Reply #10: You are absolutely right on, Armstead

[Eloriel]

as far as I'm concerned.

It's not just about that certain, special appeal, though. It's also what he says. We all know the country is in SO much trouble. Dean recognizes that, he's not only chastized fellow Dems to get busy and criticize the current regime, he's provided cover for them. In that he shows leadership, spine, gumption, and courage. Most of us who are Dean supporters hear "the truth" coming from him, and we've thirsted for that for so long!!!

But even more than that, like mandyky, I see that the campaign has transformed HIM. I encourage everyone to read his June 23 Announcement speech where he outlines exactly that point. At first it was about policy differences and it soon became more, as he LISTENED to the people. He came to understand that this was about way more than policies -- it literally IS about taking our country back.

The Dean campaign is now as much a movement (when you include his supporters) as a campaign. And that's NOT what the other candidates can offer, but it IS the secret of Dean's success EVEN THO he didn't plan it that way. It started happening, he and Trippi allowed it then graduated to facilitating it.

I do believe he means what he says when he tells us: YOU HAVE THE POWER TO TAKE THIS PARTY BACK. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO TAKE BACK THIS COUNTRY. WE HAVE THE POWER TO TAKE BACK THE WHITE HOUSE.

That's a VERY powerful message -- it's one that inspires, gives hope, and generates excitement and optimism. He has other optimistic messages, but these resonate with all of us who have felt so disempowered, hopeless, unheard and unheaded for too many years now. And he means it. It was HE who told Trippi, "We've got to decentralize" this campaign (and allow the grassroots to do their thing).

Too, they're running an inspired campaign, and every day is a new delight it seems. They're also having fun. That means a lot to supporters too -- hasn't it been too too long since we've felt any reason for joy, or enough optimism to have fun?

To go with what mandyky was saying, and it will take a special eye to actually read this as I believe it was meant (instead of ripping it apart and parsing words, like so many of our anti-Dean resident curmudgeons do), but perhaps you can get its meaning, found in a very nice and lengthy profile piece on Dean:

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/41/features-wolf.php

Back in the car, Dean resumes, almost to the sentence, where we’d left off. He’s been describing the adrenaline boost that can come from a crowd: “This campaign’s a little different from most campaigns,” he says, sounding oddly mystical, “in the sense that it’s not really about me, it’s about a movement to take back the country . . . I’m really a kind of mirror for a lot of those folks, and it’s their own energy which I can reflect back to them. So in a rally, it’s just automatic, I know what they want and I know what they need, and I just reflect back their own hopes and energies and desire to change the country . . .”

What I believe Dean is saying, and doesn't have a better (more mystical) way of putting it, is that he's tapping into (intuiting) the collective unconscious in a way that allows him to be a channel or conduit and impetus for positive change at a very deep level in this country. It was NEVER what he started out to do or be. He only originally thought he had better ideas than what were being implemented by Bush. It has become something far bigger, and not at totally tangible: I do believe Dean IS the right man for this time. I believe he has already grown immeasurably in this role, and will continue to do so.

I see him --- and the movement he has become the leader of (by default rather than design) -- the answer to prayers we didn't even consciously know we had.

Eloriel