Dem Party Chairman Howard Dean was on Fox News with Chris Wallace. A partial transcript is here -
http://www.foxnews.com/...
I'm sure someone will follow with some video. But until then, some highlights:
• Chris Wallace asked Dean about the effect of Rev Wright on the campaign. Dean said he was not going to talk about Wright. He said he wanted to talk discuss issues, and immediately started talking about health care, the economy, and other items.
• Wallace asked again - several times - about Wright. Each time, Dean said Wright was not important. Instead, Dean talked about the issues, and about how John McCain is bad for the country. He also said that GOP ads referencing Wright were race-baiting, that this has been done in the past, and that it's not going to work now.
• Wallace used the "b" word: he said it seems that there had been a Democratic boycott of Fox, until just recently. Wallace asked why Dems are stating to appear on Fox now. Wallace also asked, aren't these appearances going to anger your "supporters on the left", such as MoveOn.org and dailykos, who feel that this legitimizies Fox News?
Dean responded that in fact, Fox News has been biased in their coverage. However, Dean said that he feels Wallace has been fair.
But Dean's point was, it's not about the network, it's about reaching out to viewers. Dean said that many Republicans are thinking about voting Democratic in the up-coming elections, and that the Democratic Party wants to reach out to them. Dean said that Dems didn't want to punish those people because Fox has not been fair to the Democratic Party.
I thought Dean acquitted himself well. He acknowledged the concerns of the netroots, but in a close race like this, we need to reach out to everyone, even if a particular network is biased against us.
Still, I don't know if this interview, as combative as it was, really had the effect of presenting a good case for voting Democratic to the viewers.