He tells the group the solution when you have bad days is to work harder.
Obama’s polls have been holding steady in Oregon even after the Republican National Convention. But, Dean told the crowd, there would be hard days ahead.
“There are some days you feel bad, but you know what you do? You work harder,” Dean told the cheering crowd. “We are in this, and we are going to win this.”
More from the voter registration tour there today.
Dean: ‘The idea that Gordon Smith and John McCain represent change is a joke’Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said Friday that in order for Jeff Merkley to continue his upward trend in the polls, he has to continue to make the conversation focus on U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith’s record in Washington D.C.
“The idea that Gordon Smith and John McCain represent change is a joke,” Dean said. “They want to talk furniture, hot dogs, lipstick. How about this: Let’s talk about Gordon Smith and John McCain.”
Dean said that once people saw what Republican congressman had done to legislation important to the country, they would not be able to justify their record to American people who are looking for new leadership in the nation’s capitol.
“Republicans killed renewable energy because the thought it would be better to embarrass Democrats than to do something for the country,” Dean said. “Republicans killed a bill for children’s health care because they thought it was better to support their President, and his 30 percent approval rating, than it was to give kids insurance.”
He also had a phone conference with Oregon Democratic county chairs.
From Blue Oregon:
Just got off the phone with Howard Dean!Governor Dean told us we need to crank up voter turnout dramatically and by doing so, bring Jeff Merkley over the finish line. With only one month to go to register voters, (the last day to register to vote is October 14th) we need to register everyone we can find. We need make certain all Democrats vote instead of sitting out another election. Up in the metro area a county chair remarked about the lethargy of activists who usually are the folks we count on to knock on as many doors as possible. If you can imagine Howard Dean becoming even more animated than he usually is, he had a clear answer to the comment on lethargy.
"Give the activists a kick in the butt," Dean declared. "We lost in 2004 because the Republicans out worked us. We have to work harder and take nothing for granted. We have to elect Jeff Merkley as Oregon's next State Senator."
That lethargy is the danger...it is what the polls are doing to us. Polls can be made to say whatever they want them to say by use of demographics. By ignoring the huge numbers of new voters registered by the Democrats, by polling a larger number of Republican leaners, they can discourage us.