Dean's Progressive Cred

Michelle Goldberg got to it first, but Don Hazen has written the best summary I've seen of last week's big events in the Democratic race for president. Hazen acknowledges both Howard Dean's tremendous rise to the top of the fundraising heap in the second quarter, and the impressive success of the MoveOn.org virtual primary. However, Hazen also discusses why "Beltway progressives" support Kerry, and why more hardline progressives (for lack of a better term) prefer Kucinich. In all, it's a must-read for progressive voters trying to get a better sense of the field.

One detail I haven't get enough coverage in all this fundraising, early money primary hoo-haw, is the fact that Dean's average contribution was $112. That's right: Dean raised $7.5 million in three months at an average of around $100/donor. That means there were somewhere around 70,000 Dean donors. Meanwhile, Yubbledew is bragging about raising $30 million in just a few weeks. But what's Yubbledew's average contribution? Most of his money is coming from $2000/plate fundraisers, which translates to about 15,000 Yubbledew donors. Think about that: Dean's got 70,000 people giving him money, while Yubbledew has only 15,000. Which of these two candidates is running a more democratic campaign?

Meanwhile, don't miss NPR's interview with Dean (transcript here). At one point, Dean goes on for several minutes about the different lies the Bush administration told in order to get its war with Iraq. Listen to that and then stop and think for a minute: When is the last time you heard Yubbledew speak in complete sentences for more than a minute without a teleprompter or other script? Yeah, that's what I thought.

You can also access NPR's interviews with the other Democratic candidates here.

Posted July 2, 2003 08:08 AM | election 2004