| Slade's Filibuster |
| An Open Letter to Howard Dean |
| by Julius Slade |
| You aren’t helping |
For all you self styled politicos out there, take a pop quiz. Who is the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC)? That one is easy, it’s Howard Dean. Who is the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC)? That ones a bit tougher for you isn’t it? Now try and go back through the past few decades and recall who the chairmen were for the RNC and DNC.
The point is that Howard Dean has become a very recognizable face to the average American, and even more recognizable to the average politically adept American. Unfortunately for the DNC, Dean also seems to have a penchant for saying ridiculous things and being forced to back out of them very slowly.
The Democrats, for all the talk of a liberal media, continue to seem to be completely tone deaf to its presence. The RNC effectively uses right wing radio and TV to get the red meat talking points to its base, while publicly being more moderate. The RNC knows that President Bush would be rightfully skewered by the media for insinuating that Democrats aid and abet terrorists, and secretly hope for Christianity to be replaced by Islam. However, when you hear something that off the wall coming from a Limbaugh or a Hannity, your reaction is “It's Hannity, of course it will be a tad insane.”
Yet, Democrats haven’t learned this simple trick yet. This past week, Howard Dean said “The idea that the United States is going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong.” Whether or not this statement has any merit in reality has no bearing on the discussion, as even the greenest political manager knows that this statement is political suicide. In response, the RNC has already put together a video saying Democrats want to surrender to terrorists. The video is unfair, but it's also one of the easiest and most effective pieces of politics you can ever make. Dean doesn’t seem to have the political acumen to understand this.
Dean embarrassingly stumbled backwards on this statement yesterday when he weakly claimed he was taken “a little out of context.” Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA) compared the statement to another Dean gaffe from his presidential run, “[Dean’s] take on Iraq makes even less sense than the scream in Iowa: Both are uninformed and unhelpful.”
That is again what the debate has come to, Democrats are once again taking the debate off the prosecution of the Iraq War and how to get out, and instead, focusing on internal debate over how the message should be taken to the public.
Dean is a circus show for the Democrats. He has been effective in the fundraising department, as he has broken DNC records repeatedly for funds raised. However, like his Presidential run, he is negating his fundraising skills with his political skills. Dean consistently raised more money before Iowa than any other candidate, but when it came time to start pulling the levers, people decided they just didn’t like Dean.
Through his first year at the DNC helm, Dean has been more visible than any previous chairman, and it's time he steps back. Though he may not want to believe it, he just isn’t a likeable face, and he too often says things that are beyond the realm of silly. Dean can be an effective force in the party, raising money and helping target races. However, as a face of the party, Dean has overstepped his bounds and failed miserably.
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