Dean campaign frames the debate in stone.

[poskonig]

I've noticed something today that the Dean campaign executes well. These guys are very, very good at framing the debate. It seems as if every battle is fought on **their** turf.

Take the Democratic primary, for instance. Dean has forced the discussion to be about the IWR and special interests, which benefits him immensely. On the IWR, he attacked his competitors with little damage to himself, since he wasn't in the Congress and didn't vote. The attacks on special interests work the same way against his congressional adversaries.

If the debate was on different turf, things might be different. Gephardt, for instance, could have gone Nader-style and made a big funk about the NAFTA and the WTO and fight the rest of the guys there. Instead, he has chosen healthcare and education entitlements. Regular people find this issues important, and Democrats have huge advantages here in the polls, which is why Gephardt is talking about them. However, he isn't fighting on a battlefield where he dominates the others every time. The same goes for the other campaigns -- by being completely reactive in their approach to Dean, they've lost, perhaps fatally, the *proactive* stance with respect to themselves.

I saw another instance of this on Fox News this morning. The Deanies are setting up a fight with Bush on jobs, healthcare, and education, integrating them all under the "bringing people together" theme. If they execute as well as they have in the primaries, the same issues will be contested (foreign policy + domestic stuff) but within a framework conducive to Dean -- under the umbrella of the importance of what Americans have in common.

I'm very optimistic about this. The Gore campaign was completely reactive. George Bush would introduce a new tax plan, then Gore would introduce a tax plan; Bush would introduce his stance on education, then Gore would follow, et cetera. The Democrats also let the Republicans frame the debate in the 2002 elections concerning Iraq and underachieved in a major way.

The Dean campaign also reverses a trend that has been going on for 20 years philosophically. The "left" has become reactionary, defining itself in terms of what it opposes, "oppression," "fascism," "corporate power," *Bush* and how he must be stopped, et cetera. The right in contrast has been visionary, offering a picture of how they would like the world to be. (I'm not saying their plans correspond to reality, only that they have had a positive and not a negative agenda.) The Dean campaign, with the internet, the meetups, the emphasis on local democracy, assisting other Democrats, etc. manifests an aggressiveness, a pragmatism, a "can-do" attitude that has been absent from liberals for many years. No matter how many lemons these guys are given, they always manage to make lemonade.

While there are some things I don't like about Dean's campaign, I can't help but be impressed. Does anyone else feel the same way?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Yes

I think that Dean's framing of issues is masterful. Whoever is the nominee should keep this up. I read that Joe Lieberman's campaign is stressing integrity, and I think this is another important issue that should be brought up and hammered home.

[rbnyc]

2. Good point.

I admire this about Dean, too.

[xray s]

3. Yes, but...

Dean has to stop talking about eliminating the Bush tax cut, because that is playing on Bush's end of the field.

Take it into a new direction, challenging the unfairness of the overall tax system, which is heavily stacked against the lower and middle classes (I am talking all taxes here, property, sales, Fica and income)

Contrast that with all the breaks in the tax code for corporations and the wealthy. Off shore corporations. I am sure Dean can find dozens and dozens of examples in the tax code.

Tax fairness is the correct issue. Instead he is getting painted into a corner as just another Democrat who wants to raise taxes. That really bothers me, because Democrats are the ones who fought for tax relief for the lower and middle class in the last tax bills.

Just my 2 cents.

[KaraokeKarlton]

10. He's smart to talk about it before Bush does

Dean is being specific about what Americans have sacrificed for those tax cuts. Most people got $304. In exchange for that meager check their property taxes have gone up. Their insurance premiums have gone up. Their sales tax have gome up in some places. Costs to educate their kids have gone up. It wasn't a tax cut, it was a tax shift...and it was shifted right onto our children. Dean offers a clear choice. That meager tax cut OR getting back all that was lost, get new things voters really value and want that will benefit them and then having a tax overhaul so that some of the burden is lifted off the middle class. Dean can frame it how he wants to frame it, and as long as he frames the issue HIS way, it will sell. He has proven time and time again that he is going to be the one framing things his way. The other Democratic candidates are a hell of a lot smarter than Bush is and they can't stop Dean from doing this even when they gang up on him. Bush won't be able to do it either.

[candy331]

4. I noted

that Dean says that repugs shake the argument around God, guns, gays and I think race. Well you'd better believe it will be the same so I hope Dean can keep framing debates to the real issues of Jobs, education and healthcare so people can see that the other is used to divide to gain votes for repugs but does not produce what the average citizen needs. However I hope Dean is prepared because as he said they will be throwing out everything at him but the kitchen sink, well he'd better know even the sink will be pulled out to stop him and or whomever gets the nomination.

[Racenut20]

5. Find a link to George Will on this morning

Get his comment about Dean running a campaign in the South on:
Civil Unions
Voters not being taxed enough
Iraq war is bad

I see the Repubs licking their chops over these 3 issues, and if we don't have a Democrat candidate that can overcome those 3 issues we have another Dukakis/McGovern/Mondale on our hands.

[sandnsea]

6. Good campaign strategy

But he does it by scorching Democrats as a whole. He's done so much damage to the Democratic Party getting this far that everything he has said will be turned back on him in a general election. And they are good at what they do too.

The only reason I give Dean any hope at all next year is the campaign strategy. I despise it, I don't think he believes in anything he says; but it has worked just the same.

[ima_sinnic]

7. as usual you are WAY off

"scorching Democrats as a whole"? "damage to the Democratic Party"? hello, Dr. Dean is the only one of the 9 who has now started a campaign to get support for Democratic congresspeople from all states by his supporters. He is also having phenomenal success in bringing many new voters into the Democratic Party--totally contrary to what you are saying. His whole campaign is revolving around bringing people back together as a community, and this is something the American people sorely need and want.

you "don't think he believes anything he says"--?? I find that incredibly off the mark. time will prove me right--that's all I can say since there is no way to "prove" at this point that he is sincere; not only sincere but *passionately sincere*, IMHO.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sandnsea]

12. Dean IS status quo

That's why I DON'T like him. Everything he did in Vermont was status quo. He hit on a good campaign strategy and he's running it for broke. People seem to like this sort of ravaging politics as evidenced by Rush and O'Reilly; so maybe having someone like that on the left will work next year. It's the only redeeming thing I have to say about the campaign, take it or leave it I guess.

Kucinch = not status quo. Kerry/Clark = not status quo.

It's not somebody's location when the status quo was happening for the last 10 years, it's what they BELIEVED IN WHILE IT WAS HAPPENING. Dean supported status quo and there's no reason for me to think he's changed.

[Cocoa]

14. one reason he may have changed

he may feel indebted to the people that are now supporting him.

For example, he may be more pro-labor and anti-war than he otherwise would have been.

Better than being obliged to special interests, imo.

[dweller]

13. funny

i thot the deanies were the 'status quo'

dp

[Cocoa]

11. I'll look at Dean the way I looked at Dennis Rodman

When he was on the Pistons, taking cheap shots at Scottie Pippen, I despised him. After he came to the Bulls, taking cheap shots against Patrick Ewing, I called it "excellent defense" and forgave him for the past. I'm not sure whether Scottie ever forgave him, but he played with him pretty good.

[Nazgul35]

15. What Democratic Party?!

I havent seen a Democratic Party since Tip O'Neal died!

Are you refering to the DLC Democrats who say lets be like those guys...or the Dems we have in office who are completely owned by the special interests which hang over Washington like vultures?

Damage to the party! Yeah, like you damage a scab when you pick it away to reveal the fresh new skin underneath....

We haven't had rank and file participation like this since Kennedy was elected....and what were they saying about the young catholic president from the North East? hmmmmmmm.....were have I heard all of this before?

See it's not about Dean, Kerry Clark, Edwards or anyone else...it's about us...and until you see that you might as well get use to the repugs winning everything....

Try being for something for a change and see what it feels like...

I have been shutting repugs down left and right....why, not because I am gifted, but because I now have access to a powerful forum called the internet in which my fellow lefties keep me up to date on what's going on....that's our real power! Knowledge!

[sandnsea]

18. I know what I'm for

Truth, integrity, humanity, respect, intelligence, unity. A vision for the future. And I'm for somebody who has been living up to those ideals and fighting to make life better for people based on those ideals his whole life. Not some johnny-come-lately election year campaigner who spent his whole life leaping to the Republican cause FIRST, instead of sticking by the Democrats who were fighting for those Democratic values all along. You may have missed it, I didn't.

[pruner]

8. read Dean's incredible new speech

Restoring the American Community

http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/002565.html#more

[dajabr]

16. Pick up Dean's book...

"Winning Back America," if you haven't already.

Go right to chapters 13 & 14. There you'll be looking at the "framing" of Shrub's defeat in '04 - and the re-birth of the Democratic Party.

[OhioStateProgressive]

17. Kucinich is the one who has gotten these things in the debate

on every issue, whether it be the war, voting machines, patriot act, haliburton sweetheart deals...nafta, wto...trade

all from Dennis

[dweller]

19. Somebody has to kick ass

before all of the other guys get the guts to step up and talk.

DK does the walk.

dp

[Zomby Woof]

20. damn right!

Reading campaign goo like "Winning Back America" or whatever their Bible is called - it's rhetoric and bullshit. I want action to match the words, and DK delivers.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.