I think this may end up not being such a good thing. Dean's now going to be linked with the Hollywood/librul crowd a la Sean Penn/"no nukes" guy Martin Sheen and Alec"I'm gonna move to France if Dubbya wins" Baldwin. I'd take an endorsement from the AFL-CIO over Martin Sheen anyday.
Oh, lighten up a little. Everybody makes the comparison between Sheen and Dean anyway - why not poke a little fun at it? Besides, I know at least a dozen people for whom those photos will make great desktop wallpaper.
if we get a good photo of Sheen and Deen, I'm putting on the blog permanently in teh sidebar!
Yeah, there are plenty of party faithful who want President Bartlett. Them believing that Dean's the next best thing probably wouldn't kill him in the primaries.
Also: Dean's going to be on Meet The Press this Sunday. Mark your calendar.
As far as I'm concerned, this is GREAT publicity for Howard. I also see this as a way to jockey for lots of dollars. Seriously, there are some stacked peeps in Hollywood, and if they want to give their money to Dean then I think that's GREAT! He needs it so badly right now, and I can just imagine the dollars that will be rolling in to the campaign thanks to the Sheen connection.
Anon,
I'd like to see an endorsement from the AFL-CIO myself and agree that celebrity endorsements are double-edged swords--but Martin Sheen is a bit of a special case. The right wing oppo will undoubtedly try and make something nasty of it, but that only works if Dean and his supporters let it.
There's an interview with Sheen from NPR this morning. I missed it myself and can't get the audio from the NPR website to work on my computer for some reason, so I haven't heard it. But, since I can't seem to let a day go by without linking to NPR, here's the link:
Martin Sheen on NPR
Time for some letters to the Editor, over at The New Republic:
Senior editor Michelle Cottle says of Dean:
"Howard Dean seems significantly more human (than the other Democratic candidates), but a Vermont liberal isn't exactly the sort to woo the nation's legion of swing voters."
Help nip this one in the bud, Dean fans. Bring Ms. Cottle politely to task for characterizing Dean as "liberal." That's lazy journalism. Isn't the New Republic a better magazine than to simply repeat RNC talking points? Draw attention to his fiscal conservatism and his perfect score from the NRA, among other things. He's a moderate.
anyone who feels the need may email online@tnr.com - please send email in support of the governor, and correct the misnomers in the article.
to log in and view the TNR article, use the username and password combo "deanblog/deanblog"
Just sent to TNR.
*****************
January 31, 2003
To the Editors:
Michelle Cottle's column about President Bush's predisposition to repeat his father's mistakes ("Generation Gap," January 31) gets it half right.
President Bush is making a serious tactical mistake by ignoring the needs of America's working families, and pandering the the right-wing rich. And, her characterization of most of the Democratic field as listless is mostly correct. However, her analysis of Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont is off-base.
True, Governor Dean has a plan to extend health care to all Americans, and yes he believes in civil rights for everyone -- but he also has an 'A-rating' from the National Rifle Association, believes in states' rights, and has pledged a balanced federal budget (something the Republicans certainly cannot claim these days).
This is a pragmatic candidate who defies labels, has a vision for America, and who can win the presidency.
Best, Christopher J. Curtis
Great idea on the emails, I sent mine.
A rundown on the candidates -- pretty favorable for Dean, but then tags him with the liberal label at the end and says it likely will make it difficult for him.
http://www.newhousenews.com/
arch...rmer013103.html
** By the way, has anybody else thought about the fact that the more candidates in the field, the better it may be for Dean? Everybody else splits the conservative democrat vote and a center-left, populist like Dean gets pluralities in IA and NH... maybe even SC?
This is a little unrelated...but
my school's internet filter (mandated by fed law) blocks dean2004.blogspot.com. Evil censors... also, CT media is reporting that Dodd is not gonna run (good for Dean and Dodd, since Dodd's starting to sound like a Washingtonian here in CT)
CJCurtis,
Your punditry is absolutely correct. The more people who enter the race, the more the center/right vote will be split. For the most part, I think progressives, Greens, and Independents will unite behind Dean in the primaries. Gephardt/Kerry will neutralize each other. Lieberman will attrach the DLC/GOP-lite crowd.
Whoa - I didn't see anyone mention this, but Dean got a pretty interesting bit of press on the last page of this week's Newsweek. I didn't see it until now. But George F. Will devoted his entire column to Howard Dean! This in and of itself is interesting. But also interesting is the fact that his article is not typical GOP "liberal" propaganda - he takes an interesting look at the guy. Of course, this is George Will, and he does take the requisite swipes at Dean. But I don't know what to make of it overall. It's tone is ridiculing, but at the same time intrigued. If I'm reading it right, he basically says: here's a serious candidate with a platform and background that can get him the nomination, but allow me to poke fun at him as it's my job.
OK, enough of my commentary, here's the link:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/864400.asp
... and incidentally, George Will is not one who thinks Bush has it in the bag for 2004. He reviewed "The Emerging Democratic Majority" back in September and concluded that Republicans have their work cut out for them if they want to keep the White House.
From sevendays VT:
Deanwatch 2004 — Our favorite presidential hopeful is everywhere this week and everyone’s talking about Howard Dean, including leading scribes of the right wing like George Will, Morton Kondrake and Tucker Carlson. It’s proof that Howard Dean, M.D. has succeeded in Phase One of his longshot run for the White House. He’s established a secure beachhead.
And we’re happy to report that Yale University, Ho-Ho’s alma mater, has finally added Dr. Dean to its official list of “Yale Notables.” It’s an alphabetical list of several hundred notables with Yale connections, including the last three men elected president of the United States. Ho Dean would make it four Bulldogs in a row!
The Yale administration isn’t alone in waking up to its overlooked 1971 graduate. On Monday the Yale Daily News did a feature on Dean titled: “Presidency beckons for a Yale prankster.”
Oh, what a wild and crazy guy he was as a college boy in New Haven. Let’s be honest, it was a wild and crazy time to be alive. The Daily tracked down a few of Ho-Ho’s old buds. Turns out Dean was a big Beatles fan. The Magical Mystery Tour album was young Howard’s favorite.
“[Dean] loved the album, ran around singing it all the time, and seemed to land on ‘I Am the Walrus,’” Bill Kerns ’71 said. “When you ran into him singing ‘I Am the Walrus’ you knew he was identifying with it and laughing at himself in the same breath. We all sang along with Howard, buzzed by his phenomenal energy.”
And, perhaps, buzzed by the smoke from a leafy substance?
Old classmates recalled Dean’s “magnetic personality,” his “sense of humor” and the “glint in his eye.” They remembered that Howard read The New York Times every day, was a scrappy football player, and was lousy at card games because he was “too expressive and gave away his hand.”
Under “future occupation” in the 1971 Yale yearbook Dean simply wrote “living.”
Far out. He’s succeeded so far.
“[Dean] was famous for saying, ‘Let’s go to New York right now.’ And everyone would get in the car and go to New York, even though it was midnight,” said David Berg ’71, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale. “He had a brother in North Carolina, and one night he said, ‘Let’s go visit Charlie right now.’ He jumped in the car and drove to North Carolina and the amazing thing was that he convinced other people to follow.”
Berg also spilled the beans on a little news scoop that, until now, eluded the Vermont Press. He told the Yale paper that, back during the controversy over civil unions in 2000, Dean took to wearing a bulletproof vest.
“It’s true,” said Dean’s press secretary Susan Allen. Sweet Sue told Seven Days the governor had received a number of death threats from opponents of civil unions. Ms. Allen said Gov. Dean wore the bulletproof vest on about three occasions when he spoke at public forums during the height of the battle.
Nothing like death threats and a bulletproof vest to build character and fortitude, eh?
Look, TM said he was backing HD last year, has he backed-off 
"McAuliffe thinks at least six or seven candidates will step forward and run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Right now, he said, he is backing Vermont Governor Howard Dean because he is the only Democrat thus far who has announced his presidential candidacy."