WASHINGTON, April 27 /PRNewswire/ — On NBC’s Meet the Press this morning, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean previewed a second television ad, entitled “100,” that highlight’s John McCain’s willingness to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years. During a wide-ranging discussion with host Tim Russert, Dean discussed John McCain’s weaknesses as a candidate, continued to outline how out of touch McCain is with the American people, and discussed the state of the race. To view the DNC’s new ad, click here:
The following are excerpts from Dean’s appearance on Meet the Press:
ON JOHN MCCAIN AND THE DNC’S NEW AD:
“Look, John McCain is a weak candidate. He’s wrong on Iraq as far as the American people are concerned. We don’t want to stay there for 100 years. He’s wrong on the economy. It wasn’t the mortgage-holders whose fault this was. He’s wrong on health care. We should have health insurance for all our kids. He is not a strong candidate … “
“We don’t think we ought to be in Iraq for 100 years under any circumstances. Think of the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being spent in Iraq which we need at right here at home right now to preserve American jobs. That’s the first thing. Secondly, if Senator McCain believes that you can occupy a country like Iraq for 100 years without having a long war and violence and our troops being hurt and killed, I think Senator McCain is wrong. Look, 70 percent of our country does not want to be in Iraq for 100 years under any circumstances. Senator McCain is wrong. He is out of step with the American people and he is wrong…
“Now, does anyone think who’s watching this show that if you keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years people won’t be attacking them, and won’t be setting off suicide bombs, and won’t be having militias go after them? I don’t think so. And most Americans don’t think so. What Senator McCain is saying doesn’t make any sense. We cannot be in Iraq for 100 years. Those dollars belong in America. We’re in trouble in America. And frankly, the Bush-McCain economic program has put us in trouble in America. That money needs to be here in America.”
ON THE KEY ISSUES IN THE ELECTION:
“We’re spending a lot of time on process. I think most Americans care whether or not they want to be in Iraq for 100 years, about the economy, about health care. I think they care about John McCain’s reinvention of himself after the Keating Five scandal. It turns he wasn’t much of a reformer … “
“This is a party, a Republican Party that’s completely out of step with what the American people want, and we now are going back to get more senators and the Presidency so we can do the things that the American people want us to do. Get out of Iraq, spend our dollars here at home to help people who have been victimized by the mortgage crisis, and have a health care system that works for everybody, particularly our children. How hard-hearted are these Republicans that veto and uphold that veto, as Senator McCain did?”
ON THE DEMOCRATIC RACE:
“The reason Democrats are so interested in this is they want change. Look at the number of people that have voted. There are going to be 35 million people that have voted in the primaries. There are going to be more people that voted in Texas for Senator Clinton and Senator Obama combined than voted in the general election for the Democrat in 2004. People want change in this country. You can’t get change without a different party controlling the White House. John McCain is four more years of George Bush. He supports George Bush right down the line, on all these things. They want change. That’s why this is such an intense election…”
“The most important person is the person who doesn’t win the nomination. Because I can remember when I lost to John Kerry, I had to go out and convince my supporters — it took me about three months — that they needed to support Senator Kerry. I endorsed him. I campaigned for him. I went to college campuses. And that’s what the person who doesn’t win this will have to do in order to keep the party together.”
“My job here is not to side with one candidate or the other and then talk about pledged delegates or superdelegates or any of that stuff. My job is to take the rules that everybody started with and enforce the rules without fear or favor of any candidate. Somebody’s going to lose this with 49 percent of the delegates in Denver. And that person has to believe that they were treated fairly. Otherwise, we can’t win.”
“My personal view is that I’m the chairman of this Party. We have a set of rules that have been in place for a year and a half, and I’m the person in charge of upholding the rules whether I like them or not.”
ON SUPERDELEGATES:
“So-called superdelegates are in fact elected by exactly the same people who vote for the elected delegates. This is just — this is like a representative democracy. You elect 80 percent of the delegates and they have to do what you ask them to do. The others, the 20 percent you elect essentially do what’s in their best judgment, just like the House and the Senate does. Sometimes you like it, and sometimes you don’t. But these folks are elected — almost all of them are elected. A tiny minority are not elected, they’re appointed. But most of them are elected. They’re elected by the same people who go to the conventions and go vote in the primaries. They’re governors; senators; a lot of them are DNC members. There’s 21-year- olds there; 50 percent are women, and so on it goes. This should not be looked at as a bunch of cigar-smoking folks slapping each other in the back electing the next President, it doesn’t work that way.”
ON MICHIGAN AND FLORIDA:
“Well, I don’t know what the Rules Committee is going to do. I have no idea what they’re going to do, but here’s the deal. First, you’ve got to respect the voters. The voters of Michigan and Florida were not the people that screwed this all up, it was politicians. Secondly, you’ve have to respect the candidates. They went in on a set of rules that everybody voted for, including Michigan and Florida before they changed their minds. And so you can’t really change the rules and alter the course of the race. Thirdly, you’ve got to respect the 48 states that did respect the rules. Here’s why the rules are important. This year, for the first time, we balanced the early primaries with ethic and geographic diversity. And we included a state from the South and a state from the West because we think we can win there now. And we included states with a significant number of minority groups who the Democrats can’t win without. Those folks ought to be allowed to say early on who they think should be the president. Now comes two states that step on the process. You’ve got to deal with that in a fair way.”
ON SEATING THE DELEGATES:
“I believe Michigan and Florida should be seated in some way, because their voters did not cause this problem. This was caused by a political problem, not the voters’ problem.”
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