According to the Guardian:
Labour has enlisted one of the engineers of this week's Democratic victory in the US midterm elections in an attempt to boost its flagging fortunes before the local elections in May.
Howard Dean, the former presidential candidate and one of the men credited with masterminding the trouncing of the Republicans, will visit the UK next month to brief party officials about his pioneering campaigning techniques.
Can somebody tell Howard Darth, I mean, Dean, that it's the Lib Dems who voted against going to war?
That he should be on our side? That we thought he campaigned against the arrogant, complacent incumbent parties damaged by sleaze?
5 comments:
Labour and the Democrats have long-standing links so this is not surprising.
We also have strong links with the Democrats. Some of our campaigners were over there talking to them earlier this year in fact.
Dean's main strategic achievement was the all-state strategy -- knocking on doors in every state, and imposing electable candidates in winnable states. Labour, courtesy of Peter Mandelson in the 1980s, already know they ought to be doing that, and where they aren't it's because they can't. Dean might be more appealing to some of the Labour grassroots, though.
I'm sure that Dean will be much more able at galvanising Labour grassroots than , say, Brown , Reid or Beckett.
I'm just disappointed that he's doing it.
Mind you, let's turn things round the other way - is this part of a deal whereby Blair, Reid and Co go over to Washington and advise the new Democrat majority groups how to run things? Now if I was in the Democrat grassroots, that would really scare me.
The Democrats are not liberal.
They, and the Republicans have some liberal members, but I don't think Dean is particularly liberal, he's more along the lines of New Labour and social democracy.
You shouldn't be surprised when the Democrats make overtures to Blair.
However the Liberal Democrats are left in no-man's land on this one as well.
Backing Labour in Scotland doesn't set the party up as the one to benefit from an anti-war vote.
When are the party going to dump Labour in Scotland?
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