07/02/2002 Archived Entry: "Dean, WOT, Gore"

A New Questioning of the War, though not Dean at this time.

He had been asked where he would find fault with President Bush, and he replied, "As far as domestic policy is concerned, I can't think of anything he's done that I agree with." He ticked off a list of Bush "outrages," ranging from an education bill he called the "largest unfunded mandate in history" to Bush's "appointment of ideologues to the courts." Heads were nodding in agreement. And then he added, almost as a throwaway line, "I think he's done a good job on the war on terrorism."

"Are you sure?" responded Vi Neil, a veteran Democratic worker and the wife of Dave Neil, the head of the United Auto Workers in Iowa. "A lot of us think we are wasting a lot of money on trying to find the guy with the beard [Osama bin Laden]. We have to find a new way to fight terrorism."

Taken aback, Dean said, "I don't agree with that," adding that he believed that the United States had to strike back against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks and arguing that it is not the war, but the Bush tax cut, that has pushed the budget back into deficit.

Al Gore is just not going to get a break, even from the likes of Cohen, see The New Old Al. Sure, he's at 47% in the polls right now against the other Democratic contenders, but that's a solid 53% for whom Gore is not the first choice, with 100% name ID, and no where but up to go for Dean and the others, at Gore's expense.

Replies: 3 comments

Dean's falling into the same trap as most Democratic "leaders," being way behind the growing unease about never-ending war and Bush's assault on civil liberties. I find the party's "leadership" to be cowardly and complicit, which is why I switched to the Greens.

Posted by Eric Karnes @ 07/02/2002 08:50 PM PST

For the first time somebody is finally taking Bush on against the war on terror. Gore has jumped to the lead in my book as far as 2004. Since George Mitchell is not going to run.

Posted by Derrick @ 07/02/2002 08:54 PM PST

Changing the topic to a task immediately at hand (within four months), I think the economic problems are slowly coming home to roost:

http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/arg37.html

And even in Texas, a critical situation for the GOP...and they want me to believe that while they have serious problems in a GOP state, they are ahead nationwide!

http://www.uh.edu/cpp/release070202.pdf

Posted by G.C. Raj @ 07/03/2002 08:10 AM PST