...(or approximately that) I was up in Iowa freezing my southern ass off, clad in an orange hat (or on occassion the red staff beanie I pinched from Storm Center) and busting my ass for Howard Dean. Representing the first (yes, first, bitches!) Dean group blog on the net, Dean Nation, I'd travelled to Iowa to give our readers a view from the ground as I navigated my way through the week leading up to the caucus. I learned a lot about myself during that trip and I also learned a lot about how the caucuses work. That experience led me to stay largely neutral this time around - unwilling to firmly committ to a candidate for fear of having my heart broken in Iowa again.
But today, although I have tried to temper my emotions, i am finding that I'm experiencing a strong sense of nostalgia when reading the diaries of our Kossack footsoldiers. It's caused me to reflect on the lessons we learned as well as the emotional effect that loss had on many of us.
(apologies in advance: this is going to be one loooong diary)
Reading the comments here, I see that I'm not the only one. Userids I haven't seen since the early days of BFA or the Dkos primary wars are cropping up and offering supportive comments to Kossacks on the ground. And let me say to everyone who is taking time to travel on behalf of any of the candidates: you are AMAZING. I know what it's like to wake up in Des Moines to sub-zero temperatures, throw on your newly-acquired arctic parka, and head out with a bunch of strangers to try and round up even more strangers and persuade them to caucus for your candidate. It is not easy work. In fact, it is probably the hardest. It's so much easier to get people out to cast a ballot, but getting them to come out on a cold wintry night and hang out for upwards of two hours is no easy task. So thank you to everyone who's taking the time right now. You are inspiring!
But I must digress, because I have other things on my mind.
Thinking back to 2004, the one thing that I think would've helped us Dean people more than anything else is a video hosting service. I keep thinking that had YouTube existed in 04, we could've swatted down that "Dean Scream" meme immediately. The entire dynamic of the race going into New Hampshire could've changed if we would've been able to embed this video into every post-caucus Dean post:
This is what I wrote about the event. It was widely disseminated on blogs, but the real story never got the play it deserved until the Scream Meme had it's desired effect:
Monday was an emotional roller coaster, and I hope that when all is said and done, the truth can be told and the media doesn’t do us in.
The angry Dean meme is in full bloom, just as predicted a few weeks ago on several left-of-center blogs. I’ve just finished watching a bit of news for the first time in nearly five days, and I’ve got a very different perspective on what is being broadcast right now.
Everything is still a bit foggy, as I’m running on inconsistent sleep, but here’s my take. Last night Howard Dean gave the most courageous speech of his political life. Before the results were in, whispers around Des Moines said the media was already writing our obituary. And lo and behold, what I see today on my screen bares that out. But that’s not the truth. [...]
Now back to the "angry Dean meme", also known as the one that won’t go away. I’ve watched all day as the media portrayed Dean as an angry man who went over the top last night. I don’t believe that anyone who was there feels that the Gov was angry (press included; they are just pushing a storyline; more on that later). In fact, he was more pumped than I’ve seen him in quite some time. The energy in the room was palpable. As we waited for him to take the stage, spontaneous chanting broke out. Most people were excited about making it past Iowa, especially considering that originally we were never supposed to be here. John Kerry was the anointed frontrunner from the beginning, and John Edwards was the new face of the Democratic Party. We were nothing, an asterisk as we like to say, and we’d made it past Iowa. It was a great feeling even though there had been a brief period earlier when the results were coming in where we were all surprised by the results and disappointed to not be first or second. I think many people wondered how Kerry and Edwards pulled it off, but once more reports filtered in from the field it all began to make sense. They all tried to stop us, and we even tried inadvertently to stop ourselves, but the grassroots were strong and we made it. Well before Dean took the stage the slogan for the evening had already been written: One down, six to go. *
Senator Tom Harkin introduced the Gov by making a brief and uplifting speech about the power of the grassroots, and how there are only three tickets out of Iowa and one was ours. Then the Gov came out to the tune of "You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet" and the crowd went wild. Americans flags and red and blue pompons waved wildly as the Gov removed his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and gave a powerful, hopeful, uplifting speech. A beaming smile filled his face as the crowd roared back in appreciation. We fed off each other’s energy and the feeling was incredible. Afterwards, celebration ensued as we looked forward towards New Hampshire.
I'd urge everyone who's on the ground - especially those with video recorders - to make sure you are ready to go with your footage immediately after your candidate's post-caucus appearance. If you don't know it by now, the media has and always will try to impose their own storyline on the race. I wrote this on Jan 21, 2004, when it was becoming apparent that the Scream meme wasn't going away:
Over the weekend I also had an opportunity to discuss the election with Mort Kondrake, Tim Russert, and some field reporters from NBC, CNN, and FAUX.
Basically, all one has to do is fawn over them until they drop their guard, then you go in for the kill and asked some real questions.
The consensus is this: the media are all pulling for a Dean v. Bush election because otherwise they'd be bored to tears. On a daily basis, they have to come up with ways to keep the election exciting - for them. Whether it's spinning Dean's Val Air speech as "angry" or pounding Wesley Clark for "being a Republican", they are doing what they can to keep themselves entertained. Isn't that pathetic? They aren't reporting the facts and they have no intention whatsoever of reporting the facts as long as it gets in the way of entertainment.
It's more entertaining for them to portray "Angry Dean versus Everyman Bush" than it is to talk about "People Power versus Big Corporations". It's more entertaining to talk about "The New McGovern versus the Strong-on-Security Bush" than it is to discuss "Sound Fiscal Management versus Busted Budgets and Unfunded Mandates". The media just wants to create characters. They don't care about presenting the public with the real issues that we face, because as one pundit said to me, "Discussing policy is boring". [...]
The talking heads and pundits are the enemy of the Democratic Party. No matter who the nominee is, they are going to get Gored. The media is also going to distort our message. They are going to play out their pre-written storyline. I honestly do not know what to do about this other than get on their asses (apologies in advance to TS Quint who always criticises us when we use profanity) and call them out for this bullshit. The American people deserve a media that is critical, that functions as the public watchdog, that will tell them the truth.
I wrote this after watching the scream played on a loop for about two days. I was pissed, and rightfully so. What is perhaps not clear in this post - remember, I was running on very little sleep - is that the sense I got from media individuals was that they were pulling for Dean. Their corporate masters - ie, the ones who write the script - were not. My writing is sometimes not as clear as it could be, and I inadvertently conflated the two. I hope that puts the post in context. The point being that the media - as we have seen - already has a storyline they are pushing and no matter what happens tonight, they've got their storylines all prepped and ready to go.
All we had back in those days was a nascent, underfunded and underdeveloped blogosphere. Blogads was just beginning to take off, and all of us were basically building an online liberal infrastructure from our own blood, sweat, and tears. We could get information out there, but that wasn't a gaurantee that any storyline would get the type of mass media play that we are now able to get by rallying readers across the spectrum. The fact that the liberal sphere is now able to amplify our message to the degree that we can will inevitably help whomever ends up getting spun this time around. You guys have much better resources than we Deaniacs did, and I hope you use them.
Dean speaks at the Val Air Ballroom on caucus night 2004 ---->
I've also been thinking about the emotional effect of the race. Perhaps this is silly, but as I read the late-in-coming blogger endorsements from my old friends, I wonder if they suffered the same syndrome I did. Most of us who've blogged since 2001-2003 were for Dean or Clark. We all got our hearts broken to one degree or another. I know that for me, it caused me to be unable to fully committ to a candidate early in this cycle. I just didn't want to get emotionally invested. And I think that's a big reason why the Dean loss hurt so many of us so deeply: we were truly emotionally invested in the campaign. For those who weren't on the Dean bandwagon, one thing that really struck all those who were was how the campaign empowered each of us. We could be fully vested - finally, emotionally, etc - in something that was bigger and more important than ourselves: reclaiming our democracy.
I see that same passion in many of the candidate diaries. Flame wars aside, it's really beautiful to see so many people so fully vested this time around. Your reports from the ground convey the sense of urgency that many of us feel right now. And rest assured, whomever wins the nomination will have the full force of the liberal blogosphere behind them this time around, no matter how ugly the pie fights have gotten or how many donuts have been dished.
Many of my offline friends are aware of my degree of political involvement, and over the past few weeks they've asked me who I think will win Iowa. Frankly, I have no fucking idea and I don't believe anyone else does either. Anyone could win or lose at this point, I've said repeatedly. That's a direct result of my hesitance to get involved this time around. But frankly, even though I've tried to not get too emotionally invested, I have to admit that John Edwards has really gotten to me.
Funny that, how many of us have coalesced around Edwards recently. Honestly, he is the last person I expected to support this time around for reasons I won't regurgitate here. But the bottom line is this: John Edwards has matured since the 2004 loss. I see his maturation as akin to that of Al Gore, who has been more passionate and dedicated to liberalism since the election was stolen from him in 2000. John Edwards also seems to have found his passion. He refuses to be defined by the Republican party, and he speaks more forcefully and urgently to liberal values than anyone else in the race.
This is absolutely not to knock the others. I find something to love about every single candidate, Gravel included. But none of them hit me in my gut and heart right now like Edwards does. Like Dean did.
So as we go into the caucus today, I find myself hoping Edwards will pull it out. But I also sincerely wish everyone who's up there - no matter who they support - the best of luck. And hopefully in four years, many of you will still be here writing about the lessons learned during campaign 2008.