Here's a recent VILLAGE VOICE article on Dean and Arnold.

Mondo Washington
by James Ridgeway
What Presidential Race?
In Arnold's Shadow, Dean Could Strengthen Lead
The Village Voice /August 12th, 2003 12:00 PM



THE VILLAGE VOICE says things like, "Dean is surging ahead!" "Dean is a monster!", says THE VILLAGE VOICE.

Let's step back from the adoring liberal frenzy and look at the reality behind THE VILLAGE VOICE during the last election and apply as you will to what kind of journalism it brings to the current Dean stories it publishes. It's classic cornpone, "The come out of nowhere Cinderella story and the savior of the Little Man" Hollywood fantasy stuff.


Who was THE VILLAGE VOICE's 2000 Presidential endorsement?

RALPH NADER. Wow. Look at what that kind of pie in the sky thinking (by some pretty intelligent folks) that was. Now, think about the results.

Here are some articles done by THE VILLAGE VOICE at the time on Ralph Nader and his campaign.

Note how the slant is applied to the above article. Here are some quotes. Charles Foster Kane couldn't have written it better. It almost reads like Bill Macy's crazed horse race sportscaster in SEABISCUIT.



With Nader hovering between 6 and 8 percent in the national polls (and up to 9 percent in California), Al Gore and his team are a-frettin'. Gore doesn't want Nader included in the presidential debates, which begin October 3 (remember how Perot jumped in the polls after he was included?). The wooden man who claims to have a green heart may be undone not by a strong Republican bid but by a scold who says Gore can't truly have an environmentally friendly heart if he supports NAFTA and the WTO. The margin between Bush and Gore in polls is only 2 percent, so the "spoiler" issue weighs heavily on the minds of undecided voters and disenchanted Democrats. The Greens aim to get 5 percent of the vote, a likely possibility, which would qualify them for the ballot in 2004 and federal matching funds of about $12 million. But, given the spread, that same margin could make Gore lose. Nader isn't concerned. "Why are people asking whether I'm siphoning votes from Al Gore, rather than whether Al Gore is siphoning votes from Ralph Nader?" (Ah, how right they were and how wrong your were, Ralph)


At campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C., Nader is sequestered upstairs doing a phone interview with Newsweek...

...Nader's campaign staff—35 people and growing—includes twentysomething alumni of Seattle and D.C. organizing efforts, a filmmaker, a punk rocker. His campaign manager, Theresa Amato, 36, comes from Public Citizen. New to the team is Bill Hillsman, media adviser to Minnesota governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura's campaign. One idea Hillsman likes for a Naderite slogan: "Bush and Gore make me want to Ralph."

...the Green Party in the 1996 presidential election—and won about 1 percent of the vote, roughly 700,000 votes, on a $5000 budget. But they didn't run much of a campaign then. This time, they're serious. Their campaign is not just a gesture of protest—it's about transforming the two-party system, entering the belly to change the beast...

...For a campaign that's raised only $1.1 million—though it has hopes for $5 million more—the thousands of volunteers are as critical as the celebrities who help raise the cash. A Paul Newman house party brought in nearly $40,000; Phil Donahue, Susan Sarandon, and Warren Beatty make up some of Nader's Hollywood connection...

...Nader embarked on a grueling 50-state tour prior to the Green convention in June, and now will likely limit his travel to the West Coast, New England, and spot visits to the Midwest...

...With a flurry Nader comes down the stairs, and we hustle into the car that CNN has sent for him...

...Nader settles into the isolation of the remote-satellite room, where his image will be beamed to Atlanta for CNN's TalkBack Live, and from there into the living room of the everyman, for whom he says he speaks...

...Almost five months into the campaign, there are some choice issues he'd like to convey, he tells the Voice, not least among them that he intends to raise funds sans PACs and soft contributions. He'll rail against corporate welfare ("What are we doing giving Microsoft a $20 billion tax break?") and offer a plan to use the national surplus to alleviate child poverty and initiate a public works project that would reinvigorate mass transit, health clinics, and schools. How might he accomplish this? Through massive citizen mobilization, he says...

Onscreen, Nader lifts his head when given the signal that the commercial break is over. A viewer question comes in: "Are you a Marxist?" Nader replies: "No. I think big corporations are destroying capitalism. Ask a lot of small businesses around the country how they're pressed and exploited and deprived by their big-business predators."

...Beneath Nader's image on the TV, e-mailed comments stream across the screen: "At least Nader pulls his own strings. There's no real difference between Gore and Bush." "I hope all you liberals vote for him so we can have Bush." "Buchanan is the only patriot running." "Finally a true champion who won't desert us."...

...he commands attention when he walks into a room, and his people-centered solutions, delivered with an armory of stats and anecdotes, draw in those who have a chance to hear him speak....

(And here's the part that I think sells the slant the most)

...A CNN poll taken at the end of the show tallies 86 percent of viewers saying they'd vote for a third-party candidate. Even the control-room director, who had initially scoffed, is converted. It's no wonder Nader and the Greens want in on the debates...

...What Nader and the Greens hope to build is a vital progressive movement. While there are currently 78 Greens in elected office, at least 117 are running for office this year in various state and local elections. Their future depends, in part, on their ability to maintain momentum and money...

...Nader's not worried about a Democratic loss of the White House. "If half the voters stayed home in 1996, that tells you something," he says. "The two parties aren't doing their job." But wouldn't a Bush victory bring about the nomination of pro-life judges to the Supreme Court? No, Nader says, it's not that simple...

And now something from Nader and THE VILLAGE VOICE in December 2000.

Scoundrel. Spoiler. Narcissist. This fall the left warred over whether a vote for Nader was a vote for progress, a vote in protest, or worse, a vote for Bush. As Gore lost Florida, Nader's critics charged that his 97,000 or so votes in that state had cost the Democrats the election. Never mind Katherine Harris, Jeb Bush and his cousin at Fox news, uncounted African American votes, the Florida courts, and finally, the U.S. Supreme Court. And never mind Gore himself. No, it all comes back to Ralph Nader. The Voice asked him to respond.



So. That's the story on the crack team of political journalists working for you at THE VILLAGE VOICE.

That last quote above pretty well sums up what a Dean run is going to be like for the White House. Same as with McCarthy. Same as with McGovern. The symbol for the Democratic Party is a mule. A mule is a beast that never learns from its mistakes and is so stubborn it will sit down on a busy street and get run over by a truck. A truck driven by an elephant. An elephant that never forgets.




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