Joe --

I hope some of the instant "responses" to reporters question the annoying "biography" approach some candidates take.

Every time Senator Edwards sez "son of a mill worker," every time Rep. Gephardt mentions his son Matt's cancer, every time Senator Kerry refers to his Vietnam service or references Kennedy, I want to puke.

Biography is nice: but what have they done with it? Doctor and Governor Dean used his "biography" to provide health insurance to nearly everyone in his state.

Has Senator Edwards made a millionaire out of every mill worker's son? Has Rep. Gephardt provided health insurance for even one other parent of an ill child? Has Senator Kerry ever shown political courage?

At least Senator Lieberman can tell a good Jewish mother joke (but enough, already).
RonZ | Email | Homepage | 05.05.03 - 8:10 am | #

It's good to see that Trippi may be taking a page from Rove's playbook on this. During the 2000 debates the Republicans had a HUGE team of researchers analyzing everything that Gore was saying during the debates and had press releases out the door within seconds of him saying something that they thought he was vulnerable on.

It may seem nasty. But this is the reality of politics today. Complaining about it will just delight those who are willing to use it.
Chris Andersen | Email | Homepage | 05.05.03 - 11:43 am | #

Suggestion to the Dean Campaign: Given the number of responses I've seen here (and elsewhere) to Joe Trippi's explanation of the inner-workings of campaigning (i.e., rapid response press releases) in terms of "this is the first time I've taken interest in politics," "this is all very interesting to learn," or "I'm just learning like you guys," perhaps it would be beneficial (it would certainly be interesting) to have a kind of "Campaigning 101" feature on either this blog or the official Dean pages. It's always interesting to read Kate's (i think that's her name) day-by-day journal as to what Gov. Dean did on the campaign trail that day, but I think it would be equally interesting to have a look at how things are done from the technical side (for instance, putting out a response ad, radio station appearance, etc.). Perhaps a campaign volunteer close enough to the campaign could do some of this type of posting.

Anyway, just my two cents as I break from working on my dissertation, so maybe this isn't feasible an idea as it may seem in my scattered mind.
Ziggy | Email | Homepage | 05.05.03 - 10:54 pm | #