Howard Dean's "Register for Change" bus tour hit New Orleans at noon today (sadly for the chairman, sans air conditioning on the bus) and You Are There!
GF and I showed up about 11:45 and waited with the growing crowd at the Victory '08 HQ for the bus to arrive.
We spent the time chatting with excited Democrats, visiting with old friends and new like Allen and Deborah Langhoff, Kossacks chigh, alpelican and the lovely and brilliant
gildareed
Orleans Parish Democratic Party Executive Committee Chair James Gray warmed up the crowd. . .
. . . until finally, da bus arrives!
Howard spoke for about 20 minutes, hitting hard on themes that needed to be heard here:
We can win in the South because the South is changing and the Democratic Party is changing. We can win because we've thrown out the old roadmaps that just lead through the Northeast and the Midwest. The new electoral roadmap is a map of America.
Barack Obama can't change America and neither can I. But you can. In the last mid-terms, we looked carefully at what works. Targeted ads and robocalls can bump up turnout 1 or 2 percent. People getting their doors knocked on three times by somebody they know, whose word they trust, can increase turnout 12 percent.
You are the leaders in your neighborhood. You have more power than Rush or O'Reilly because your neighbors know you and they'll listen to you.
Barack Obama's going to do two things that are going to change the way this country's been going. He's going to end the divisive politics that keep us apart and he's going to restore America's moral authority in the world.
We're not perfect. Sometimes we don't live up to our standards. But we shouldn't do it on purpose, as a matter of policy, or we lose the standing to bring others to the table. If you quit trying to be better, you sure won't be.
It was a very inspiring and intelligent address, off the cuff (that's my Howard) emphasizing, of course, the need to register new voters and re-inspire old ones. He praised the campaigns of Mary Landrieu and Don Cazayoux, saying we need to stand by our Democrats if we hope to enlarge our majorities and change the country.
All in all, a wonderful break in the day. Then I went home and spent hours under the house with the mosquitoes snaking out a clogged sewer line. I'll save those poo-splattered, profanity-laden details for a McCain diary.
Can't leave you without some Howard shots..Here he is with a guy who really needs a new job.
And here he is with a guy who really needs a shave.
Hope your day was just as fine and that your sewers are working better than mine.