It may seem cold, even vicious, but there’s a country at stake damn it. This is an opportunity; maybe the best one we’re going to get. We need to take it.

A few months ago I signed up at Meetup.com for the Howard Dean campaign. I signed up to see what was going on. I wanted to know if the Democrats were going to put up an actual candidate against Bush in 2004. I went to one meeting.

Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to go to more than just one, but life interfered. There was an implied conflict of interest with the campaign and my wife’s profession for one, and my father fell critically ill. Otherwise, I would have been out there in the trenches with Dean’s loyal band of supporters. And I might yet be.

Dick Gephardt, one of “The Party’s” hopefuls, has a chink in his armor. I’ve seen a lot of news the past week or so about the Dean campaign – not to mention a lot of groping by the Democratic Party leadership as to whom they should throw their considerable weight behind – and I’ve been impressed.

Here’s this governor, from Vermont of all places, actually making the folks inside the beltway squirm. Nice.

Sure most of the press was about cash (It felt a bit like a donate to the Dean campaign info-mercial after a while), but even besides that it was almost all positive. And on top of it all, “conservative” taking heads were willing to concede a few points to Dean. Ya just can’t beat good old New England “Get-off-my-land-ism. But now there’s something more tangible than war-chest dollars behind Dean: Actual supporters.

To those of you who sent Dean a check, or authorized a debit to your account in past few weeks, good on ya, but in the immortal words of Han Solo: “Don’t get cocky, kid.” There’s still an election to be won. That’s why I’m writing tonight.

Dick Gephardt is currently ahead of Howard Dean in both “viewer polls” (for all the shit they’re worth” and in campaign contributions, but we have an opportunity to upset that standing.

Gephardt can’t get it up; attendance that is. Contributions aside, Meetup.com meeting attendance has actually become an issue in this primary season. The mainstream press is watching the grassroots for a change.

That is why I will make every effort to be at the next Meetup.com meeting in support of Howard Dean. I believe that there is someone better than George W. Bush capable of running this country without running it into the ground. Of the choices available to me, I believe that Howard Dean is the best candidate for the job of President of the United States of America.

Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

Labels: 2004 election, George W. Bush, howard dean