Linkmeister

Dean at Gridiron

Howard Dean gave a speech at the pre-Gridiron lunch the other day. It's been on C-Span, and you should try to see it if you can, but here's the part I find most compelling:

We have an enormous problem in this country. And I’m not here to beard the Washington establishment, but I’m going to tell you -- people in this town do not get it. They don’t understand it -- and people in many places on the East Coast and the West Coast don’t get it. Because the bulk of our manufacturing is not all concentrated in the Midwest, but the economies in the Midwest are the least diversified. And they depend heavily -- the best-quality jobs in this country, between the Rockies and the Alleganies[sic], depend on big corporations paying those good wages, much better than the local small businessperson can pay, and better than the farmer can make. And we’re losing that.

[snip]

This city, and the people in it, both Republicans and Democrats, have got to understand the extraordinary pain that’s going on in America. And you’ve got to stop paying lip service to it. Because they’re beyond that. And the things that you saw in our campaign show, more than anything else, that people want to hope again. They want to be empowered; they want really to have local control, not just people who’ll talk about it, but then take it away when they get into power because, after all, local control is good when somebody else is in power, but not when you’re in power in Washington. (Italics in original)