First Door on the Left

George W. Bush:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Wednesday challenged militants who have been killing and injuring U.S. forces in Iraq, saying “bring them on” because American forces were tough enough to deal with their attacks.

“There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “My answer is bring them on. We have the force necessary to deal with the situation.”

Howard Dean:

IOWA CITY, IA—“Today, President Bush provoked Iraqi militants targeting our soldiers in Iraq, saying ‘Bring them on.’ This was incredibly reckless rhetoric.

“These men and women are risking their lives every day, and the President who sent them on this mission showed tremendous insensitivity to the dangers they face. This is the wrong message to send to our troops in the field and their families who wish them a safe return. President Bush should focus on encouraging the keeping of the peace, since that is now our mission.”

Which of these men do you think really has the intelligence to be leading our country during these dangerous times?

Oh, and Governor Dean made Doonesbury again and again.

By Garance Franke-Ruta

Today Howard Dean’s campaign announced that it has raised at least $7.5 million in the second quarter of 2003 — a higher number than has yet been raised by any other Democrat running for president in a single quarter — from more than 59,000 people, including 48,000 first-time donors to the campaign. Only 129 donors gave $1,000 or more, according to a report by the campaign; 18,422 gave less than $50. On Monday, the Dean campaign raised $802,083 on the Internet from more than 11,000 people, including more than 9,000 donors new to the campaign. All told, more than 70,000 people have now given to Dean.

When the history of this past week in the Democratic primaries is written, the relative impact of MoveOn.org, Meetup.com and “smartmobbing” technology on Dean’s ability to raise such an unexpected sum will all feature prominently.

But reading the threads on the message boards at BlogforAmerica.com — the official Web log of the Dean campaign, where donors discuss their reasons for giving and for backing Dean — it quickly becomes obvious that the single most important factor in Dean’s stunning fundraising numbers is the most old-fashioned weapon in any campaign’s arsenal: message.

Dean has been able to build a following and raise the bar on per-quarter fundraising not by working his friendships with wealthy trial lawyers, relying on decades of contacts with the rich and powerful, or building the best Internet-based campaign American politics has yet seen. He’s done it by steadfastly promoting a pugnacious, optimistic, forward-looking message and by coupling it with a campaign organization smart enough to let his supporters help him. In the post-McCain-Feingold world, the Democratic Party has struggled to figure out how to attract small-sum donors: In the last election cycle, 64 percent of donations less than $200 went to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, while Democrats grew fat and sick on big money from those who gave more than $1 million. Dean has cracked the nut and done what six months ago looked to be impossible: He has figured out how to compete based on donations the size of the fat cats’ monthly Starbucks expenditures.

Welcome to Dean’s world. We all will live in it.

Finally, somebody gets it.