Naked campaign envy...and why not???

[helleborient]

It definitely helps me deal with attacks from other candidates' supporters on Howard Dean when I see them as naked envy - why wouldn't they be envious?

From next to nothing in polls to frontrunner status in less than a year.

Statistically tied with Dick Gephardt in Gephardt's neighboring state

Leading John Kerry in his own and John Kerry's neighboring state

In the candidate cluster at the top of the race in John Edwards' home state

Leading in California - clear across the country - and the biggest state delegate pot in the nation

Time and Newsweek cover stories (at least Wesley Clark got one of them)

Campaign apparatus in 50 states and many cities around the world due to MeetUp

Democratic record-smashing fundraising that was 3 times as much as any other candidate in the 3rd quarter - and the most cash on hand

Victory in the online primary of MoveOn.org - the most effective liberal fundraising vehicle of the past year

Campaign workers that do "good works" all across the state of Iowa with Dean Corps - they don't just campaign, they do good old-fashioned community-based volunteer work

Hundreds of Texans traveling to Iowa and New Hampshire to campaign

A national personal letter-writing campaign to individual voters in Iowa and New Hampshire


Wow!!! It just gets better and better! I am so proud to be a Democrat!

[killbotfactory]

1. It's good to be the Dean

[boxster]

2. Using that logic, I guess that Clark supporters could label

Dean supporters' "attacks" on Clark as envy of Clark's relatively easy, quick rise in the polls right after he announced his candidacy.

Neither assertion is realistic. Flatly dismissing the other candidates as "just" envious is simplistic.

Any strong candidate is a threat to the candidacy of every other candidate. Supporters believe in their candidates for a myriad of reasons and certainly defend them and criticize the other candidates because of a multitude of issues and differences of opinion.

Envy is very likely not high on the list of reasons why.

[helleborient]

3. I disagree (as you would probably expect)

Do issues really explain the ongoing complaints about lack of media coverage of some candidates?

Do issues really explain the flood of "money isn't everything" responses to Dean's success at fundraising?

I was envious of Clark's quick rise...I admit that. But he's yet to translate that into support on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire or the same level of media coverage.

[boxster]

4. Again, envy isn't everything...

and assuming that envy is the primary motivation of people criticizing Dean is misguided. A lot of people have some serious concerns about Dean, just as others have concerns about all of the other candidates. Criticism does not equal envy.

Dean supporters sometimes seem to think that their candidate is the only one that inspires passion in their followers. Far from it. And, similarly, passion does not equal envy.

Re: lack of media coverage - supporters of all of the candidates, including Dean, have complained about media coverage. This is nothing new and nothing unique to Dean's critics. Dean supporters complained that he was forced to be on the defensive the entire time during the last debate, so even though he had the most overall time, it wasn't "productive" time.

And frankly, money isn't everything. Look at Ross Perot and Steve Forbes. They both spent millions of their own money and were never a serious threat for the presidency, Perot's temporary high polling results notwithstanding.