Ron Paul 2008 vs. Dean 2004 comparison

[aknappjr]

http://www.hithimagain.com/2007/07/13/ron-paul-08-trailing-howard-dean-04-full-analysis/

Seems like we're a quarter behind financially and certainly popularity-wise. We need to catch up. Our advantage: Our message! Get out and tell people!

[rich34]

The major difference though is the fact that the MSM allowed Dean to get air time and never referred to him as a "fringe" candidate. He also showed up in the polls and kept going up after that because the media kept talking about it. They were fine with giving him air time because as it turned out he was one of their stooges, but had alot of people dooped.

[DeadheadForPaul]

I would not say that he was a MSM stooge
He opposed the War, had an A rating from the NRA, wanted to protect civil liberties, and always balanced the budget. Those 4 issues mattered the most to me at the time and I supported him b/c I was desperate to get the neo-cons out. At the time, they controlled the house, senate, presidency, and supreme court
This libertarian was willing to vote for him if he had won

I think we can learn a lot from the Dean campaign - both their successes and failures. If you use the search feature for "Dean" in this forum, you will find a thread where some of us were discussing the similarities and how we can learn from that campaign

[paulitics]

He really was the front runner until the Iowa primary. How he lost so single handedly to John Kerry is beyond me. And of couse, Kerry was the most elitest anti american of all the candidates, and he magically came out of nowhere.

[PatriotOne]

He really was the front runner until the Iowa primary. How he lost so single handedly to John Kerry is beyond me. And of couse, Kerry was the most elitest anti american of all the candidates, and he magically came out of nowhere.

Not exactly nowhere.

[Kuldebar]

Yeah, Dean appeared to have a fairly decent message that attracted people, and he was ultimately torn down by the MSM machine. I think now Dean has pretty much sold out though, part of the system, if you will.

But, as Rich34 pointed out, Dean wasn't marginalized by the media, he was actually a media darling because of his underdog status and buzz.