Dean's campaign is broke . . . i mean busted . . . as in, bankrupt . . . i mean money
Money gone
And his manager quite for a lessor position
this does not bode well for him . . . after all, if he can't run a smooth campaign with 40 mill . . . then how can he save a sinking deficit nation?
And his manager quite for a lessor position
this does not bode well for him . . . after all, if he can't run a smooth campaign with 40 mill . . . then how can he save a sinking deficit nation?
Comments
Originally posted by pfflam
[snip]
this does not bode well for him . . . after all, if he can't run a smooth campaign with 40 mill . . . then how can he save a sinking deficit nation?
He cant. It's over for Dean. Kerry will get the nod and than loose to Bush.
Originally posted by BR
Mind posting the full text?
It is two pages long . . . just go through the day-pass process there is no email giving or signing anything and it only takes a second
but . . I'll post page one:
an. 29, 2004 _|_ Joe Trippi, the iconic architect of Howard Dean's Internet-driven campaign, is gone. And so are the millions of dollars that Dean raised from legions of grass-roots supporters over the last year.
Following defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire, and less than a week away from a make-or-break series of Democratic primary election contests, Trippi on Wednesday quit the Dean campaign after being offered a lesser position. At the same time, Dean announced that his high-flying campaign is broke, and he announced to workers that their paychecks will be suspended for two weeks because of a multimillion-dollar debt.
Roy Neel, former chief of staff to Al Gore, was appointed CEO of the campaign, supplanting Trippi, who served as a high-profile campaign manager, ad man and inspirational icon to many of Dean's Internet supporters.
It was devastating news for a candidate who, just four weeks ago, had been seen as the strong front-runner to win the Democratic presidential nomination. The campaign was basking in the glow of upbeat news coverage, fundraising prowess and endorsements from elected officials, labor leaders and celebrities. But after two decisive losses in the space of eight days, chaos that apparently had been percolating through the campaign organization broke into open view.
After Tuesday's clear defeat at the hands of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Dean's "one remaining hope was to be able to pivot very quickly this week onto a sort of new substantive message," said Democratic consultant Howard Wolfson. "This is going to completely interfere with that."
The pessimism even had spread to many of the operatives and volunteers who staffed an organization known for its idealism and optimism. "The wheels are coming off the chassis," one said yesterday.
Even before Wednesday's shakeup, Dean had been undergoing a public, on-the-fly makeover -- tempering his language, making fun of himself on the David Letterman show and appearing with his wife, Judy Steinberg Dean, for an emotional TV interview. But the latest developments were more than cosmetic, and they made clear that a campaign once deemed unstoppable is now in very real danger of disintegrating.
Financially, donors wondering about the viability of the campaign are likely to hold onto their money. And critics are certain to question whether a candidate who could not manage the estimated $40 million he raised last year is capable of managing the world's biggest economy.
There will be political fallout, too. With a crucial, seven-state primary day coming Tuesday, stories about the campaign turmoil are likely to drown out Dean's appeals for votes. And with John Kerry coming off of two monumental wins, and with John Edwards and Wesley Clark moving into contests on friendly soil in the South and West on Feb. 3, prospects for the former Vermont governor are not bright.
While Dean was in Burlington Wednesday reorganizing his campaign and dealing with the fallout, front-runner Kerry and other candidates were already on the ground and courting votes in crucial states like Missouri and South Carolina.
The Dean campaign was a pretty disorganized affair from the beginning. That was almost the point: It was a "different" kind of campaign, driven by the candidate's refreshing spontaneity and consultant-free cadences, and fueled by the zeal of its idealistic volunteers and small grass-roots donations. That "roll with it" aspect carried over to the campaign's organization as well, which was roughly divided into three groups of the governor's top advisors from Vermont -- Kate O'Connor and Bob Rogan in one camp, Trippi in another, and everyone else in a third.
The result was that internal decision-making processes tended to be chaotic, with top supporters getting contradictory marching orders from Trippi and the Burlington staff in the same day.
"We couldn't get answers on simple things," said one, who asked to remain anonymous. "It just seemed like there was no coordination between Trippi, the fundraising machine and the governor's closest aides from Vermont. I guess that turned out to be the case."
But none of that mattered in the fall, when the Dean campaign could seemingly do no wrong. The media was writing process story after process story about the brilliance of the movement and Trippi, its tech-savvy orchestrator. After all, it was hard to argue with the enthusiastic crowds who flocked to campaign events, the estimated $40 million the campaign raised over the Internet, and the resultant lead compiled by Dean in the polls.
While Dean fought fierce opposition from moderates in the Democratic Party and from Kerry and Dick Gephardt on the campaign trail, he won an avalanche of high-profile endorsements from politicians such as Al Gore and Bill Bradley and from activist celebrities like Rob Reiner and "Acting President" Martin Sheen, star of the popular "West Wing" television series.
By early January, Dean's strategy was clear: The campaign would overwhelm all contenders in Iowa and New Hampshire, making clear that opposition was futile. But a series of inopportune comments and outright gaffes fueled questions about whether an antiwar candidate with no foreign policy experience could defeat President George W. Bush. And in Iowa, voters repeatedly suggested that they found the candidate arrogant.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
you know, this whole election process is a joke. its ridiculous how wrapped up people get in everything. i'm all for the actual voting part, but everybody makes these primaries out to be bigger than the election itself. our whole society is a joke really. stupid people in masses. that's the only way to describe all those people freaking out over how many fractions of percents these candidates get... ok... back to my lovely mac...
Yeah its all a joke . . . especially when your packin off to go shoot people cause of sometthing the president that you didn't vote for gets you into . . . some shooting match somewhere you never heard of . . . (hypothetically speaking of course)
Then, i guess, the depths of the jokeness of our culture would seem pretty overwhelming!
Originally posted by ipodandimac
you know, this whole election process is a joke. its ridiculous how wrapped up people get in everything. i'm all for the actual voting part, but everybody makes these primaries out to be bigger than the election itself.
The primaries are more importent than the election actually.
1) Its a real election where your choices are more than binary.
2) How the primaries goes decide if there will be a democratic or republican president the next 4 years.
Originally posted by alcimedes
of course, if he's broke now, that's not going to help his image as a fiscally responsible Democrat.
Well, the best antidote to that I can think of would be his long record as a fiscally conservative Governor. I'm not saying I actually agree with fiscal conservatism, but I am saying that running a campaign and running the government can be two separate things. With a long history of fiscal responsibility vs. President Bush's short history of fiscal chaos, I think Dean should welcome any comparison. Truly, bring it on. This is a very weak talking point in the end...as I've just pointed out.
That editorial is hock.
Originally posted by Existence
Dean has more money than Kerry and is rasing more money faster than Kerry as I type.
That editorial is hock.
Kerry sleeps with a far bigger war-chest than Dean has.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
Well, the best antidote to that I can think of would be his long record as a fiscally conservative Governor. I'm not saying I actually agree with fiscal conservatism, but I am saying that running a campaign and running the government can be two separate things. With a long history of fiscal responsibility vs. President Bush's short history of fiscal chaos, I think Dean should welcome any comparison. Truly, bring it on. This is a very weak talking point in the end...as I've just pointed out.
Shawn
Bush never had anything BUT balanced budgets in Texas. Their state constitution mandates it.
State level spending, in my opinion has been a pretty poor indicator of federal level spending. Both for Bush and other presidents. Plus balancing Vermont's budget would be like balancing a decent size cities budget out here in California.
The population of Vermont is about 33% more than the city of Long Beach here in California where we would elect a mayor.
So Dean hasn't even governed over a budget as big as say, Orange County.
Take THOSE two talking points combined, and the fact that his campaign is likely the largest enterprise he has ever had to manage, and it does look good.
Nick
Originally posted by trumptman
Shawn
Bush never had anything BUT balanced budgets in Texas. Their state constitution mandates it.
That kind of defeats your point, doesn't it?
Originally posted by ShawnJ
That kind of defeats your point, doesn't it?
If my point were that we should have a federal balanced budget amendment, then no.
California has a balanced budget amendment to it's Constitution as well. Look how well Davis did with that.
Besides you didn't address at all the fact that this campaign is likely the largest thing Dean has ever run and it is going quite badly.
Nick
It's way to early to be ringing the death knell on Dean's campaign.
I don't know how Kucinich, Lieberman and Sharpton keep going... they have alot less cash than Dean.
Originally posted by chu_bakka
I dunno.. I remember Kerry shaking up is campaign staff several months ago... and he's doing fine...
It's way to early to be ringing the death knell on Dean's campaign...
It ISN'T early. This thing is going to be over within a matter of weeks. Kerry had time to shake things up. Dean doesn't.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
Bush is going to spend 200 million for the election. Do you seriously want to get into a fiscal sanity argument? Perspective is my point. Any of the Democrats will spend far less than the President should they get the nomination. If it takes the President twice as much money to squeeze out another narrow "victory"......well you get my point.
Actually..I don't get your point at all. One of the reasons Bush is going to win is because he's playing for keeps. He's going to raise almost ten times the twenty-something million his father did, and he's going to campaign AS IF it will be a close race...whether it turns out to be or not.
Your thinking is really quite hilarious. In your world, the President is "so" unpopular and hated by the majority of Americans, that he can only possibly win a narrow victory by spending all that cash his rich friends gave him. The reality is Bush's grass roots campaign is stronger than ANY Democrat's....with over 6,000,000 people on his list. Compare that to Dean's former "phenomena" of 600,000 supporters signed up online. The President, overall....is popular. This is his race to lose and he knows it.
Anyone see the Diane Sawyer peice last night analyzing the Dean rally video?
My wife saw it and said it was fascinating...
all of the reporters there didn't think anything weird went on... nor anyone in the crowd... apparantly the crowd was so loud no one could hear anything... including Dean.