WNPR: "Dean: Obama Reflects Desires of Youth" (with audio)

cpbn.org, with audio (01:26):

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean was in Wallingford last night to speak at the prep school Choate Rosemary Hall.

The former Vermont Governor is credited with creating the 50-state strategy that helped Barack Obama win the White House. Dean talked with students about the difference between his own generation and theirs. Dean says voters under age 35, a generation that sees itself as multi-cultural and independent, is now powering American politics, and Barack Obama is their first president. "It isn’t that Barack is so much the leader. Its that he is accurately reflecting the sentiments and the desires of this young generation and then reflecting them back to them. That’s how politics works. "

Dean says his generation got a lot of things done, but the style was different…more confrontational. The former DNC chief admits that President Obama’s bipartisan approach marks a change. "I, as a child of the sixties of course, have a sort of a reaction..what d’ya mean? What d’ya mean? But the truth is, that’s what the country wants right now. Stop fighting about the things you’ve been fighting about for thirty years and haven’t agreed on and start working together to get something done on the other things."

Dean says his generation’s biggest mistake was believing it could, in his words, “take a break from politics to build families and careers”. That, he says, led to the Bush administration and its expansive views on executive power. He warned students to stay engaged, not only during national elections, but by serving their local communities.

Barack Obama