Howard Dean's Midnight Call From Al Gore After 2004 Loss
Howard Dean delivered some strong words in his opening remarks at Rules and Bylaws, telling an anecdote about his bitter, hard-fought loss in 2004.
"I was very very angry at my party for some of the things that had been done," Dean said, going on to recall getting a phone call in the middle of the night from Al Gore, to whom Dean ranted and raved about his loss.
"What do I owe the Democratic Party?" Dean recalled telling Gore. "Why should I be a Democrat after what the party did to me?"
According to Dean, Gore responded: "Howard, you know, this is not about you. It's about your country."
"Nobody could have said that to me except for Al Gore," Dean continued, since Gore had had the presidency snatched from him by "five intellectually bankrupt Supreme Court justices who did the wrong thing."
"This is not about Barack Obama," Dean went on, speaking about the current primary. "This is not about Hillary Clinton. This is about our country. This is about restoring America to its greatness" and "moral authority."
"There have been very tough disagreements and ugly moments. Emotions have run very high. There have been blatantly sexist comments, particularly by some members of the media. And blatantly racist remarks. And we know that those comments have no place in our society."
"We need to come together."
I think by now everyone knows how I feel about this - if the goal is what is best for America - I think Barack Obama is a damn gift to this country.
I do not think more Clinton-Bush bullshit is good for America. We need to get out of this era, not prolong it.
May 31, 2008 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good words, and reinforces Al Gore's authority to intervene in the aftermath of this meeting.
May 31, 2008 10:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
The healing should begin this weekend. The healing needs to begin this weekend.
If the party is going with Barack, now is the time. If the party is going with Hillary, the supers should do so by the end of next week.
May 31, 2008 10:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree - let's have one or the other and let's get this over with. Enough.
May 31, 2008 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great.
Dean thinks it is about him and has a chip on his shoulder.
No wonder it is a circus of an election.
May 31, 2008 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Using his story to show that we need to unite is not a problem. He is an example of how a loser can continue to fight for the cause.
You are a tool.
May 31, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Trust gotnolife to totally read this backwards from how it is written.
Republican much, gotnolife?
May 31, 2008 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Won't it be great when the nominee is known, that we will finally get to gee GotaLife's true GOP colors?
May 31, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
GotALife's a hack. He's here to do a job - and he's not even very good at it.
May 31, 2008 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Then, gotalife will have to getoverhimself. Enjoy your symptom.
May 31, 2008 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
the Huffington post is reporting that a deal to seat FL has been reached and MI has yet to be worked out.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/31/sources-dnc-florida-compr_n_104456.html
May 31, 2008 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, well, Florida is the easy one.
It's MI that's the bitch here -
May 31, 2008 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary is extremely close to the point of no return, in terms of her ability to continue to call herself a loyal Democrat. Just a few months ago, I was telling friends that I'd support whoever the eventual Democratic nominee was, and that I'd be just as happy if it were Hillary -- even though I knew that having her as a candidate would bring out Republicans to vote against her who might otherwise stay home on election day. But I tell you for sure: If she keeps pushing onward after today, in the face of pretty good evidence that to do so will seriously harm the party and its chances of winning next November, I for one will consider her a traitor and a pariah.
May 31, 2008 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Does any one know if the candidates are at this meeting?
May 31, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nope - I don't know where the candidates are today.
May 31, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Barack is in Chicago taking the day off.
May 31, 2008 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not really. BarackObama.com has him in SD for two rallies...
May 31, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
You can watch the meeting here if so inclined.
May 31, 2008 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
IF you look over to the right, there is a schedule that says Obama is in South Dakota today.
And so is Bill Clinton.
May 31, 2008 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Proves ONCE AGAIN...Dean should have been our nominee...........and proves THIS TIME we need to go with Obama and not the ClintonS who are the establishment DLC candidate
May 31, 2008 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Word up!
May 31, 2008 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I find the argument that these States have been sufficiently punished and require no further penalty specious. This isn't about needing to make this particular Primary sufficiently unpleasant for these States so they won't again try to jump the line. This is about ensuring that their attempt to buck the rules do not achieve their ends. And if, in the end, they attain a full seating of the results of those primaries, then there is no reason for them, or any other State, not to again buck the DNC rules in the future.
May 31, 2008 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
May 31, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, put my response within the blockquote as well, sorry...
May 31, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pardon my french but fucking amen to that! Just read josh's take on the whos and whats of real voter disenfranchisement in FL and MI and could not agree more. Let's send her on her way this weekend.
May 31, 2008 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Uh...they've already fucked up if they're giving anyone a net delegate gain out of Florida.
Non binding elections are NOT elections and shouldn't be treated as such. I posted a long post on the last thread about it which I won't repeat here but treating a non-binding election in which candidates weren't allowed to campaign has about as much connection to reality as gazing into a crystal ball.
May 31, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely agree with you there. The party needs to put in place clear and irrefutable rules and procedures about the primary scehdule, and if those rules happen to prevent certain otherwise unimportant statelets from winning the Me First competition, so be it ... NEXT TIME.
Can't agree with you on that.
They've found a solution for FL that doesn't affect the outcome in any substantive way, and while we could fight 'em with conventional weapons, that could take years, and cost millions of lives. That's not necessary, simply because Clinton is too far behind.
While the FL solution awards HRC 19 delegates, it's not going to change the fact that the Clinton campaign's need to change the rules after they ... and I apologize for not being able to present this with full Daily Show CGI effects ... FUCKED THE HELL UP WITH A BAD STRATEGY and then INEXPERTLY ATTEMPTED TO ADD A COUPLE OF ACES TO THE DECK WHILE THE OTHER PLAYER WAS WATCHING.
That won't be rewarded.
May 31, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whatever else is going on, the R&B Committee is democracy on display. You have disputes, you grab your Robert Rules of Order, and you hash it out. This is good for the country to see this, a rules-based process followed in good faith.
Then there will be Sen Clinton's reaction....
May 31, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
If that were the case, a rules based process I mean, shouldn't FL and MI be out of the game due to breaking the rules from the get go - period end of story?
May 31, 2008 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
The parties are still entitled to be heard.
May 31, 2008 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's a process, it's participatory, and a good organization provides for all affected parties to be heard. That way, once a final decision is made, you have buy-in. Of course, there will be those who didn't get their way and will insist that they were cheated, but if the process was fair and above board, it preserves the integrity of the process and that's what's going on here. It's the point of Dean's opening comments.
May 31, 2008 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not necessarily, since the rules also allow for this Committee to render a judgment and create a remedy. It's a stain on Hillary's record that she's forced this issue like this, but I do agree that we are seeing the rule of law on display.
May 31, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
True, true. The general public typically doesn't really see government in action, but this is how it's done - it's pretty dull, but it's about hashing out how things ought to be done based on rules of law and procedure.
May 31, 2008 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'll take the plodding rules and bylaws process over lying and obliteration any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
May 31, 2008 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
O god yes!
I think one of the most brilliant aspects of Recount, which I think was pretty damn brilliant, was the contrast between Christopher Warren and James Baker - Walker wanted things to proceed methodically and according to democratic and constitutional principles and Baker was balls to the walls whatever it takes, up to and including - hell, anything.
And at first I listened to Baker and thought Hell Yeah! And Warren sounds so dull you want to scream. But Warren was right.
May 31, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
i do appreciate Gore and Dean. way to go guys. You give me faith in the process.
May 31, 2008 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Walker = Warren
My friends, the time has come to examine these particular facts on this particular ground and the only conclusion that one can reach after doing so is this: We need a preview fucntion!
See?
LOL!
May 31, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excuse me, sweetie, my day job is Speaker to Programmers. Let's see if we can get their attention.
TPM Bug #0000000001
Usability - User Forums - Comments - Editing - Add comment post preview functionality
[ Pri 2 - MUST FIX ]
Source: End-user report and site QA
Analysis: Lack of preview functionality in comment editing view prevents otherwise literate commenters from readily checking their work before committing a post.
This in turn makes it harder for casual readers from telling the difference between the smart posters and the mouth-breathing trolls, a distinction that offers obvious advantages for a political website.
Summary: We need a preview fucntion!
May 31, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tell it Howard!
May 31, 2008 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree wholeheartedly with those words as they applied to Howard Dean and as they may now be applied to Hillary Clinton. But it is SO much easier for Obama supporters to now take the high road after this ugly primary and recite those lofty sentiments than it is for Hillary supporters to hear them coming from the Obama supporters who previously offered only the knife. Remember, Dean said that only Al Gore could have delivered that line. Let's hope we don't have to hear too much more of this self ennobling rhetoric coming from formerly bitter partisans to club us into submission. Please do us the grace of allowing us the space to come to terms with the Obama nomination in our own time and manner. It is not as easy as you think.
May 31, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fair enough.
May 31, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm a former Clinton supporter, and I have some grieving to do as well. First, some background.
I moved toward Obama after the Clinton campaign decided to provide zero meaningful support to volunteers like myself in caucus states.
I swapped fully over to the Obama camp when the Clinton campaign began using divisive and racist talking points straight out of the Rove playbook. That's not the Democratic party I want to see in the future.
At first, I blamed that crap on the just-barely-Democratic voters in the states in which Hillary was campaigning. I was sorry to see her reduced to pandering, but I could kinda-sorta see the point.
The moment I completely lost faith in Hillary was during the ABC 'debate'. Here's Stephanopoulus and Matthews, slinging muck from every outhouse they can find, and they dredge up some long-ago college radical to throw at Obama.
Did Hillary do the right thing and stay off the Joe McCarthy path? No, she did not. She added to the pile of horse manure by dropping hints about Obama's alleged (and completely incidental) ties to the radical.
I didn't care then and I don't care now what that incident did for Hillary or against Obama, but that was the moment when I decided I do not want another back alley political thug, skilled in the backstab and the rabbit punch, in the White House during my lifetime.
Enough is enough.
===========
So, yes, you can have your time of grieving over the lost potential of HRC, just as I need mine.
I am sorry that Hillary has not been able to follow Obama's path of speaking loudly and plainly to the problems we all face.
I am sorry that Senator Clinton, notwithstanding any bullshit 'Big State' strategy her advisors were flogging, had had the vision to see that she needed to organize and win in every state, using the rules and realities that she faced to her advantage, instead of attempting to deny those realities.
I am sorry that Hillary did not have the guts and/or resources to hire real political advisors instead of those utter hacks who led her into playing the race card ("hardworking white Americans", dammitdammitdammit!) instead of the economy card.
I am most heartily sorry that I cannot help this particular woman to win the White House.
I respect your grief. It's going to be tough saying goodbye to the Hillary we knew, but you've got to let go.
That Hillary is gone.
May 31, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Al, can you call Hillary?
May 31, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder if Al HAS already called Hillary.
I'm hoping even Hillary is calling Obama the nominee by next Sunday.
June 1, 2008 12:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
no harm no foul otto...god speed in your quest in coming to terms...obama will be awaiting your support with open arms...heck, america anxiously await you to jump on board...
bottom line--no mccain in the whitehouse....now that we have slugged each other pretty good, lets get back to the business of ousting george bush and anyone who resembles him in character and policies. in other words, no MCCAIN!!!
June 1, 2008 4:04 AM | Reply | Permalink