everyone and their mother was calling Dubbya "Bush-lite" during the 2000 campaign, and Frost was stuck with it when he was planning to run against Pelosi. The line no more belonged to your than Gephardt (and, lets be honest. Even if you had made it up, it's a natural progression from Republican-lite, this is like when Amazon tried to patent one-click checkout). I think stunts like this are damgain to your candidate and campaign because the CW they shape is that Dean is simply an attack dog. There's more to your candidate than that...you'd be well served to let it show.
http://ezrak.blogspot.com/
2003_0...e.html#93785856
I too appreciate Joe Trippi's efforts to engage us in the actual behind-the-scenes process of the campaign. That's why this campaign is different and that's why this campaign is going to MAKE a difference.
For the record, Tim W., Dean didn't steal anything from Wellstone. He got the line from Sheila Kuehl (who apparently was the original source), tried to explain this when asked, finally gave up and started crediting Wellstone.
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