"Howard Dean on values and reaching out"

Renee in Ohio comes to Dean's defense

As Howie in Seattle has noted here, Howard Dean has admitted that he made a mistake when he said in an interview on CBN that the 2004 Democratic platform said that marriage is between a man and a woman. (Thanks to floridagal for providing a link to the video.) But, as Corinne commented, I'd like to see someone, anyone, travel as much as he does, give as many interviews and speeches as he does, and retain an extraordinary amount of information as he does and not screw up at some point. Enough.

Indeed. He misspoke. I shudder to think how many times I do that in a given day. And in this case, I can imagine that it seemed to Howard Dean that the Democrats wanted to be very clear about their non-support for same-sex marriage in the 2004 election, given this:

On Page 113 of his book "You Have the Power, Dean says:

"It remains to be seen, too, just how much my support for the civil unions bill will hurt my chances to reshape Democratic politics. Some pretty important Democrats have shown they think it might. When former president Clinton was trying to drum up support (for another candidate), just prior to (that candidate's) entry into the presidential race a year ago, he called a friend in a large city and said "I need you to be for so and so." The friend demurred. (sentence left out)

The friend told Clinton he was Dean supporter. "Howard Dean", Clinton said "forfeited his right to run for president when he signed the civil unions bill. He can't win."

It was a rare mistake for the president. The supporter was gay and called us to tip us off.

Also, as I noted elsewhere, here in Ohio, I've seen the anti-gay crap work. Getting people riled up about the notion that "those Democrats don't share our values--they want to bring gay marriage to our state" is such a tried and true tactic, it was even used to get people to vote against ballot/election reform amendments.

My husband, Demetrius, got robocalled before the election in which the Reform Ohio Now Amendments were on the ballot. He's gotten calls and mailings from the Republican party ever since he voted for McCain in the primary of 2000. He was encouraged by whoever to vote against the amendments because they are backed by those homo-loving abortionists. From out of state. Something like that. Not those exact words, but that's the effect they were going for. Booga-booga!

There's more of her diary on Kos here.