Value Judgment: Two fighters

Value Judgment is a daily weblog written by two independent voters on the eastern seaboard of the United States. VJ will focus on the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaigns, including strategy, tactics, and substance. The authors supported Howard Dean in the Democratic primary. Accordingly, his activities will be a prominent topic on this site.

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J at valuejudgment.org

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September 3, 2003

Two fighters

Salon.com: Why Dean and Franken are so hot right now: After years of being kicked in the teeth by GOP bullies, Democrats have finally found two brawlers who know how to give it back.

After Clinton left office, and in particular after 9/11, Democrats seemed to lose the will or skill -- or both -- to fight back... But month after month, the resentment grew -- you could see it and feel it on Web sites that the corporate media dismissed as fringe. And then finally, it came pouring out, in a wave of money and volunteer energy for the Dean campaign. And it's still cascading, turning a candidate once scoffed at by the punditocracy into the Democratic front-runner...

The instant, runaway success of Franken's new book is not just a result of Fox News' inexplicable decision to shoot itself in the foot and head by launching an idiotic trademark-infringement lawsuit, but also the author's bold -- and roaringly funny -- knack for confronting the Bush presidency and its prevaricating apologists.

I've read Franken's book and people, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is a very calm, cool, well-sourced dissection of numerous right-wing lies which also happens to be laugh-out-loud funny. It will give you hope, energy, and ammunition.

Kind of like Dean does...

Posted by V at September 3, 2003 12:02 PM

Comments

Hi V,

Thanks for coming on by. I came by and enjoyed reading your blog.

For full-disclosure for anyone reading this, I'm Dan, the guy from the Kerry for President Blog at http://kerryforpres.blogspot.com
So obviously, you know where I stand.

But I loved this article from Salon, and think it has it exactly right. If Dean gets Kerry to sharpen his attacks on Bush, I'm all for it.

I know a lot of people who haven't started paying attention to this campaign yet. I think what will end up happening is Dean will continue to do great and Kerry will narrow the gap as the campaign goes on. They are both formidable candidates and they'll both make much better Presidents than Bush.

The good news is that a battle-tested candidate would emerge who could really stick it to Bush. The bad news is that feelings may be inflamed during the primaries and we have to be careful about that. The last thing we need is more Democratic defections.

Remember, it is great to stick to one's principles. Call me a liberal, but I believe that as long as we have food on our tables, we have to vote for those less fortunate than ourselves. And the less fortunate are getting killed by Bush. We need a new president, and I'd be very happy to say President Dean...almost as happy as saying President Kerry :)

All the best, go Democrats!
-Dan

Posted by: Dan at September 3, 2003 04:59 PM