and tim roemer is actually answeing the abortion question pretty reasonably.  

question about the south, asking how to win white voters in the south.  simon steps up with a good answer - he will listen to the red stater party people in order to figure out how to win in the south again.  roemer basically says status quo is fine; also says we need to take back the national security mantle...

i'm so glad cpsan chose to cover this.  also very pleased i'm not the only geek watching it. =)

Dean impressed me more and more, as it was clear that he'd thought through the problems facing the DNC and state and local organizations. He also through out some red meat for those of us out here in the blogosphere when he referred to other campaigns using the internet as an ATM.

I was more impressed with Wellington Webb than I expected to be. He seemed very personable and had concise answers. Also a good sense of humor, which I think will be necessary in the next four years.

Webb and Dean were both unapologetic. This is the thing we need more than anything else in the next four years. "Here's our position. That's it, and we're right."

The charisma gap between Dean, Rosenberg, Webb & The Field was absolutely stunning.

IMHO, Dean has the best grasp on the reframing we need to do.

This made me double over laughing.  "INCONCEIVABLE!"

tension between a Washington locus of energy and more distributed centers of power that give more authority and resources and importance to the state parties, and

tension between party regulars and those who recognize and appreciate the difference and potential of grassroots and netroots organizing.

What else?

Is our party's deficiency, in so far as any (beyond losing, of course) exists, going to be solved by having an oratorically gifted Brad Pitt look-alike doing spin-patrol on Sunday mornings?

I don't discount the need to project our message, but I think the facade of the messenger should be the least of our concerns.

I have yet to see any Republican Presidential candidate (at least during the last two Bush II campaigns) write-off any region of the country (although the NE came close). Meanwhile except for campaigning in NC (largely because of Edwards) Kerry did little or no campaigning outside of the states he expected to win. Difference? Bush didn't really need the NE to win nor will any other Republican candidate going forward. The north east is no longer worth their trouble but it is declining in terms of electoral vote prowess. Every diennial reapportionment such big states as MA, NY, PA, OH lose states while the Sun Belt & Sand Belt (stretching from Florida to California) continues to grow. Except for California we have no reliable electoral votes in any growing state.

So we have a choice people, either continue trying to cobble together a winning coalition from a group of dying states that in each consecutive reapportionment gets worse or worse, or start adapting a message and strategy to win these areas. No wonder that our greatest losses in the US House & Senate came from the Sun & Sand Belt. Will we ever regain the level of dominance that we once enjoyed in the region? Probably not, but we either have to start winning some of these seats back or we will forever be in the minority.

My impression is that these GUYS are obsessed with marketing some kind of winning snake-oil formula, rather than respecting the voters enough to explain alternative positions on the issues.
Although I disagree with Howard Dean on some things, he strikes me as genuinely willing--even eager--to listen to grassroots activists and to confront the "conventional wisdom" of the old guard who have sold the Dem Party out to the corporatists and marketing strategists.

Dr. Dean may be the last best hope for reviving what looks like a corpse of a Party

I can't remember him every saying anying thing bad about Bush.  I think he's like a dog (not dogcatcher) that's as likely to bite its owner as anyone else.

Dean was awesome.