You Go, Dean! Babies of Boomers Find a Candidate (NY TIMES)

[dajabr]

SEATTLE, Oct. 5 — Ryan Simpkins, a 25-year-old producer on the reality television series "Big Brother," gave up on politics back in student government. Yet he has donated $300, so far, to Howard Dean's presidential campaign, monitors its Web sites daily and has lately been luring peers to their first political rallies.

Brady Carlson, 27, a graduate student who lives in Newmarket, N.H., was quickly bored when he tried to work on previous political campaigns but found his niche in Dr. Dean's.

"I don't have any money, I hate telemarketing, and I'm not comfortable reading a prepared script on the doorstep of a bunch of strangers, so they had little use for me," Mr. Carlson said, recalling his previous campaign involvement.

For Dr. Dean, Mr. Carlson has, on his own, produced a radio spot, designed a Web page and raised $403.17 through Satire for Dean, posting a joke for every donation.

"I'm doing things that other campaigns didn't want me to do," he said, "and because of that, I'm willing to help out with the phone calls and the contributions, too."

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/07/politics/campaigns/07DEAN.html

[pruner]

1. what a great article

thanks for posting it.

:)

[Closer]

25. Yes, this was a GREAT piece

in the Times today that was accompanied by two huge photos, one of Dean on the plane with Trippi, and one of the rally last week in Columbia, SC.

This one's a keeper.

[huckleberry]

2. Thanks for posting this!

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

3. Awesome!

One of the cornerstones of Dean's campaign is their willingness to let supporters be active in whatever facet they chose. The Dean camp isn't trying to control its supporters, rather they see what the supporters are doing, then guide them into larger activities that are better connected with other activities. Power to the people!

[cprise]

4. Comments about transparency and involvement are the ones that get me

This might actually be the first time that supporters felt like this.

What do you think?

[DrFunkenstein]

5. I Vote For The Presidency, Not The Campaign

n/t

[Speck Tater]

6. But the candidate sets the style of the campaign,

which presages the style of presidency.

I'm not voting for Dean the man, I'm voting for fundamental change to the underlying process itself. I'm voting for the campaign because it represents a new way of doing politics. That's why I support Dean. He gets what 21st century politics is going to be about. Those other guys are soooo 20th century. They don't get that there's a paradigm change happening here.

[stickdog]

19. You hopelessly cling to a loser while others chase an empty uniform.

Meanwhile, Dean's got the best campaign ever invented going and the whole fucking establishment just tries to tear him down.

Does that make a lot of sense?

[cprise]

21. That Dean's got them running is what makes it so good

.

[LuminousX]

7. kick

This is a great article. It clearly demonstrates some of the reasons why Dean is garnering the support he does. And these supporters are cynical, too. I love it. "the campaign is transparent, or at least it seems that way." They aren't fooling themselves. They aren't weirdo idealists. They are people born and raised in the culture of celebrity personas. They understand how it works.

[Rose Siding]

8. This piece really surprises me

After the Sleepless Summer Tour, Jodi Wilgren was filmed in a c-span piece looking tired and decidedly uninspired by the unprecidented success of the tour. Here she's painted a thorough and compelling picture of how Dean is effecting the younger, previously untapped, pool of voters.

[LuminousX]

9. You can't argue against success

and I think that is Dean's best quality. He is succeeding, thus creating a compelling narrative that makes him interestnig to write about which in turn makes more people aware of his campaign.

[Nicholas_J]

10. This funny part

Is all over Kerry's blog we see desertions from supporting Dean, with people stating they wish they could get the money back that they donated. One woman had to fight with the Dean campaign and only got her donations back after she had her AMEX card companny get involved.

[LuminousX]

11. Hmmm, just over at the Kerry Blog?

Smells like astroturf to me.

If it is true, great for your guy. I don't think it is. I guess the voters will have to decide this one at the polls.

[JaneQPublic]

12. Show me the Kerry poll that backs that up

Here's a bunch of Democratic candidate polls:

http://www.pollingreport.com/wh04dem.htm

Show me one where Kerry goes up and Dean goes down. Clark may be able to lay claim to a few of Dean's points, but certainly not Kerry.

[LuminousX]

13. Oh, they don't support Kerry

They just announce their lack of support of Dean over at the Kerry blog.

[clar]

14. Bwaahahaha

I read the Kerry blog practically every day. I've seen 3 ex-Dean supporters there. Hardly an en masse desertion. As for the woman who got her money back, I don't see why anyone who changes their mind is due a refund. I think it speaks well of the Dean campaign that they refunded her contribution.

[stickdog]

20. If you think that's funny,

check my signature.

From 1971, no less!

[Pez]

15. so apparently...

...it's cool to be for dean, and it's not cool to be for <any other candidate>?

i'm of the nintendo generation, "hip" and "young", but i am not generation dean... maybe i should watch some more mtv or something.

[LuminousX]

16. Oh please, no one is asking for such a simplistic reading

of the article.

Dean has recently made a significant push for the youth vote and is getting a great response. That is all this means. No one is saying 'only the cool people like Dean.'

[Rose Siding]

17. Do you oppose involving youth?

It sounds like you resent young people getting excited about a candidate or the political process. Is that what you meant?

[Pez]

18. wow; nice connection

since i am "the youth" it is ridiculous to infer that i "resent young people getting excited about a candidate or the political process". i'm glad my peers are finally realizing that rather than bitching about Teh Man they can get off their asses and do something about it.

[stickdog]

22. Maybe you should open your mind and ditch the loser for a candidate

who is running the best national grassroots campaign in history.

[Pez]

23. arnold is running a great campaign too; so did jesse ventura

and kucinich seems to have had the grassroots thing down for quite some time... i guess he's just not as hip and marketable as dean on a national level, according to online polls.

i don't think dean has the best record or a solid policy laid out, and i think others do. i mean, howard stern would be governer of ny if he had run... he attracted a lot of young people, a lot of people who ~never~ vote and tons who weren't previously interested in politics-- anti-establishment, grassroots support. wee.

if you could, i'd like you to explain further why you think kerry is a "loser", and why the only people with "open minds" are dean supporters.

[stickdog]

24. Jesus Christ. Arnold & Jesse ran bullshit campaigns.

And Kucinich is getting 1% of the vote.

What the hell is the difference between Dean's and Kerry's policies that keeps you supporting a boring pro-establishment loser running a campaign with all the appeal of a trip to the dentist?

[eileen_d]

26. Dean: Style. Kerry: Substance.

I'll be glad if either gets nominated, but as far as policies go, Kerry is a four course meal, and Dean is a cafeteria lunch (trying to keep up with your fun analogies here)

[Zynx]

27. I'm sorry, but

I can't stand Kerry. His stance on the Iraq war was downright wrong and I refuse to support someone who supported that war. He only supported it because it was the popular thing at the time, but now that Democrats are almost universally opposed to it, he is running from that vote. He also has very little in the way of innovative positions. I'm a Dean or Clark guy. They're both great.