Why Karl Rove Fears Howard Dean

A Dean candidacy is a lot more realistic than people think [because] Dean's appeal is closer to Ronald Reagan's than any other Democrat running today.... The Democratic Party used to chuckle about Reagan and his gaffes, which they believed would marginalize him to the far-right dustbin of history. But when his opponents tried to attack him for some of his more outlandish statements, the folks in the middle simply ignored them. Voters... looked to the bigger picture, where they saw a man of conviction who cared about them and had solutions for their problems. [source: http://www.moore-info.com]

All the top-tier Democratic challengers can beat Bush, but Dean poses the biggest threat. Republicans once hoped Dean would get the nomination to run against Bush. No longer. As Dean continues to gain support and break fund-raising records by drawing on 100,000s of supporters, the Bush brain-trust (Karl Rove) and the pro-Bush media have changed their minds.

How do I know? Because if they really thought Dean would be easy for Bush to beat, they'd build him up to make sure he'd win the Democratic nomination. They were doing that last summer, but no longer. They now fear Governor Dean most of all. That explains why Republicans bash Dean constantly. On right-wing hate radio and on the talking head shows. On the editorial pages and in the "news" sections. As these tactics fail, Republican fear grows.

They fear Governor Dean because Dean thrives on slams and bad press. They just make his support grow wider and deeper. Republicans need Democratic disunity but Dean brings together all corners of the Democratic Party -- even those who defected to Nader in 2000 -- with unmatched passion and intensity. Dean does this without alienating independent "swing voters." Republican pollsters and consultants used to dismiss that as impossible, but Dean is doing it. Already the emerging issues favor Dean as well.

The other anti-war Democrats -- Carol Moseley Braun, Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich -- have no chance to win the nomination. As that becomes clear, even their most ardent supporters must choose between Dean and a pro-war Democrat. Dean will welcome support from the passionate, idealistic Democrats currently backing these other candidates.

With their added strength, Dean can surge in the next round of primaries. If Dean runs away with the nomination -- by winning or placing second in Iowa, winning in New Hampshire, and exceeding expectations in the South -- Dean and the Democrats can unite and begin targeting Bush. Dean has the cure for divisive "wedge" issues -- race, gay rights, guns, abortion -- a plain-spoken appeal on things that really matter. Good jobs. Good schools. Health care.

Dean hopes to re-unite middle class and working families against the greedy elites into a new New Deal Coalition. History shows that real progress is not possible without such an alliance among people of good will from all regions and races. This unity would mark the end of Rove's Republican dreams of domination and a new beginning of a Democratic American dream -- a fresh renaissance of the New Deal and the Great Society.

If Dean pulls off this ambition, he can help remake America, bringing us into the 21st Century with universal health care, access to high quality education for all Americans, investment in our people, millions of good new jobs, strong protections for the environment, workers and consumers, with equality, fairness and justice for women, minorities, GLBT people -- all of us. Almost all Americans want all of this, and Dean is working to unite the vast majority of us against the tiny extreme right wing minority clinging to power by dividing us.

With the stakes this high, increasingly desperate to stop Dean, what can Rove do? Try to elevate an easy mark to thwart Dean and the Democrats.

The Republicans want to run against Rep. Richard Gephardt. They keep building him up, pretending he'd be the toughest opponent. Republican hopes rest with Rep. Dick Gephardt beating Dean in Iowa. If Dean wins that state, he could quickly unite the Democrats for the general election. Watch the pro-Bush media trying to thwart this by putting Gephardt on TV, asking him easy soft-ball questions, trying to breathe life into his campaign.

Most Democrats I know want to like Gephardt. He seems like a nice guy, but he's screwed up too many times. Gephardt's failures stung badly enough, but worst of all, sometimes he seemed unwilling to even try to fight -- or even fought on the wrong side. He was supposed to be our leader, but there he was in the Rose Garden praising Bush's resolve and trusting Bush's leadership and judgment as Bush lied to us about the fabricated threat from Iraq. Gephardt's cheerleading for Bush's war broke my heart and made me ill.

Rove is sure Gephardt would fail to win over voters in a face-to-face contest against Bush. After all, Gephardt never articulated a winning message in the past. He failed to make his case to the American people against Gingrich and now Bush. He failed to head off the abuses in the House or hold Republicans accountable for them. Under his leadership, Democrats lost ground year after year. Bush's hopes for 2004 rest with Richard Gephardt leading the Democrats to one more defeat. Rove fears Dean will lead Democrats to rousing victory.

Reinhard writes, "I've thought for a while that the former Vermont governor deserves the Democratic nomination. He's the exquisite embodiment of Democratic values today. He's opposed to 'George Bush's war' and was before it became hip within the party. And he wants a total repeal of "George Bush's tax cuts." You'll see a pattern here, and it forms the overarching theme of today's Democratic partisans: barely contained anger toward President Bush and his works." Only Dean represents the outrage millions of Americans feel about Bush from the stolen election to the illegal Iraq invasion.