Learn From the Mistakes Howard Dean grassroots supporters

[EvoPro]

This is an important topic for us.

Originally Posted by cac1963:
Is anybody here a former Howard Dean supporter besides me? This roadtrip to Iowa is so deja vu that it's scary. Dean had very similar mobilization across the country during his "Sleepless Summer Tour" of 2003, and he had similar sized crowds turning up (most of whom were out of staters showing up to make the crowds larger). Dean's grassroots organization in Iowa was mostly out of staters, and they made a few mistakes that hurt Dean's campaign. The biggest was the invasion of out-of-staters knocking on Iowan's doors and shoving Dean down the people's throats with an aggressive enthusiasm that Paul's supporters seem to also possess. There has to be a way to learn from the mistakes Dean's campaign made so that all this mobilization doesn't have a negative effect on Paul. I'm hoping there are other former Dean supporters in this group who might have better insight to share.

[yongrel]

and a note to Ron Paul:

no inexplicable feral shouts. they are the weedwhacker to grassroots campaigns.

[Scribbler de Stebbing]

and a note to Ron Paul:

no inexplicable feral shouts. they are the weedwhacker to grassroots campaigns.

LOL. I think we're safe there.

RP supporters, on the other hand, can get pretty feral. We went overboard with Ed Failure. NO MORE HOME PHONE CALLS. Please.

[LibertyCzar]

Howard Dean went negative against that other guy, Gephart I think it was. That hurt him before the voting, giving Edwards and Kerry more votes. But that strange ranting after the voting was something else.

Of course, we are already considered an eager bunch. I doubt an enthusiastic Ron Paul would be viewed in quite the same way. In a sense, it is already the talk in some places. By the time the actual primaries are here, we'll all be like one huge party instigating the new revolution.

[austinphish]

Wow, this is an excellent thread. I am not a Dean supporter, but one of my roomates went to Iowa and was summarily crushed by the outcome.

I also see the similarities between the two movements, but I can't offer any insights. This is very important that we don't make the same mistakes, b/c clearly mistakes were made.

[dude58677]

Ron Paul is a more well-rounded freedom promoter all across the board. Howard Dean only believed in due process and no Iraq War. Ron Paul wants the government out of our lives in all areas.

[JoshLowry]

Wow, this is an excellent thread. I am not a Dean supporter, but one of my roomates went to Iowa and was summarily crushed by the outcome.

I also see the similarities between the two movements, but I can't offer any insights. This is very important that we don't make the same mistakes, b/c clearly mistakes were made.

See if you can't talk to him and get any input.

[LibertyEagle]

LOL. I think we're safe there.

RP supporters, on the other hand, can get pretty feral. We went overboard with Ed Failure. NO MORE HOME PHONE CALLS. Please.

You might want to tell that to 'ol FreeState on the other board. I tried, but he's having none of it.

[austinphish]

Yeah, I have actually kind of been edging some conversations that direction, so I think I can hit him up for that kind of info now. He is a big liberal, but he says that no one candidate really impresses him yet. He is out in California, and says everyone he knows is an Obama fan but he definitely is not anti-Paul.

[angelatc]

and a note to Ron Paul:

no inexplicable feral shouts. they are the weedwhacker to grassroots campaigns.

The Dean scream was by and large a creation of the media. He was yelling, but it wasn't the feral outburst we the people were told it was. He was getting incrementally louder in an attempt to counter the volume of the enthusiastic crowd that was roaring back at him in the room, but the microphones are so technologically advanced that they screened out the background noise.

People who were in the room didn't hear anything like what people watching TV did.

A lot of outlets have since apologized for playing it in the manner that they did.

[graystar]

A lot of outlets have since apologized for playing it in the manner that they did.
Brave apologising after the fact aren't they.

[LibertyEagle]

I remember they showed it over and over again. Dean should have sued their butts.

[angrydragon]

I still don't get the big incident that it was made out to be, did he say something wrong?

[beermotor]

The Dean scream was by and large a creation of the media. He was yelling, but it wasn't the feral outburst we the people were told it was. He was getting incrementally louder in an attempt to counter the volume of the enthusiastic crowd that was roaring back at him in the room, but the microphones are so technologically advanced that they screened out the background noise.

People who were in the room didn't hear anything like what people watching TV did.

A lot of outlets have since apologized for playing it in the manner that they did.

My wife and sister were huge Dean fans. My wife says that the Dean campaign was over already when the "scream incident" happened, because he spent too much money and only placed like 3rd in the first 3 primaries.

From my perspective, the Paul campaign has been a LOT more careful about husbanding expenditures of finances. I think they are planning on staying in this race the entire way, regardless of where they place - which is great.

[ladyjade3]

I kind of suspect Iowa likes being the belle of the ball every 4 years...

[IrrigatedPancake]

perhaps when it comes to state organization of support, we should adopt a constitutional approach and facilitate, nationally, an exchange of ideas and materials and defense against political attacks, but leave the management of state campaigns to the state supporters.

[yongrel]

Instead of going door to door, ala Dean in 04, I've found finding sympathetic businesses to be effective.

I've walked around my local town center with flyers, and have asked businesses if they'd be willing to put a few on their counter and in their window. It's working so far.

This way, voters don't feel that we're ramming Ron Paul down their throats, but still see his name frequently.

[d991]

Wikipedia has an entry on Howard Dean's campaign. In that entry, it says that Dean was effective with a coffee-shop kind of campaign in Iowa, but the BIG problem was that the Dean camp didn't have enough organization to GET THE PEOPLE TO COME OUT TO VOTE. I have read that campaigns spend LOTS of money on the simple task of ensuring their supporters will come out to vote.

I am not sure exactly what is entailed in this, but hopefully Ron Paul's camp is actively organizing in Iowa. The support of volunteers is amazing, but I think they need to focus on obtaining full-time organizers who will learn from the mistakes of the Dean camp. As people have pointed out, there are striking similarities between this grassroots support on the internet and that from 2004 for Dean. As long as Ron Paul continues to talk about his message, he will succeed. His message is more powerful than Dean's was.

[d991]

Another thing about the Dean campaign, I have heard that peope in Iowa were annoyed that out-of-staters were rabidly going door to door shoving Dean material down their throats. Going to the rally for Ron Paul is great, show the media how many of you are out there, but leave the door-to-door campaign to the people in Iowa.
Some people think it is necessary to spam and harrass people about Ron Paul because he is being neglected, however, this type of action will never work and will only make more people think twice about supporting his campaign. Instead just show enthusiasm for his message and people will come to the right conclusions on their own. The media will almost always focus on the negatives. Therefore even if a few people called Failor at home and/or threatened him, they will focus as much on that as they will on Ron Paul's exclusion from the forum.

[angelatc]

I still don't get the big incident that it was made out to be, did he say something wrong?

No, they just implied that he was loony by playing that clip over and over.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uphij88fzK8 - Live Shot (You can stop at 1:30 - right after "We will not give up!")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZWmL0CrkmY - TV


So much for an outsider. He grew up to be the head of the DNC. No matter what happens I am pretty sure that Ron Paul won't end up the head of the GOP.


Trivial factoid: Howard Dean officially declared his candidacy on this day in 2003.

[ladyjade3]

Just because Dean did it and Dean failed, doesn't mean its a bad idea. Dean did a lot of things right. And I'm sure some Iowans were annoyed, but from what I hear the bulk of them are very receptive to talking politics this time of year especially.

I just can't stand the idea of them not knowing who Ron Paul is because of the media blackout and because we want to avoid any strategy that Howard Dean employed.