Dean makes an impression in old friends, foes

[stickdog]

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/Stories/0,1413,104~8676~1524068,00.html

Dean makes impression on old friends, foes
By ANDREW McKEEVER
Staff Writer

BENNINGTON -- Not since Calvin Coolidge turned over the keys of the White House to Herbert Hoover in 1929 has a Vermonter occupied the Oval Office, so a lukewarm reaction to initial word of Howard Dean's national ambitions was probably to be expected.

No one is laughing now, though, after Vermont's former governor raised more than $7.5 million over the past three months; more than Sen. John Kerry, D- Mass., the supposed front-runner. Dr. Dean is now securely among the top tier of candidates for the Democratic Party nomination, according to Time Magazine.

(snip)

Republicans gleeful at the prospect of a Dean vs. Bush race should think again, Sears said. "People have always underestimated him," Sears said. "I'm not surprised by how well he's done."

Another former colleague of Dean's who is ecstatic over the former governor's success to date is Sen. Peter Welch, D-Windsor, president pro tempore of the Vermont Senate. "His message in the campaign squares with his record here," Welch said in a telephone interview Thursday. "There's no inconsistency - as his record becomes clearer, they'll see he has been socially liberal and fiscally conservative."

[Khephra]

1. "People have always underestimated him," Sears said.

Sound familiar?

The Right (and some aspects of the Left) are going to keep on underestimating Dean just like some aspects of the Right and Left did with Bush in 2000.

[ModerateMiddle]

2. an interesting comparison - Dean to Hoover

Someone else did a comparison of the two of them recently:

In an interview yesterday with The New York Times, Howard Dean complained that, "This is the most fiscally irresponsible president since Herbert Hoover. Republicans don't balance budgets anymore. Democrats do."

Huh? If memory serves, the reason Herbert Hoover was such a colossal failure as president was that he elevated the balanced budget to the level of fetish--insisting upon raising taxes and slashing spending even as the nation teetered on the edge of one of the worst economic disasters in history. So dogmatic was Hoover's commitment to budget balance that even in June of 1932, near the depths of the Depression, he complained bitterly about the wastefulness of two bills adopted by Congress to provide unemployment relief, largely by funding public works projects.

http://www.tnr.com/primary/index.mhtml?pid=550

I didn't know Hoover was from Vermont.

[ModerateMiddle]

3. more on obsessions with balanced budgets

Excerpted from "The Balanced Budget Farce"

Balanced budgets are fine for a strong economy. But to mandate a balance in times of economic decline would make a weak economy even weaker. During a downturn, government revenues fall as demands for transfer payments rise, requiring a temporary increase in deficit spending. Under a mandated budget balance, however, this fiscal stabilizer vanishes and leaves in its place an economist's nightmare: a budget that must be balanced, but no revenue to do so. The only two alternatives in this case are to raise taxes or cut spending -- both of which serve to exasperate rather than temper recessions.

This is exactly what happened during the Great Depression when President Herbert Hoover made balancing the budget his top priority. The economy slipped into recession during the late 20s and government revenues began to plummet, as they always do during tough economic times. Hoover was forced to raise taxes and cut spending in order to balance the budget, and as a result the country plunged into a deep, prolonged depression. Only after President Franklin Roosevelt began deficit spending in earnest did the economy start to bounce back.

http://www.ombwatch.org/bba/farce.html

[realFedUp]

4. The comparison is between Bush and Hoover....

let's get that right.

[Larkspur]

5. A better comparison is between Bush and Warren G. Harding

The Harding Admin was one of the most corrupt Admins in American history. The most infamous scandal was Teapot Dome, an oil/land deal scandal.

[ozone_man]

10. No, Coolidge was from Vermont, not Hoover.

I don't know much about Hoover's economics, but the biggest problem with Bush's irresponsible spending (tax cuts for the wealthy), is that it's only making the recession worse. If you are going to spend money during a recession like this, it had better be toward creating jobs. Bush has overseen the loss of millions of jobs. He will go down as the Herbert Hoover president of 21st century (IMO).

[Neutrino]

6. I really like Dean, but I have one lingering reservation--

that being my impression that he might have a short fuse that
could be used against him in the heat of debate. Of course,
debating Bush is not terribly stressful :0)--but Dean has to
get that far.

It's just an impression, so I'll wait and see.

[Stuckinthebush]

9. I'm afraid that there will be no debates

Bush doesn't perform well in that setting and he can just say no.

He will say that he is too busy with the "war" to have a debate.

[dArKeR]

7. Junior isn't going to be the scum sucking repuke Dr. D. runs against!

Junior will be impeached or thrown to the wolves like Kelly by his own party when they poll Junior doesn't have a chance to win.

http://darker0darker.tripod.com/

[CounterCoulter]

8. Stickdog

Stickdog-

Are you a Duke Univ grad?