Cross-posted at Kos.
Slightly paraphrased from a TV interview Howard gave in Denver.
“We are just barely learning to be a minority party. When you are a minority party you have to fight back. For example when they say we are pro-abortion, we need to make it clear that no one is for abortion, that we believe the woman should make up her own mind about her health care…they think Tom DeLay should do it.”
Here is the link to the close to 15 minutes video with Aaron Harber in Denver. This was the only intervew granted while he was there. His intelligence shines right through.
Here is a quote from a Denver paper by Harber about Dean, can not find the link now:
“Harber was impressed with Dean, who is not, he emphasized, a raving maniac. “He’s a smart guy. He comes across as very level-headed, very reasonable.” Harber wasn’t unfamiliar with Dean. “He married a college classmate of mine and I interviewed him seven or eight times on my radio show. It was an easy interview to do.”
No, Mr Harber, he is no raving maniac. I gather you meant that as a compliment.
More below which I transcribed pretty closely from the video.
He talks about more stuff on the agenda coming out in Oct. probably about stances for the party.
He says the platform will not be formed in DC, but will include views from all over.
President has not done a good job of keeping us safe from terror. He’s focused on the wrong targets, he’s not keeping us safe at home. He spent 200 billion dollars on a war which created more terrorism.
Discusses a lot about the values added tax, which I do not understand.
Spends a lot of time on how the president’s tax cuts for his friends could have given us a good health care system and education system.
Goes into the fact that a national health care system by the Democrats would not be a cadillac system, but no one would ever have to worry about bankruptcy if they were ill.
Tax code is too complicated…throw the whole thing out and start over. Says flat tax is like the value added tax, does not think it would work. Would hurt middle class too much.
He points out that the president has taken tons of money out of the Social Security program to give to his friends….
He goes into how his state tried privatizing Medicaid near the end of his term….said it was much more expensive than if the government ran it. And the government did a better job. Says Bush is doing a very bad job running the Medicare system…referred to CMS which is in charge of the programs. Said he would put a doctor in charge of it, someone who worked with patients.
Goes into GAP, which I gather he meant something like generally approved accounting practices….says the Bush admin does not do that. His Wall Street background and his time as governor show through a lot here.
Package our goals in concise statements of values and principles. One main thing is we believe if you work hard in this country, you ought to get a fair shake.
When asked how we lost under the circumstances last year, he says we were afraid to lose. If you are afraid to lose you can’t win.
