I don’t think the Governor liked my question.
Tonight was billed as “An Evening with Governor Howard Dean”, held at the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon. The food was pretty good! Salmon, crab cakes, chicken-kabobs, grilled vegetables, cheese, fruit…mm yum! We spent the first half hour or so eating buffet style, getting to know other Democrats.
The first speaker was former Governor Barbara Roberts and she gave us one of her patented pep talks, reminding us to vote for Measures 49 and 50. She was followed by Meredith Wood Smith, chairman of the Oregon Democratic Party. Besides pumping us up for Gov. Dean’s upcoming talk she also introduced a few of our local candidates. To my surprise, one is an old friend who’ll make a terrific member of the State House. I met up with him later and signed on to his campaign.
Meredith finished up her remarks and introduced Gov. Dean, who entered from the side door like a rock star. That’s when I started taking notes.
The Governor began by bashing Gordon Smith, to great applause. Smith likes to present himself as a moderate but, as Dean pointed out, he votes with Bush 90% of the time and we need a Senator who will “get us out of Iraq”. I was hoping he’d go into some detail here but he moved on to the 50 state strategy and how we, in Oregon, are implementing the 36 county strategy, saying “if you don’t run you can’t win”.
He really is a good speaker. Every time I hear him (this is the 3rd time) I think he should be President. Well, anyway, he continued talking strategy
about going door to door and how that’s more effective than TV ads, and how every vote is important, even if you’re in a safe district. “If you’re in a 60% Democratic district we need 70%” and so on. And when he described the administration I heard the word “malevolence”.
Now we’re getting to the crux. Governor Dean named some things the Democratic Congress has done, like raising the minimum wage, getting more school money, voting to cover kids’ health care which led to how the Republicans are blocking the important stuff. He spoke about the new generation of voters and the generational change that’s happening. All in all, a great, inspiring speech.
Near the end he said, re: the Republican field as opposed to the Democrats having a woman, an African-American and a Hispanic, “Their candidates look like the 1950s and when they start talking they sound like the 1850s.” He talked about Martin Luther King Jr. and how it took a long time from the Montgomery boycott to civil rights legislation. It might take us a long time now to get where we want to be and we can’t take time off. On Democracy: “It fails if you fail to nurture it”.
When he was done he greeted folks, making chit-chat. I shook his hand, telling him I wanted to vote for him again. “I don’t know if you should do that” he said with a smile. Then I said “I do have a question for you”.
To tell you the truth, I pulled my punch a little too. I didn’t go into the gory details but softened it thusly: “There was a poll on Daily Kos today concerning Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid and they did very badly.” He seemed surprised. I guess he wasn’t online today! I continued “The left is feeling extremely disaffected. What can we tell them?” The Governor said “You can tell them that Mitch McConnell is blocking our bills and that we need to elect more Democrats.” I have to admit I wasn’t satisfied and pushed a little on whether the Democrats could be doing more about Iraq. He said that we wouldn’t be out until we have a Democrat in the White House. And you should have seen the look he gave me! He was very polite but I think I’d crossed a line. Maybe in a different setting we could have talked longer but at this event I’d overstayed my welcome. I thanked him, shook his hand, and let him move on to the rest of the crowd.
I had hoped to get an answer to why the Democrats aren’t defunding, aren’t following up on subpoenas, aren’t moving to restore habeas corpus and so on. I came away reminded that Governor Dean, a real hero of mine (and I just might vote for him in the primary like I told him!), is not the policy maker. He’s the top salesman for the Party. He won’t criticize Democrats, certainly not in public and I don’t blame him for that. I wonder, though, what he thinks when he hears questions like mine, in city after city, for surely he does hear them. Well, I can’t tell you since he didn’t tell me! Guess I’ll have to wait until I see Rep. Blumenauer. Maybe he’ll give me some understanding of this situation.
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it was actually less nerve-wracking talking to the Governor then it was to write and post this!
The Democrats’ 2008 strategy seems to me to be one of saying they can’t get anything done unless there are more Democrats in Congress and the White House.
The logic is faulty, I think, since they used the more Dems in Congress as part of their 2006 rhetoric to end the rubber stamping. The claimed they couldn’t be effective as a minority to stop the Bush juggernaut. They have the majority now and they seem marginally more effective than when they were in the minority.
However, the Republicans are seeming much more effective as the minority than the Dems were in the 109th Congress. The Democrats always seem to think they need to play fair and by the rules. While the Republicans have no problem with tearing up the game board and changing the rules as they go.
The Democrats are trying to play the situation in Iraq to their advantage in 2008, while the Bush administration and the Republicans are playing the “game” like there is no tomorrow. And, the thing is, if the Republicans win – there won’t be.
The Democratic leadership isn’t willing to play hardball. Thus, the Republicans can get away with painless (to them) obstructionism.
Dean has to be all nicey-nice in public, but I doubt he’s impressed with how things have gone so far in the 110th Congress. Part of that, of course, comes from being a governor, but mostly I think he knows the score – but needs a better team than he’s got now – thus more Democrats.
I felt like I was there beside you & I’m so disappointed…when he shot that look, I could see the snake-oil salesman lurking behind that smooth smile. Maybe you over stepped by thinking and actually asking a Real question?
A very compelling intro sentence:
“I don’t think the Governor liked my question.”
You conveyed very clearly in only 8 words the adversarial relationship the entire progressive movement has with Dem leaders and the perspectives of both sides. Many of us have written entire essays trying to adequately describe those dynamics and you did it better in just one sentence.
Your essay is informative, interesting, and enjoyable to read not only because of the content but because of your conversational style and talent for vivid description.
Like RiaD said, it’s like we were there with you, experiencing the event and your interaction with Howard Dean.
Well done!
It was fun meeting other Democrats from district all over the state. Howard Dean got me both into the grassroots and the netroots. This is my first foray back into the ‘real’ world of politics. It was interesting hearing him not as candidate but chairman. It was a small but good crowd, about 100 and it was relaxed and low key.
Shayhar, was my hero as he decided he would ask his question and he did. He wasn’t confrontational but civil. I, chicken that I am retreated into the crowd, and missed Gov. Dean tazering Sharhyar with his eyeballs. Gov. Dean in his speech, avoided and talked around the issue of congress, other then the litany of things the Democrats accomplished. He is still the inspiring progressive, who is in this for the long haul, and a damn good politician who believes in the power of people, as he said we shall overcome. So once again I will try to take my party back on the local grass root level, and look for ways to promote more progressives like Gov. Dean.
in Fresno, CA yesterday – a Republican stronghold. Pretty amazing turnout, though Robert Kennedy drew 5000 in 1968. I had no interest in seeing her, but if Howard Dean comes by, I’ll make the effort and take along your questions. We need help in taking down a Republican congressman or two.
She talked a good game, though Obama has outraised her here 3 to 1, but who can trust a politician?
I think that’s the whole point of the diary.