With the comprehensive play-by-play report by conchis already posted there's no need to recap the details of what occurred at the caucus, however I have a few observations and antidotes to add.
Immediately upon arrival it was pretty clear that Dean was the rock star as far as the assembled crowd milling about. While Frost, Rosenberg, Leland and even Sharpton could easily mill about working the lobby, Dean had to be ushered in and out through side doors. Other candidates hosted small get-togethers in small meeting rooms while Dean held a raucous rally attended by hundreds in one of the two large rooms.
Two items in the Dean pre-caucus rally caught my attention.
The second, terrific riff in the Dean speech was on free trade, where he laid out the CV argument that trade supposedly spreads freedom, yet empirically what we find is the multinational export of jobs actually hurts foreign workers too. Then, in a bit of genius, he says we shouldn't be exporting jobs, we should be exporting unions! That unions -- ordinary people -- organizing, is better for workers and fosters democratic principles/foundations. It was great stuff, but he moved on without mentioning the preeminent example of what he was talking about: He forgot Poland!
Moving on to the main event, it was as conchis described and, frankly, I agree with JollyBuddah -- it became rather redundant. Everybody was in full pander mode to the DNC members from the states. Dean seemed to be the only one who explicitly made the connection that we have to win local and state races to win nationally. That Assembly and Sec of State races matter to national success. Webb was a pleasant surprise, smart, articulate and should be encouraged by whoever wins to take a prominent role in the party.
The one discordant note was the tendency to describe the Democratic Party vision in terms of what we accomplished in the past. "We're the party that..." And yes, we did Social Security, civil rights, Medicare etc., but that's not a vision, it's a retrospective. We seem to have a lot of "retro vision" that doesn't even pass the "what have you done lately" test, let alone sound as a rallying cry as we go to battle in the future.
Bob Muholland came by the press area to let the Kewl Kidz from the big media know that there were 65 DNC members and 20 bloggers in attendance. Scuttlebutt around the campfire among the Driving Votes people, later confirmed directly with Bob, was that he didn't want to accredit the Driving Votes/MyDD people. "They wanted 20 press passes. If the Chronicle wanted 20 passes we would have a problem with that too" said Mulholland. Meanwhile, Adriel Hampton of the SF Examiner
blogs:
After the event I made an attempt to speak with Roemer about Mercatus, whereupon his aide (probably the same one who spoke with Bob Brigham) immediately jumped on me, saying it's all out of context. He sees my press pass, asks who I'm with and when I say MyDD the veins literally came out of his neck, saying "You didn't even bother to call to get our side of the story. Here's my card, you call and I'll arrange an interview to get this straight." (The card he gave me was Roemer's, not his, so I don't have his name.) I explain that I personally hadn't written anything about Mercatus, but that didn't matter, I was MyDD to him and he wanted to verbally drop gloves and throw. Roemer steps in to defuse, saying to the effect he works with George Mason University and this was one of their programs. That it's not fair to academic institutions to start discrediting based on who gives. Would/could do the same to "Stanford." I said "thanks" and let them walk away. Umm, Chris, you may want to check your bed for horse heads and have someone else start your car.
In all seriousness Chris, you may want to contact Roemer and give him the opportunity to tell his side. When the Dem Chair race is all over there are going to be some fences that need mending, including those who aren't entirely happy with the netroots rabble taking over the party. Others have reported the mutterings that could become backlash if we don't play it right. Remember, eyes on the prize -- at the end of the day we all have to work together toward a common goal.
Finally, I want to thank Jerome, Chris, everyone else who makes MyDD go and the Driving Votes people for allowing/arranging my press entry into the event. The place was packed and the line to get observer seats was huge, so the MyDD assistance was greatly appreciated. Roemer's aide aside, everyone I spoke with who recognized the MyDD name had very positive things to say about us. MyDD is building a powerful, quality brand.
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