Reports Are Coming In About the Bloggers' Breakfast and DemFest!
Howard Dean speaking at DemocracyFest today.
Got
this report on the Bloggers' Breakfast this morning from “Denise,” who
posted it on Blog for America. Don't know who she is, but we are
most grateful to have it!
I was a
bit late to the blogger's breakfast this morning but Darrell did a
wonderful job (did we expect any less?). About 125 people gathered to
enjoy a very nice and healthy breakfast to fuel our bods for the big
day ahead. Attendees signed the sweatshirt, carrying on the tradition
from Iowa, and the crowd was addressed by Dr. Alta Price, co-founder of
Democracy for Iowa.
Democracy
for Iowa has been getting some fantastic net traffic according to
Darrell, with 20,000 unique visitors to the site so far. Iowa is truly
making its mark on the politcal, progressive landscape.
Lots of
smiles and warmth to go around, which is fitting for the day. The sun
is out to welcome Howard, and 1:00 can't get here soon enough!!
More later – enjoy your Sunday everyone!
Posted by Denise at July 25, 2004 10:31 AM
Well,
Blog for Iowa would like to thank Darrell for the PR! Actually,
right now, we are one week shy of being up and running for four full
months, and we just hit 30,000 unique visitors today, plus we're at
just over 66,000 page views since April 1. Whenever I look at
figures like these, I always end up thinking, “Gosh, I hope I didn't
post something stupid!” LOL
This
morning's bloggers' breakfast was wonderful – Darrell did a magnificent
job and was a great speaker. We went around the room and each person
introduced him or herself, followed by cheers!
Posted by Maura in VA at July 25, 2004 11:18 AM
Maura has promised us some photos from the Bloggers' Breakfast and the Iowa delegation!
And
another report from the prolific Denise on Howard's speech this
afternoon. Thankfully, the DNC/Kerry people did not write THIS
speech for Howard.
HELLO FROM DEMOCRACYFEST!!
I know you've all been waiting for the Howard update so here goes.
He was
actually five minutes early and spoke for about 40 minutes. The room
was packed – there had to be close to 300 people in there.
He
started out by thanking Jessica and Charlene and he gave them roses
that I believe were bought by donations from DFA bloggers (thanks,
listener, for picking them up – they were gorgeous and a pic of them
should be up later). He noted the many local candidate T shirts in the
crowd (Dean Dozen and others being supported by the attendees) and he
was pleased.
“I try
to avoid being nostalgic”, he said, referring to his own campaign. “We
have lots of work to do to get Bush back to Crawford,” he said, giving
a nod to the many Texans in the room.
“DFA
would not exist without all of you” he emphasized. “You thought of it
and sent it around the nation. It's all about YOU. They are copying YOU
everywhere, but the one thing they still need to understand is that we
are a community.” Two way communiction is the key, NOT top down
structures. The energy comes from us, and it's the only successful
model that works.
“Politicians
need to start respecting the American people” he bellowed. “We can
never again put the likes of George Bush in the White House again.”
Howard
gave credit to the great DFA network in Illinois (am I proud? you
betcha, way to go Illinois!!). They worked tirelessly and
simultaneously for both Dean and Obama Barack (one of the original Dean
Dozen) and it has really payed off for Barack.
Speaking
of the Dean Dozen, he announced that around Aug. 23 the last Dean Dozen
will be announced. After that, it will be left up the individual states
to come up with their top 30 candidates in need of support. More to
come on this from DFA later.
“Electing
Kerry is THE #1 priority – we have to do this. The #2 priority is to
continue to work for the other candidates so that when people come out
to vote for them, it will naturally bring more votes to Kerry/Edwards.”
Sounds to me almost a reverse coattails kinda thing.
“We need to change the Congress and send Tom Delay back to exterminating cockroaches in Houston.” (huge applause and laughter).
“After Nov. 2, we take a month off and then go back to work!”
“The GOP
is organized, disciplined and serious. That's not to say we aren't but
we need to build a much stronger infrastructure if we want to see the
kind of victories we deserve.”
He
mentioned the hard work that ACT is doing and “we need to keep them
busy. DFA needs to stay together – that is the best way we collectively
have to get the GOP out.” He hesitantly asked if there were any GOP in
the room and several hands shot up. He acknowledged that there are many
good GOP who realized that “they were sick of the right wing
infestation and who said to themselves 'we're going to be Deaniacs'!”
HUGE ERUPTION OF APPLAUSE
“Right
wingers are not reasonable. We need to infiltrate more states like
South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Las Vegas. “Let's hear
it for Linda Rondstadt, huh?”
“We're
going to run and run until we win. We might not win the first time or
even the second time but people will eventually wake up and realize
that they are tired of not having health care, tired of their low
paying jobs. Heck, they'll vote for people in purple underwear with
yellow polka dots if it means not worrying about going to the doctor or
feeding their kids.”
Howard
wanted to make sure he sent a big hello to those back home who could
not be with us here today. He said you all make a difference and he
sends his appreciation. He gave special thanks to Democracy for
Massachusetts and Vermont for hosting the event.
Someone
called out for him to do the scream. At first he shyed away from
obliging but then he let out a scream so loud it made me jump and my
heart skipped a beat. I guess standing next to the speaker wasn't such
a good idea after all. “That was worth the price of admission, wasn't
it?” he joked.
He
closed his speech by mentioning a new book that will be coming out
called, what else, “You Have the Power.” I didn't catch the release
date but it's being published by Simon & Schuster.
“We're
going to blame Bush for 98% of what is wrong with this country lately,
and we rightly should. But we also have to blame the Democrats for not
standing up to Bush and we have to do something about the fact that 50%
of Americans do not vote.”
“Democracy
is a fragile form of government. We cannot be complacent. We were the
moral leader of the world at one time. We need to be the moral leader
of the world again. That won't happen unless we change presidents.”
“There
will always be terrorists and violence, but we cannot rely only on
military power. Rome and Russia all failed in the past on military
might alone. We must NEVER GIVE UP. America deserves better.”
Many thanks to Denise (in Illinois) for this fabulous report!
Blog For Iowa 
Helloooo Iowa……..just got checked into my hotel in Boston and the first thing I did (well, after a bathroom stop) was set up the ol” computer and check in here. Gosh, I think I was going through Blog withdrawal not being online for the last five days.
Going to send Linda some pics here shortly from DemocracyFest. Maybe she can get something up. I here there's already pictures up on BFA, although I had to come here first.
More later, think there's a pub down the street I should check out to wind down a bit.
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