August 25, 2003
Press Pass for Dean's Portland Stop
While Natasha was traveling with Dean as one of the official bloggers for the Sleepless Summer Tour, I had been offered a press pass to report on the Portland event. It was great to have a chance to attend the rally and the press conference afterwards as a blogger reporter. And it was wonderful to have a chance to catch up with Natasha -- living in different cities limits our opportunies for face to face contact. (And can I brag? Having Natasha and Pacific Views picked for the on the road blogging correspondent was really nice. She was one of four bloggers covering this role with Markos of dKos being the blogger covering the event on Tuesday. Very nice. :-))
"Portland is Dean Country." Thus opened the Portland Sleepless Summer Rally in Portland by Matt Hennessee, local businessman and Democratic activist. A number of our top Democratic politicians were on hand to welcome and endorse Dean including Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, retired Governor Barbara Roberts, and rising Democratic star, Serena Cruz (currently Multnomah Council Commissioner).
Appoximately 5000 people showed up at the PSU courtyard to hear and greet Howard Dean on his Sleepless Summer Rally. The sleepless summer theme is quite good: early this year George W Bush said despite the ponderous decision to go to war, he prayed alot and believed that God told him to wage war in Iraq -- and that he wasn't losing any sleep about this. Dean's point is that many, many people in the USA are spending lots of sleepless nights worrying about Bush's policies. Policies that are actively destroying jobs, selling off the environment and our country's public holdings to the highest bidder, and entrapping our country into a decades long occupation in Iraq for reasons that are proving to be false. Bush sleeps well at night, but the rest of us worry about what he is doing to our future and what future he is leaving for our children and grandchildren. Dean is provides a forum for Americans who want to take the country back from these scoundrels.
One of the things that I noticed at the rally was I recognized several of the volunteers and activists from the New Progressive Network (NPN). The fact that they are very engaged with Dean says a lot about his campaign's ability to attract the young voters. I talked with 4 of the college leaders for the NPN for the major Oregon universities who are all now leaders in the Dean for President campaign. They are thrilled to see the energy and excitement of younger voters in this election cycle. They told me the Dean's campaign had built up the largest involvement for younger voters (18-34 years old) that has ever been seen before in the USA -- more than Robert Kennedy in 1968. This is definitely impressive. The speaker that kicked off the Portland rally, Saul Ettlin, head of the PSU College Dems, is not just engaged with Dean but also one of the leaders for the NPN. Oregon is the site of a lot of excitement and energy for Democratic organizing. Bush's campaign thinks that they have a chance to win Oregon. The students already rallying for Dean seem to indicate that the Bush campaign should not be complacent.
The size of the crowd was very impressive and the crowd consisted of the old, the young and the middle aged. They were enthusiastic and vocal. Dean was visibly excited by the crowd as it was the largest he had spoken to in his run for the president. (Disclosure: Portland was big, Seattle was much, much bigger, but still we came first.) Both showed Dean (and Bush) that the Dems have a lot of energy already going into this campaign.
So what happens when Bush raises millions and millions more than his Democratic rival and still loses? Dean just might be the candidate to beat Bush despite the obscene piles of money being raised by Bush.
Posted by Mary at August 25, 2003 04:11 AM | TrackBack