Sunday, March 20, 2005
Questions for Dean
I was going to put this in the comment thread below, until I remembered that this is actually my blog and that I could put it in a post.
(1) The recently passed Bankruptcy Bill was apparently unpopular on both the left and right. Democrats did not mount a public campaign against it until the very last minute. Why?
(2) Large portions of the American public are homophobic. How do you plan on dealing with this without betraying the basic principles of our party (and common decency)?
(3) This question involves multiple sub-parts. In answering these questions, please refrain from listing mistakes that are in fact not mistakes at all such as "I was too passionate" or "I paid too much attention to my critics."
During the last Presidential campaign, a popular theme put forth by Democrats was that the President refused to admit his mistakes. What mistakes have Democrats made? Specifically:
(a) What mistakes did you, Howard Dean, make that prevented you from winning the Democratic nomination? (As an aside, do you think the huge lead you were enjoying in the polls was real or illusory?)
(b) What mistakes did John Kerry (and the leadership of the Democratic party) make that caused him to lose the 2004 election?
(c) What mistakes did Al Gore (and the leadership of the Democratic party) make that caused him to sort of lose the 2000 election?
(d) What mistakes did Bill Clinton (and the leadership of the Democratic party) make that caused the Democrats to lose control of Congress in 1994?
(e) This is the most important sub-part. Please compare the answers to (b), (c) and (d) (and to a lesser extent (a)). To the extent that any mistake appears on more than one of these lists, why are these mistakes being repeated? What will be done to prevent the Democrats from making the same mistakes in 2006 and 2008?
(Obviously, I understand that this question could be asked in a face to face meeting, but you get the idea.)
(4) To what extent could and should the Democrats use the "Contract With America" and the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress as a model for becoming the majority party in Congress again?
(5) Joe Lieberman. What the fuck?
That's all for now. If I think of more later, I'll put them in this post.
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(1) The recently passed Bankruptcy Bill was apparently unpopular on both the left and right. Democrats did not mount a public campaign against it until the very last minute. Why?
(2) Large portions of the American public are homophobic. How do you plan on dealing with this without betraying the basic principles of our party (and common decency)?
(3) This question involves multiple sub-parts. In answering these questions, please refrain from listing mistakes that are in fact not mistakes at all such as "I was too passionate" or "I paid too much attention to my critics."
During the last Presidential campaign, a popular theme put forth by Democrats was that the President refused to admit his mistakes. What mistakes have Democrats made? Specifically:
(a) What mistakes did you, Howard Dean, make that prevented you from winning the Democratic nomination? (As an aside, do you think the huge lead you were enjoying in the polls was real or illusory?)
(b) What mistakes did John Kerry (and the leadership of the Democratic party) make that caused him to lose the 2004 election?
(c) What mistakes did Al Gore (and the leadership of the Democratic party) make that caused him to sort of lose the 2000 election?
(d) What mistakes did Bill Clinton (and the leadership of the Democratic party) make that caused the Democrats to lose control of Congress in 1994?
(e) This is the most important sub-part. Please compare the answers to (b), (c) and (d) (and to a lesser extent (a)). To the extent that any mistake appears on more than one of these lists, why are these mistakes being repeated? What will be done to prevent the Democrats from making the same mistakes in 2006 and 2008?
(Obviously, I understand that this question could be asked in a face to face meeting, but you get the idea.)
(4) To what extent could and should the Democrats use the "Contract With America" and the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress as a model for becoming the majority party in Congress again?
(5) Joe Lieberman. What the fuck?
That's all for now. If I think of more later, I'll put them in this post.
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