Gearing up for '08

I have had the honor and the privilege to meet both Terry McAuliffe and Howard Dean. Back at the Democratic National Convention in 2000, I like to say I take credit for introducing Terry to palm pilots as he was curious in my Handspring Visor's capabilities at a staff lunch. Terry was the convention CEO and had to manage and raise funds for the DNC. He did a fine job and managed to raise funds for the Democratic Party, build them a new headquarters, and build up the largest voter information database we have ever had. I won't fault Terry for the loss in '04 as much as I have done in a earlier post, I think the blame lands squarely on the shoulders of Bob Shrum (0-8 in presidential elections, a player with that record won't even get drafted in the last round!). Howard will bring a new flare to the party. Dean needs to refocus the party from sucking in the dollars to winning and taking back seats from Republicans in the midterms. Once we show we can win, we can then return to the drive for money. We also need to use the bloggers to our advantage, this is the one field that Republicans are still clueless in (but they are beginning to quickly figure out the system, i.e. Powerline). In "The Revolution Will Not be Televised," Joe Trippi discussed the use of the 'Bat' to quickly raise funds and rally supporters to their cause. This needs to be done at the state and local levels so the party can strengthen local Democratic Party offices (like in Orange County, CA). Some of the offices are poised to win, but lack the support from the national level, unlike our Republican counterparts who can call in vanloads of supporters and volunteers at a moments notice. While I agree with the argument that we need to avoid becoming "Republican-light" we need to use their organization against them. If Dean got his idea for DFA from the Christian Coalition, then we can use the Republicans own weapons against them in the upcoming elections.

(Sorry this is late, I'm running out of space on my personal website and I had to remove some stuff to get this to post. - Mike)