Great clip though a little choppy in seeing it.

TODAY'S NEWS FROM VERMONT !!!

Sam Hemingway, columnist for "the Burlington Freepress" wrote about Dean's South Carolina sojourn last Saturday. It was a straightforward assessment of what transpired at the debate. He noted that after weeks of glowing Internet chatter about Dean, after the debate, Sam noticed that criticism was cropping up.

I wonder if he was reading this blog? I hope Sam doesn't confuse criticism of Dean from us as some kind of pull back from Dean. On the contrary if we didn't care so much about Howard Dean then we wouldn't have wriiten so much about him.

Give credit for those who started this blog (Aziz, Jerome, Anna and Matthew, I think that's all of them) and to Joe Trippi who embraced the commentary on it. I have never seen such a phenomenon before in politics and for Trippi to encourage our participation and actually value "most" of our comments, is a tribute to the campaign to believe that we do have something worth while to say.

Bare with me. The best is yet to come.

VERMONT PUBILIC RADIO NEWS

Bill Siemans, former ABC news corespondent and editorial writer for VPR, commented today about veterans benefits. He noted the while George Bush was basking in the glow of the crew of the carrier Kitty Hawk and reaping their praise, the republicans were doing their best to slash $15 billion over 10 years from veteran's benefits and health care.

"a democrat-driven amendment restored VA funding for the time being" It seems that for our "armchair warrior" while he "deeply" appreciates the servicemen and women sacrifices for their country, it's still not enough. Bush wants them to sacrifice their health and well being after they are discharged from the service.

Spoken like a true "compassionate conservative." It warms my heart.

Read about it at www.weeklydig.com/dig/content/3165.aspx


The BEST for last

There was a story produced by Vermont Public Radio today about Howard Dean in South Carolina. The jest was that this state will be a hard sell for Howard, but the Dean strategy meshes well with South Carolinians. His straightforward talk and not dodging the difficult issues resonate here.

On saturday while Dean was walking over to a fish fry he came upon a homeless man. Howard stopped and talked to him and said he was running for President. The man doubted what Dean was saying. " no it's really true," Dean said and finally convinced the man it was so. Asked if he was hungry, Dean invited the man to a fish fry.

The man was stopped at the gate. Howard said he was with him and the two men entered the grounds. Later that day this homeless man, who is a registered voter, said Howard's vote was his. There was no way he would vote for anyone else.
Robert Deeble | Email | Homepage | 05.07.03 - 12:42 pm | #

Completely off topic, but also fun, is these old Slate piece on the Harry Potter Hogwarts houses and the presidential candidates.
http://slate.msn.com/id/1003823/
http://slate.msn.com/id/1005669/

I take issue with some of his categorizations (Dick Cheney is no Hufflepuff!) but it´s a fun game. So where do the current democratic candidates belong?

Dick Gephardt is clearly a Hufflepuff. Gary Hart is a Ravenclaw. This week I can see why the article places Kerry in Slytherin--back then I would have said Ravenclaw--but Joe Lieberman still seems more Hufflepuff than Gryffindor to me. I can´t figure out John Edwards for some reason, and I don´t know enough about Bob Graham.

Governor Dean is a Gryffindor through and through. And George W. Bush is still a Slytherin.
Katherine | Email | Homepage | 05.07.03 - 12:43 pm | #