"Howard Dean on Healthcare Ruling: 'The President Won' " (interview by Ari Berman)

Ari Berman (The Nation):

Few politicians know as much about healthcare as Howard Dean, a former physician, five-term governor of Vermont and president candidate. Dean has long been an advocate for universal healthcare, although he was critical of the Obama Administration’s handling of healthcare legislation in 2009-2010, particularly the lack of a public insurance option in the final bill (which Dean ultimately supported). I interviewed Dean today about the political and policy ramifications of the Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

Ari Berman: What was your reaction to the healthcare ruling?

Howard Dean: I was surprised. Like many people, I was shocked that Justice Roberts sided with upholding the bill and somewhat surprised and disappointed that Justice Kennedy voted to get rid of the entire thing along with the three right-wing justices.

I was glad that the president won a victory. But this pretty much ends the debate about the nature of the private sector in the healthcare business—it’s here to stay in a very big way. This is, after all, a Republican bill. Not the Republicans that we see today, but the moderate Republican wing under Mitt Romney in Massachusetts—this is their bill. For the foreseeable future there will be those who wish we had a single-payer healthcare system, but that’s not going to happen in Washington anytime soon. MORE...

"Howard Dean Predicts Obama Re-Election, Democrats Retake House"

Ari Berman (The Nation):

“I believe we need a progressive party in this country,” Dean says. “But for progressives to not vote for Obama is crazy. Citizens United would have never been put into law and America would never have been sold to the highest bidder had Al Gore won in 2000. Obama, if he wins, is going to appoint maybe one or two more Supreme Court justices. That could make all the difference. For that reason alone, you can’t say there’s no difference between the parties. Politicians in Washington may not be able to help you much, but they sure can hurt you.” MORE...

Howie P.S.: I don't want to be the t#%rd in the punchbowl, but The Good Doctor does not have a 1000% batting average with his predictions.

The Two Aris from The Nation: Can you identify which is which? (photo)

Thom Hartmann & Ari Berman - "The GOP War on Voting" (video)

thomhartmann, with video (09:26):

Thom Hartmann and Ari Berman, Contributor-Rolling Stone Magazine; Political correspondent-The Nation Magazine; author "Herding Donkeys" discuss the dirty tricks Republicans will use to disenfranchise you.

Howie P.S.: Here's the link to the article Ari wrote for the Rolling Stone that is discussed in the interview. Tidbit:

In a campaign supported by the Koch brothers, Republicans are working to prevent millions of Democrats from voting next year.

"Obama & the Left's Not So Magical Thinking" (video)

SamSeder, video (06:23):

Joined by Ari Berman of the Nation, Sam discusses the recent article by Jonathan Chait on "What the Left Doesn't Understand About Obama."

NN11 Panel: "Structural barriers to progressive success" (video)

FreeSpeechTV, video (01:13:00).

Howie P.S.: Darcey Burner leads a panel with David Waldman (Kagro X) and Ari Berman.

"As Obama Plans to Move Forward, Progressives Wait for Specifics" (with video)

Sara Jerving (The Nation), with video (12:05) from MSNBC.

The Nation's Ari Berman joined MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell yesterday to discuss his meeting with Obama strategist David Axelrod on the president’s plans to move forward on economic policies. The meeting came in response to this week’s State of the Union address, in which Obama called for investments in technology, education and infrastructure together with a five-year domestic spending freeze.

Axelrod, Berman says, argued the speech had something for all progressives—technology, labor, infrastructure and education—with policy outlines that stand in favorable contrast to the Republican's mantra of “cut, cut, cut.”

Berman sees this as an attempt by Obama to better position himself politically so that the Democrats can effectively oppose GOP cries for specific program cuts. Author Richard Wolffe and New York Times blogger Nate Silver also weigh in on Obama’s speech and the president’s next steps.

For more on Berman’s meeting with Axelrod, check out his post “At White House, Axelrod Outlines Obama’s Post-SOTU Strategy [1].”

Howie P.S.: Meanwhile, Howard Dean is "jubiliant" about progressive hopes in the wake of the SOTU, video (05:52). Adam Green from the BoldProgressives.org wanted a passionate defense of Medicare and Social Security from Obama and an indication of a willingness to fight more aggressively to protect them from spending cuts, video (04:24). Green wasn't entirely disappointed and he shares his "top six moments", video (04:50).

Democracy Now! and Ari Berman on Daley (video)

Democracy Now! video (12:55).

Op-Ed: "Dean (and Ari Berman) Say Tax Deal Is A Bad Compromise" (with audio)

NPR, with audio (16:54):

The tax deal would extend Bush-era tax cuts for two years and unemployment benefits for 13 months. Many Democrats, including Howard Dean, say this deal is not the answer. Dean and Ari Berman, a contributing writer for The Nation talk about when presidents should — and should not — compromise.

"Obama's Business" (with video)

MSNBC-The Last Word (Chris Hayes), video (17:02).

Howie P.S.: Adam Green, Roger Hodge and Ari Berman discuss ObamaWorld post-"shellacking" with Chris Hayes. H/t to Digby who comments

I watch a lot of cable news (so you don't have to) and have heard so much conventional wisdom by now that I can recite entire exchanges without even turning the sound on. It's always the same people, saying the same things.

That's why today I'm thankful for Chris Hayes, who does consistently unexpected and interesting work both in print and on television. Filling in for Lawrence O'Donnell last night, he hosted a segment that made me come in from the kitchen while I was preparing dinner, sit down and pay attention. It was an extended analysis of the Obama administration from a perspective you rarely see fully aired on television(although those of us who read blogs are familiar with it.)

Thanks Chris, for the most interesting panel discussion I've seen on cable in quite some time.

Democracy Now!-Ari Berman and Nate Silver on the Midterms (with audio/video/text)

Democracy Now! with audio/video and text:

Candidates are entering the final few days of campaigning in what may turn out to be one of the more interesting midterm elections in recent decades. Most polls are forecasting Republicans will take control of the House, while Democrats are expected to hold on to the Senate, which would result in a rare split Congress. We speak to New York Times pollster and FiveThirtyEight.com founder Nate Silver, and Ari Berman, political correspondent for The Nation magazine and the author of the new book Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics.

Ari Berman: "Boot the Blue Dogs"

Ari Berman (NY Times op-ed):

In 2005, Howard Dean, who was then the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, carried out a campaign to elect as many Democrats as possible. In long-ignored red states, both Mr. Dean and Rahm Emanuel, then the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, backed conservative Democrats who broke with the party’s leadership on core issues like gun control and abortion rights. Mr. Shuler was one of Mr. Emanuel’s top recruits. The party leaders did not give much thought to how a Democratic majority that included such conservative members could ever effectively govern.

With President Obama in office, some notable beneficiaries of the Democrats’ 50-state strategy have been antagonizing the party from within — causing legislative stalemate in Congress, especially in the Senate, and casting doubt on the long-term viability of a Democratic majority. As a result, the activists who were so inspired by Mr. Dean in 2006 and Mr. Obama in 2008 are now feeling buyer’s remorse.

Margaret Johnson, a former party chairwoman in Polk County, N.C., helped elect Representative Shuler but now believes the party would be better off without him. “I’d rather have a real Republican than a fake Democrat,” she said. “A real Republican motivates us to work. A fake Democrat de-motivates us.”

Ms. Johnson is right: Democrats would be in better shape, and would accomplish more, with a smaller and more ideologically cohesive caucus. It’s a sentiment that even Mr. Dean now echoes. “Having a big, open-tent Democratic Party is great, but not at the cost of getting nothing done,” he said. Since the passage of health care reform, few major bills have passed the Senate. Although the Democrats have a 59-vote majority, party leaders can barely find the votes for something as benign as extending unemployment benefits. MORE...

Ari Berman/Karen Finney: "How the Dems Can Regain Grassroots Support" (with video from GRITtv)

GRITtv, with video (12:17):

Well as the Tea Partiers continue to prove they may be more than just a passing trend - at least in the fast-approaching midterms - we ask, where did the Democrats go so wrong in mobilizing their base? Did Obama's pandering to the center and big business alienate too many voters who believed in change? And what could he have learned from Howard Dean in building a movement?

Ari Berman, Nation Contributor and Author of Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics and Democratic Strategist, Karen Finney who served as the Director of Communications at the Democratic National Committee drop by GRITtv.

"Three Aris walk into a bar..." at the Little Idea in NYC

Andrea Chalupa:

Ari Berman does a wonderful thing in his new book Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics--he investigates how common sense usurped power in Washington.

In a speakeasy-like venue on the Lower East Side Wednesday night, at the anti-panel series The Little Idea, organized by brothers Ari and Jonathan Melber, Berman took a handful of minutes to illustrate how Howard Dean was John the Baptist to Obama, and how Rahm Emanuel contributed to the rise of the Tea Party by shunning a cabinet spot for Dean, a physician, (in the face of health care reform!) and let the grass roots machine rust.

(SNIP)

If Dean's 50 State Strategy--that went after progressives and independents in red as well as blue states, a strategy initially scoffed at by the party establishment--tells you anything, it's that Americans are more alike than we are different: we don't like being screwed over.

Unfortunately, this has been happening for decades, as the event's next speaker, this site's very own Arianna Huffington, explained in her allotted ten minutes, to discuss Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream.

Arianna joked that, like Berman and Melber, she is an "Ari too," having grown up in Greece and called by that name: "Three Aris walk into a bar..." MORE...

"Ari Berman on How to Revamp the Democratic Party" (video)

MSNBC-Morning Jokesters, video (05:07).

Howard Dean on "Rahm's contempt for base"

Sam Stein:

This week, Ari Berman of the Nation released his book "Herding Donkeys" that documents the growth of the modern Democratic Party from the nadir of the 2004 election through the triumph of 2008. The majority of the book looks at the efforts by former DNC Chairman Howard Dean to build a national network that could immunize the party from becoming either marginalized or regionalized. But the epilogue charts out how the style of Obama's governance drained the type of voter enthusiasm that, Dean acknowledges, was critical in those efforts.

"The White House began to believe that they could mobilize their supporters without hearing what their supporters really wanted in terms of specific change," Dean is quoted as saying. "The principal problem with OFA is the same one the president's having. You can't dictate to your base what's going to happen. It's got to be a two-way deal, and it hasn't been." MORE...

Howie P.S.: Booman says

"We've got bigger problems that some perceived slight that is almost never accurately depicted. The president, the vice-president, and anyone who isn't effing retarded is pointing to Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Carl Paladino, Christine O'Donnell, Mike Lee, Joe Miller, Ron Johnson, Ken Buck, Pat Toomey, and Speaker Boehner and telling you to wake the eff up."