Happy 2nd birthday to DFA. Formed March 18, 2004.

Click here for the Happy birthday, Oscar post, and give Oscar a shout-out in the comments.

Democracy for America turned two years old last week. The video of the Seattle announcement is still at C-Span. That was sure a noisy event, but it was a happy kind of noise. It was just one month after he dropped out of the race. He never looked back, just kept moving ahead.

One thing I noticed as I reread the speech he made. He is incorporating the same goals into the DNC as he did into DFA. He is still using the small donor strategy at the DNC. He still speaks of changing the debate. He still speaks of how important local races are for us to be involved in. He may not be as obvious about it, but I have noticed this.

Whenever the Democratic leaders get too quiet, he goes on TV and has things to say. Like the radio interview in San Antonio, when he said the war was not winnable. All hell broke loose, but it is all over front page news now.

Here is the video from C-Span.
March 18, 2004 in Seattle.
Howard Dean Announcement of Democracy for America

Here is the text of the speech from one of my very favorite sites.

Announcing 'Democracy For America' in Seattle

With enthusiasm like this, I'll scare my staff, and threaten to get back in the race again...

[Thunderous applause and screams]...

That was a joke! Only joking. I see Roy Neel over there having a heart attack.

Let me thank you for changing the debate in 2004. You made the Democratic message much tougher, you made this party ready to challenge George Bush, and you've changed politics forever by showing that a campaign that's powered by ordinary Americans can emerge from nowhere and build support to take back this country, which is exactly what we are going to do.

The right wingers in Washington are getting a little nervous, they think we might actually take back America!

I want to talk about how we're going to do that. I'm going to talk about what we face. It is very clear to me that George W. Bush is a failed President. This...Under George Bush's leadership, we have lost 2.3 million jobs, more jobs than any President has lost since Herbert Hoover. Manufacturing jobs going overseas - there are solutions to this, but the solutions George Bush shuns - environmental, labor, and human rights standards around the world that would make global trade work. George Bush has opposed fair wage and overtime policies that would help our workers in difficult times. Today the minimum wage is 30% lower than it was under Richard Nixon. A single mother working full time for minimum wage earns less than $11,000 a year, $4,000 below the poverty line.

It's not right, and we can do better and we will do better.

Next, one thing that our campaign has proved for ordinary Americans is that you do not have to be wealthy and well connected, and fund your own campaign to run for office in this country. We ran for office by getting hundreds of thousands of Americans to give us 5, 10, 15, 200, 100 dollars. We want other people to take that lesson so that ordinary people can participate, not just in the political process by giving money in small donations or voting, but by running for office. And we want to duplicate what we did for school board members, and county commissioners, and state legislators to get the right wing out of politics, out of our bedroom, and out of our wallets.

So, let me thank you again, you are all great, Seattle's a... (some one in audience shouts, "you are great!" Dean smiles and laughs)...all right, we're all great. This is a real opportunity, and we can say we started it here in Seattle. We really do have the opportunity to make this country into what we all believe it ought to be. We have the opportunity to change leaders so our leaders are as good as the extraordinary American people are. We have the power to take Washington back for ordinary Americans and make this country as great as it ought to be. Let's make that happen.

We're going to keep at it, because we know what happens in Washington, is that once they get there they get cozy. And it's your job to make sure that never again does the Democratic Party lay down and die and stop fighting for what we believe in. Thank you very much.

This picture appears to be from the Seattle announcement.



Here is the pic of the 3rd DFA announcement in NY at the New School.


Happy Birthday DFA.

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