Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean believes Democrats suffered a bad midterm election because they lacked a clear message. “Where the hell is the Democratic party?” he asked on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “You’ve got to stand for something if you want to win.”
Dean criticized Washington Democrats for never being able to stay on message, agreeing with Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who said his party did not do a good job communicating what President Obama has done.
“The Republican message was, ‘We’re not Obama.’ No substance whatsoever,” Dean said. But after rhetorically asking himself the message from Democrats, Dean answered sarcastically “Oh, well, we’re really not either.”
Dean, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee who created the “50 State Strategy” for the party after its defeat in 2004, said Democrats can pick up the pieces again. However, he told moderator Chuck Todd “You cannot win if you are afraid!”
Dean, a former presidential candidate himself, insisted that he is not running and will support Hillary Clinton in two years. Dean said Democrats have to put money into the state parties order to rebuild the organization that made President Obama’s campaigns so successful.
“You’ve got to strengthen the state parties. It requires discipline, accountability, but it also requires money to go to the state parties and we have to trust the state parties,” Dean explained.
What Howard said
Howard is a very entertaining guy. He sort of tells us the truth, but not quite. In this last election the Democratic Party had no message except for, “Obama? Obama who?” The Democratic Party ran on exactly the message that it intended to run on. It lost more seats then it planned on, but hell that’s life. It’s common knowledge that in 2016 all the political stars will line up in favor of the Democrats. So this election was all about positioning Hillary for 2016. Anybody who says that they will support Hillary is not a Progressive. So it would be best for Progressives to ignore their advice. Especially if don’t want the new boss to be the same as the old Republican boss. You know, neo-con interventionist Bush. By the way Bernie Sanders has a very clear and consistent message.
Unfortunately for former Gov Dean, standing for something is more than a campaign motto. Since Dems only supported Republicans in contested Districts, they got just what they set out for . . . nothing.