Thank you Chairman Parmley...

I would like to let everyone know that I am extremely pleased with Oklahoma's State Democratic Party Chairperson Jay Parmley as well as with Vice-Chairperson Debbie Leftwich. They publicly endorsed Gov. Howard Dean in his bid to become the chairperson of the Democratic National Committee.



I think this is a very wise endorsement. Howard Dean single handedly put the spine back into the Democratic Party for a short glorious time between July of 2003 and March 2004. It was fleeting, but it was real. Its time we got back to it.



The Groupthink took control of the voters after the Iowa caucuses really is still a matter of bewilderment to me.



· "Oh, we have to go with Kerry, he's more electable."

· "Dated Dean, Married Kerry."

· "Howard Dean is Angry!"

· "Howard Dean is too liberal!"



WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE?



When I am trying to illustrate a problem with a reference to pop culture, I always try to go to Aaron Sorkin first. And, it just so happens that there is a scene in A Few Good Men that illustrates my point perfectly.



Assuming most of you know the plot, I will just say that it is the scene in which Lt. Cdr. Joanne Galloway objects to the doctor's testimony and is overruled and attempts to object three more times on different grounds. At the end of the hearing Lt. Sam Weinberg explains that objecting once puts it in the record. Objecting four times points out the jury that we are afraid of the testimony. As so eloquently put, "That's the difference between paper law and trial law."



Well, here we are, and now I wish to point out the difference between a candidate that looks good on paper, (John Kerry for those keeping score) and the candidate that connects with people for real.



So many people wish to say that Democrats were voting against Bush and not for their candidate. That was true for me in the General Election, but not so in the primaries. In the summer of 2003, Howard Dean made people believe. We were voting for him. We were donating money to him. We were volunteering for him. We believed in him.



Why? Here's why. Howard Dean believed in us. Howard Dean believed in the same issues we believed in. Howard Dean thought the war was an outrage. Howard Dean believed that the cronyism of the Bush administration was killing our country. Howard Dean believed it is pathetic that in the wealthiest nation on earth, there are children whose parents have to look at them and tell them they can't afford to take them to the doctor. Howard Dean believed that taking a huge surplus and turning it into a huge deficit was unconscionable. Howard Dean was right. Howard Dean is right.



He didn't have a stable full of spinners polling every word, looking for electability. He told us what he believed by God, and it was the same things we believed. He was the voice of Democratic Outrage. If he was angry, it was not because he was unhinged or somehow unstable. It was because he was right. We should all be angry. Why should our candidate be any different?



Then came Gephardt's suicide mission against Howard Dean. Don't get me wrong, Richard Gephardt is a great man and a great public servant, but he was never going to be president. God bless the man, but it was never going to happen. But, believing he had a shot if only Gov. Dean were out of the picture, he came out so negative against him in Iowa that Iowans bought into the idea that Gov. Dean wasn't electable. Unfortunately for Mr. Gephardt, they felt the same about him.



Kerry or Edwards?



Edwards hung in there by staying below the radar and not getting involved in the fracas. Good Strategy? Yes. Good example? No. Fast forward a couple of months. Kerry is the nominee.

War hero! 20 year Senator! He'll beat Bush!



Yeah, or not. Ironically after picking him because he looked electable on paper, Kerry's real problem stemmed from the one area in which he was the most different from Gov. Dean. He wouldn't tell us in clear and simple language what he thought.



Call it Senate Speak. Call it hedging. Call it having a polysyllabic policy nuance Tourette's. Call it whatever the hell you want, but honestly that man either couldn't or wouldn't tell us what he thought in simple terms.



Policy wonks such as myself have no problem listening to a half hour dissertation on the Social Security trust fund, but most people here in Oklahoma do.

Gov. Dean, whether you agreed with him or not, told you what he thought. (Confederate Flags anyone?) And I guarantee that had we nominated him, there would have been no accusations of Flip Flopping. Gov. Dean had the magic ability of taking complex issues and explaining his position in a simple way. Kerry could never accomplish that. (Bush gets away with actually believing the issues are that simple.)





Lunch break is just about over, and I have real work to do, so stay tuned, and in our next installment I’ll explain why Gov. Dean now needs to lead our party.



-The Oklahoma Hippy