Pacific Views

A Stranger Dean

I now no longer remember where I read this morning that The Stranger has a feature article on the Dean campaign, written by Sandeep Kaushik. Mr. Kaushik spoke with me just before the rally, and he had the following to say:

Q: What are your impressions of the Dean campaign so far?

SK: Well, it's certainly changed a lot since I first started covering it. I went out to New Hampshire back in the first week of May. And at that point it was sort of Howard Dean kind of driving around in a car, with like two aides, you know, that was the campaign. And now, as you've seen, it's buses filled with [...] this ravenous press horde, and a slew of aides, and [...] assistants. And there's this whole, entire [...] massive operation.

It's a sign that he has come from nowhere to be the front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Which is pretty amazing in like 100 days.

Q: Have you covered other campaigns?

SK: [...] I went out to Massachussetts to write about John Kerry's campaign in June, and saw him at the Massachussets state Democratic party convention. And while he had a lot of support there, obviously, he's from Massachussets, there was kind of a more [...] traditional campaign feel to what Kerry was doing. And it seemed a lot more organized, [...] and supporters were bussed in [...]

Whereas, what we're seeing here in Seattle, and I think other places, you know, [...] these are however many thousands of people kind of turning out basically [because] they're curious, or just through word of mouth, or through the net, or whatever, [have] found out about Howard Dean and like him.

It really is [...] a grassroots [...] campaign in a way that maybe some of the other candidates' campaigns haven't been. Though I think a lot of them are trying to [...] get in gear and do something more like this, though I don't know whether they'll succeed or not. ...

[Note: Transcript from tape, ellipses indicate unintelligible (it was quite loud, cheap tape recorder) words and a few 'you knows' taken out for clarity. I've done my best to leave out nothing that would alter the original meaning and intent of the comments.]

Here are a couple brief excerpts from the article he went on to write (and a super big thanks to the web staff at The Stranger for including permanent links to their features the day they're put up):

...These other Democrats--what were their names again?--might as well write off Seattle; in his surging liberal revivalist crusade to claim the American presidency, Dean long ago locked up this city. ...

...After the Seattle rally, Washington State Democratic Party chair Paul Berendt expresses his amazement at Dean's appeal. "I've never seen a turnout like this. It's huge for this early in the campaign," he enthuses. "There's magic around Howard Dean." ... [Ed. Paul Berendt was the first speaker at the rally.]

...Dean has a huge, activist, energetic base in Seattle and he intends to keep them revved up.

Maybe he's just returning the favor, because Seattle, Dean says, revved him up. Toward the end of the tour when one of the other reporters aboard the Grassroots Express asked Dean to describe the most important personal moment, Dean brought up the Seattle rally--I didn't ask him the question and I wasn't standing by taking notes; I got this quote from the reporter later, so Dean wasn't pandering to his Seattle supporters when he said this about last Sunday's rally in Westlake Center:

"Seeing all those people out there [in Seattle]," Dean said. "The enormity of it all really struck me. For the first time I realized what it really means to be President of the United States--seeing all those people out there, counting on you."

Update: The Stranger has the full transcript of the speech at the Seattle rally, which makes me really happy because I thought I was going to have to do it ;) (Yeah, yeah, laziness, go figure.) Do check it out, it was the best out of any of the four rallies I attended, IMO.

Posted by natasha at August 28, 2003 03:47 PM | TrackBack