Post by Flamingo on Dec 23, 2003 9:15:50 GMT
Indystar. com
Mary Beth Schneider
Dean has 'West Wing' style, some say
December 21, 2003
Joe Andrew thinks he knows at least one reason why Howard Dean is building so much excitement among some Democrats.
Andrew, the former state and national Democratic Party chairman, who recently dropped his bid to run for governor of Indiana, said Democrats have three people in mind when they think about a Democratic president.
There's Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000 but lost the White House.
There's Bill Clinton, who held two terms as president.
And then, Andrew said, there's Josiah Bartlet -- the fictional president on TV's "The West Wing."
Dean and Bartlet are both the short former governors of small New England states, whose wives are physicians. Bartlet's campaign slogan was "Bartlet for America."
Dean's slogan? Well, go to www.deanforamerica.com.
" Dean has all the mannerisms, too," Andrew said. "The arrogance sometimes. The plucky battles."
Martin Sheen's portrayal of Bartlet has a lot of Democrats yearning for a president like that -- and they think they've found their body double in Dean.
Andrew was an early critic of Dean. When Dean spoke last May to the state Democratic Party, Andrew issued a news release saying that Dean's views on Iraq did not reflect "the majority of Hoosiers' views."
But, Andrew said, Dean has shown he can draw a lot of support -- including from Hoosiers.
Shaw Friedman, the Democratic attorney who is coordinating Dean's campaign in Indiana, believes when Hoosiers get to know Dean, they'll find he governed a lot like Evan Bayh, who built a fiscally conservative record as governor of Indiana.
Friedman said Dean cut taxes in Vermont while lowering the state's debt and providing health care coverage for all children and 90 percent of the adults in that state.
Bayh, though, is decidedly cool toward Dean. Last summer, Bayh, as head of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, warned against the party moving toward leftist candidates.
Asked last week about Dean, Bayh said: "I'm not sure I want to go there."
But he alluded to policy differences with Dean when he said Democrats can't win if they are perceived as being soft on defense and for raising taxes.
Friedman, though, said Dean enthuses people from all stratas of life.
Dean, he said, has message, money and momentum -- spurred recently by Gore's endorsement.
But Andrew, who is not yet endorsing a candidate, and former Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Robin Winston, who is the state campaign coordinator for Sen. John Edwards, of North Carolina, said that momentum may have stalled.
Winston cited the arrest of Saddam Hussein and said Dean is a wounded candidate. Andrew cited news reports, including a front-page article in the Washington Post, questioning Dean's' veracity.
"That killed Al Gore," he said. "It may be unfair, but it's a very effective message."
The next few weeks will tell which script Dean is following -- the one written by past Democrats who bloomed and then faded into irrelevance, or the one written by Bartlet, the one where the cliffhanger plot ends with an inauguration.
Mary Beth Schneider
Dean has 'West Wing' style, some say
December 21, 2003
Joe Andrew thinks he knows at least one reason why Howard Dean is building so much excitement among some Democrats.
Andrew, the former state and national Democratic Party chairman, who recently dropped his bid to run for governor of Indiana, said Democrats have three people in mind when they think about a Democratic president.
There's Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000 but lost the White House.
There's Bill Clinton, who held two terms as president.
And then, Andrew said, there's Josiah Bartlet -- the fictional president on TV's "The West Wing."
Dean and Bartlet are both the short former governors of small New England states, whose wives are physicians. Bartlet's campaign slogan was "Bartlet for America."
Dean's slogan? Well, go to www.deanforamerica.com.
" Dean has all the mannerisms, too," Andrew said. "The arrogance sometimes. The plucky battles."
Martin Sheen's portrayal of Bartlet has a lot of Democrats yearning for a president like that -- and they think they've found their body double in Dean.
Andrew was an early critic of Dean. When Dean spoke last May to the state Democratic Party, Andrew issued a news release saying that Dean's views on Iraq did not reflect "the majority of Hoosiers' views."
But, Andrew said, Dean has shown he can draw a lot of support -- including from Hoosiers.
Shaw Friedman, the Democratic attorney who is coordinating Dean's campaign in Indiana, believes when Hoosiers get to know Dean, they'll find he governed a lot like Evan Bayh, who built a fiscally conservative record as governor of Indiana.
Friedman said Dean cut taxes in Vermont while lowering the state's debt and providing health care coverage for all children and 90 percent of the adults in that state.
Bayh, though, is decidedly cool toward Dean. Last summer, Bayh, as head of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, warned against the party moving toward leftist candidates.
Asked last week about Dean, Bayh said: "I'm not sure I want to go there."
But he alluded to policy differences with Dean when he said Democrats can't win if they are perceived as being soft on defense and for raising taxes.
Friedman, though, said Dean enthuses people from all stratas of life.
Dean, he said, has message, money and momentum -- spurred recently by Gore's endorsement.
But Andrew, who is not yet endorsing a candidate, and former Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Robin Winston, who is the state campaign coordinator for Sen. John Edwards, of North Carolina, said that momentum may have stalled.
Winston cited the arrest of Saddam Hussein and said Dean is a wounded candidate. Andrew cited news reports, including a front-page article in the Washington Post, questioning Dean's' veracity.
"That killed Al Gore," he said. "It may be unfair, but it's a very effective message."
The next few weeks will tell which script Dean is following -- the one written by past Democrats who bloomed and then faded into irrelevance, or the one written by Bartlet, the one where the cliffhanger plot ends with an inauguration.