Howard Dean: “People who blame others are losers”

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    Before the circular firing squad slash blame game begins, let’s get this straight right the fuck now.

    Former DNC Chair Howard Dean told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC moments ago that Democrats aren’t necessarily to blame for what seems like a likely loss in today’s special senate election in Massachusetts.

    “I certainly don’t think it’s a referendum on President Obama,” Dean said.

~snip~

    “This is not the time for pointing the blame.”

    People who blame others are losers. If you want to win elections, you stop blaming and get to work.

talkingpointsmemo.com

    So let’s get this straight, Coakley lost, she lost for reasons all of her own. I am not really interested in the blame game. I am interested in learning from this experience so that Progressives don’t make the same mistakes the next time.

    Anyone who is interested in winning elections is more than welcome to join me below the fold.

     In my humble opinion, there is one major part of the election process that Progressives MUST be more aggressive on.

#1.     GOTV – Get Out The Vote efforts MUST begin early in statewide campaigns. I did not see a strong GOTV effort from the Coakley campaign, or from the Deeds and Corzine campaigns last year. Democrats and Progressives who are serious about winning elections must make a stronger effort in this regard if we are serious about winning elections.

    Now, we can play the blame game and have a big ole pie fight about why Coakley lost this election, or we can start putting our collective heads together about how we can avoid mistakes like those made in the Coakley and Deeds campaigns. We can work together or fight each other, but if we fight each other and play the blame game the only people we will be helping out is the GOP.

    I have no time for playing the blame game. I have no time to waste fighting other Democratic activists and Progressives. The stakes are too high and there are bigger fish to fry. We lost tonight. Suck it up, move on, and get over it. Tomorrow is another day and we will have another fight on our hands. The choice is yours, do we fight with each other or alongside each other?

    Well, I choose to fight alongside Progressives against the party of Bush, Beck and NO!

    This is WAR, and I am ready to fight. How about you?

Also crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com

35 comments

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  1. I’ll be taking his advice over everyone else’s on this matter, and many others, and I suggest that other Progressives and Democrats do the same.

    http://twitter.com/

  2. ….. OFA was brought in precisely because they didn’t understand either candidate very well, and I actually saw people discussing how the call scripts were simple and not going into any details, just “go vote for Coakley.

    This is ridiculous.  Either ask what voters WANT, clean up and define what you stand for and what you intend to vote on, and why, or continue to lose.

    No amount of last minute rah rah is going to fix a bad platform.

  3. place the blame, right where it belongs, on OBAMA and the moral cowards and corporate hacks in the “Democratic” Party.

    IF YOU WANT TO WIN ELECTIONS, YOU DO WHAT YOUR BASE ELECTED YOU TO DO.

    Obama and the Democrats didn’t do that, in fact they went the extra mile to fuck us on every major issue we care about.

    I don’t know what the hell Howard Dean was thinking when he peddled this garbage on Rachel’s show.  He’s either sucking up to the Democratic establishment so they won’t slander him any more, or he’s lost his fucking mind.

     

  4. Hadnt heard this one before: “Those who say, dont know; and those who know, dont say.”

  5. “We” didn’t lose tonight. Either:

    1. Nothing changed.

    Or:

    2. A message was sent by the most Democratic state in the country.  

  6. who wrote a rec-list diary calling for Dr. Dean to be reinstated as the head of the DNC.  His 50-state strategy was brilliant & won us a lot of seats.

    That said, passing blame IS the circular firing squad.  Let’s get over it and move on.

  7. on whether Dean should return as head of the DNC

    yes 95% 3753 votes

    no 3% 120 votes

    ? 2% 96 votes

    We could do worse!

  8. the Obamacrats are lying low.

    • TMC on January 20, 2010 at 16:50

    are a clear message that the electorate is not pleased with the direction the White House and Congress are taking. They are pissed about this HRC for numerous reasons, they are pissed about the economy, the failure to protect Main St from Wall St wars, torture etc.

    But the MA election sent a very loud and clear message this Health Care bill sucks..39% said they voter “R” because of their opposition to HCR.

    The White House needs to wake up..distance themselves from Lieberman, remove Reid as Majority leader, tell the Blue Dogs to start acting like Democrats or face a primary challenge and withdrawal of party support (the White House has used that tactic to get support from the House. Ditch Rahm, Geithner, Summers and withdraw Bernanke reappointment. End the two wars. Get a job creation bill that really creates jobs. The stimulus bill was a major failure because it wasn’t enough and gave too much away.

    And, please, stop trying to be nice to Republicans. Bipartisan is not in their vocabulary.

    And, last but not least because it is th REAL reason Coakley lost…push a real HCR bill through reconciliation with strong public option, no give aways to insurance and pharmaceutical companies and no restrictions on a woman’s reproductive rights and access.

    Yes, Coakley sucked as a candidate and is partially to blame fro running a lousy campaign but voters also saw her as a rubber stamp to the Obama agenda that they didn’t vote for in 2008. Progressives aren’t the problem, not listening to Progressives IS

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