If you missed it, Dean got it handed to him over the Confederate flag tonight. Sharpton and Edwards formed an impromptu tag team and left Dean a bloody mess:
QUESTION: My question is for Governor Dean.I recently read a comment that you made where you said that you wanted to be the candidate for guys with confederate flags on their pickup trucks. When I read that comment, I was extremely offended.
Could you explain to me how you plan on being sensitive to needs and issues regarding slavery and African-Americans, after making a comment of that nature?
(APPLAUSE)
DEAN: Sure. Martin Luther King said that it was his dream that the sons of slave holders and the sons of slaves sit down around a table and make common good.
There are 102,000 kids in South Carolina right now with no health insurance. Most of those kids are white. The legislature cut $70 million out of the school system. Most of the kids in the public school system are white. We have had white southern working people voting Republican for 30 years, and they've got nothing to show for it.
They vote for a president who cut 1 percent of this country's taxpayers' taxes by $26,000, which is more than they make. And I think we need to talk to white southern workers about how they vote, because when white people and black people and brown people vote together in this country, that's the only time that we make social progress, and they need to come back to the Democratic Party.
COOPER: Reverend Sharpton, I just want to point out, in the last couple days, earlier last week, you have called some of Governor Dean's positions anti-black. It sounds very close to calling him racist.
SHARPTON: No, I don't think the governor is a racist. I think some of his positions would have hurt us. But I think that doesn't answer, Governor, this young man's question.
(APPLAUSE)
First of all, Martin Luther King said, "Come to the table of brotherhood." You can't bring a Confederate flag to the table of brotherhood.
(APPLAUSE)
And you can't misquote Martin Luther King like that. I come out of the King movement, I didn't just read him. He talked about us leaving racism there. And I think that Maynard Jackson said that the Confederate flag is America's swastika. If a southern person running, if John Edwards, a Bob Graham had said that, they'd have been run out this race.
I don't think you're a bigot, but I think that is insensitive, and I think you ought to apologize to people for that.When Bill Clinton was found to be a member of a white-only country club, he apologized. You are not a bigot, but you appear to be too arrogant to say "I'm wrong" and go on.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Governor Dean?
DEAN: We're not going to win in this country, and even worse, Democrats, if we don't have a big tent. And I'm going to tell you right now, Reverend, you're right. I am not a bigot. And Jesse Jackson Jr. endorsed me and has stood up for what I said.
DEAN: And Reverend Jesse Jackson went down to South Carolina last week and went to a trailer park which was inhabited by mostly white folks making $25,000 a year. We need to reach out to those people, too, because they suffer as well.
I understand the legacy of racism in this country, and I understand the legacy of bigotry in this country. We need to bring folks together in this race, just like Martin Luther King tried to do before he was killed. He was right. And I make no apologies for reaching out to poor white people.
SHARPTON: But Confederate flags is not for white people, and that's sounds more like Stonewall Jackson then Jesse Jackson. And he...
(CROSSTALK)
SHARPTON: Jesse Jackson went to South Carolina with all of us protesting the flag. The issue's not poor southern whites. Most poor southern whites don't wear a Confederate flag, and you ought not try to stereotype that.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: All right, let me bring Senator Edwards with his comments.
Senator Edwards, in the last couple days you have been very critical of Governor Dean on this issue. And let me try to understand, are you basically saying that the votes of those who fly the Confederate flag are too loathsome to even accept? And if so, are there any other groups whose votes you don't want?
EDWARDS: Well, let me say, first of all, unless I missed something, Governor Dean still has not said he was wrong.
Were you wrong, Howard?
(APPLAUSE)
Were you wrong to say that?
DEAN: No, I wasn't John Edwards because people who vote who fly the Confederate flag, I think they are wrong because I think the Confederate flag is a racist symbol. But I think there are lot of poor people who fly that flag because the Republicans have been dividing us by race since 1968 with their southern race strategy.
I am tired of being divided by race in this country. I am tired of being divided by abortion, by gay rights.
I want to go down to the South and talk to people who don't make any more than anybody else up north but keep voting Republican against their own economic interests and that's what I am saying.
EDWARDS: But may I respond?
(APPLAUSE)
EDWARDS: May I respond? And I want to respond to this young man's questions.
EDWARDS: Because let me tell you the last thing we need in the South is somebody like you coming down and telling us what we need to do.
(APPLAUSE)
That's the last thing in the world we need in the South.
I grew up in the South. I grew up with the very people that you're talking about. And what Al Sharpton just said is exactly right. The people that I grew up with, the vast majority of them, they don't drive around with Confederate flags on pickup trucks.
One of the problems that we have with young people today is people talk down to you. You know, you get all pigeon-holed. They've stereotype you.
Exactly the same thing happens with people from the South. I have seen it. I have grown up with it. I'm here to tell you it is wrong. It is condescending. And the only way that we as a party are going to win the White House back is to reach out to everybody and treat them with the dignity and respect that they're entitled to.
That's what we ought to be doing.
(APPLAUSE)
Kerry made the obvious point afterwards: Is he from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, or the Dixiecrat win of the Democratic party? Which is it?
This guy. Only Dean (or Bush) could say he is "letting his supporters decide" whether or not he should accept of reject matching funds, then include this with the invitation to vote:
Dear Friend:I am writing to place the most important decision of this campaign in your hands. We need to choose whether we will decline federal matching funds or accept them.
Our political system is drowning in a flood of large corporate interest money. The pens that sign the checks of the lobbyists in Washington are the same pens that write our legislation.
Oil corporations write energy laws in the Vice-President’s office. The pharmaceutical industry drafts our Medicare laws. Billions of dollars worth of contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan are awarded to Bush contributors. For the Republican primary election, even though he has no opponent, George Bush is raising $200 million from large corporate interests.
The Bush campaign is selling our democracy so they can crush their Democratic opponent.
We are building the only campaign that can stop this outrage. Our campaign has not been just talk about future reform, it has been the action of real reform. Through hundreds of thousands of donations averaging $77, the impossible is happening -- ordinary Americans are poised to overpower the largest mass of special interest money our nation has ever seen.
But soon our opportunity to compete dollar-for-dollar against George Bush’s army of special interests may be gone. If we accept federal matching funds, our spending will be capped at $45 million -- and the greatest grassroots movement in the history of presidential politics will be stopped from raising money almost immediately and will reach the spending limit well before the end of the primaries. We will not have any funding until the Democratic convention at the end of July.
I have always been committed to public financing. But the federal matching funds law, though it was meant to provide an incentive for ordinary Americans to participate in the funding of our elections, is doing the opposite of what it intended. It could end up punishing a movement that has raised more from ordinary Americans than any campaign in history, while rewarding the campaign that has blatantly abused both the spirit and intent of campaign finance, selling off piece after piece of our country.
This is how the Bush campaign believes they can defeat us. If we accept federal matching funds -- and the $45 million spending cap that goes with it -- they will have a $155 million spending advantage against us. From March through August, they will be able to define and distort us, and we will have no way to defend ourselves.
We do have the option to go toe-to-toe with the big corporate donors of George Bush by getting 2 million Americans to give a hundred dollars each. By declining matching funds, we free ourselves to raise the money needed to defend ourselves during the crucial months from March through August against the attacks of George Bush and his special interest backers.
But let me be clear, if you decide to decline federal matching funds, it will require a significant commitment from all of us who have brought this campaign to this point. Declining matching funds means turning down almost 19 million dollars that the federal government would give to this campaign.
That means we will have to raise that money ourselves if we are to win the primary, beat George Bush, and take our country back. Declining federal money and funding a campaign with grassroots support has never been done before, and if you choose this option it will be a challenge -- but with your commitment, your dedication and your hard work, we can do it.
This decision is no longer mine to make. This is a campaign of the people, by the people and for the people. Your successful effort of raising a historic amount of money through small contributions has made this choice possible. This is why I am putting this decision in your hands.
I am asking you to vote on what kind of a campaign we will conduct from this point forward. No matter how well intentioned both our options are the choice is difficult: do we choose option (a) to fund our campaign ourselves and decline matching funds, or do we choose option (b) and accept federal matching funds and the spending limits?
You will receive a ballot via email on Thursday and have until midnight Friday to vote. The results will be announced on Saturday.
The fate of this campaign rests in your hands, and I believe the future of our American democracy rests on your decision.
Sincerely,
Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
My emphasis added.
To paraphrase: "Sure, you could vote to accept matching funds. I'm leaving it up to you. The future of our democracy will be lost, but hey, it's your decision."
Howard, count me out of your 2 million moron movement, asshole. I'll vote for you if you win the nomination, but I don't trust my money with spineless megalomaniacs like yourself.