I saw Howard Dean this afternoon

[Eloriel]

In fact, I had my arm around him, and his around me.

It was a wonderful afternoon. He is in Atlanta for the DNC Regional Conference (who knew?) and spent a couple of hours with Georgia for Democracy, the wonderful organization that morphed from the equally if not even more wonderful Georgia for Dean organization.

It lifte my spirits considerably and gave me a dose of hope. I'll try to remember some of the things he said -- some of them aren't new, some of them were (to me at least).

He's still a fighter, and his opening words were to that effect (don't remember the exact quote). He said he hasn't deciced to run for DNC chair quite yet and that has called every DNC member (tho because of telephone tag hasn't talked to each one yet) and that he was getting GREAT response from people outside Washington, and not very good support from people inside the beltway. He said that if people wanted to write to party members IN THEIR STATE they could, especially if you know them personally, but by extension discouraged blasting party members in other states.

He said that people ask him what his "Southern Strategy" would be and (with considerable animation) he said, "That's easy. The first thing on the list is just two words: SHOW UP." He went on to say that had he won the nomination he would NOT have written Georgia off (he always was VERY impressed with the GA organization, and IMO for good reason), and that it's important to show up in states that you maybe know you're unlikely to win (like most of the South) for several reasons (trying to remember here):

* It excites the base and that helps candidates down ballot
* People who won't vote for you still respect you more: "Well, I might not agree with him, but at least he had the guts (or whatever) to come tell us what he stands for."
* It lessens the "INTENSITY" of the opposition. (This made perfect sense as he said it, but at the moment is a hazy point. Perhaps I'll capture itsessence again later, and be able to elaborate.)

He spoke about the need for voting reform, including the need for nationwide standards for federal elections, as well as electing Dems to the SoS positions, making sure they're not appointed by Governors (as is the case in FL), having a set of ethical guidelines for SoS (which would include non-partisanship and no conflicts of interest), etc.

He spoke highly of Instant Runoff Voting and how it changes the tone of a race because you don't want to offend anyone who MIGHT list you as their 2nd favorite candidate so you don't go bashing ANY of the candidates.

He spoke of some of the things he would do for the party as DNC chair, and he spoke about some of the things he'll (we'll) do in DFA if he's not. (Go, Howard!)

One of the things I love about him is his interest in listening and hearing The People. He spoke about 10, maybe 15 minutes, and then opened the floor up to questions and comments and spent the rest of his time interacting with the folks who were there. He is still as down to earth, as real, as bluntly honest, as purely wonderful (IMO) as ever.

And it was wonderful to see him, but it was also wonderful for me to see some of the friends I made in that organization and to make a couple of new ones. In fact, it made me realize that I NEED to become involved in that group again, for my own benefit. These are simply wonderful people. Everyday, bright, zany, terrific, normal, honest-to-God liberal (mostly ) people. Folks who believe as I do for the most part, folks who know the truth when they hear it, folks who share my values and interests and care about the country as much as I do if not more. Real people. My people. So I'm gonna spend more time with them.

I've just gotten back, after dinner with one of my special Dean friends (to keep me out of rush hour traffic before heading home), and I notice what seems to be a group of anti-Dean threads. Bullshit on all of them, unread. I'm so sick of the lies told about him, the miscahracterizations, the misunderstandings. The lies and so forth are bad enough, but what's really disappointing are the otherwise good DUers who parrot them, THINKING they understand Dean but who in reality don't have a clue. Very disappointing. But what can you do? There will always be unwitting dunces and dupes, I suppose. DU's got its share of them too.