From USAToday:
Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean advised party activists Thursday to reach out to evangelicals and voters in all 50 states, but then risked alienating potential GOP converts . . . . Dean's comment came as he recalled conditions at crowded Ohio polling stations last fall. He wondered who could expect voters to work all day and then stand in line for eight hours to vote. “Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives,” he said, drawing some surprised “oohs” from his audience.
This strikes one as rather odd, considering that the Man who the Democrats last nominated for President has seven homes. Apparently Howard Dean considers a lot (more than half?) of the majority of voters to be either dishonest or lazy.
This may help to explain why Dean is lagging so far behind his GOP counterpart in fund raising. From Business Week:
Dean wowed the faithful in '04 with his Web-based fund-raising magic. But major business donors still count, and in his new role as party honcho, the feisty doctor seems to be struggling to connect. After achieving money parity with the GOP in 2004, Democrats have fallen far behind. According to the Federal Election Commission, the DNC raised $14.1 million in the first quarter of 2005, vs. the Republican National Committee's $32.3 million. Dean drew about 20,000 new donors, while his rivals picked up 68,200. The bottom line: Republicans have $26.2 million in the bank vs. $7.2 million for the Dems.
The reason for this may be simple. Big donors may be either Democrat or Republican, but they probably all share a fear of handing over cash to a man who is five kinds of crackers.
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