Dean adds another reason to vote
391295
The head of the Democratic Party said Friday blacks have an added incentive to vote in November: Democratic control of the House would give key committee chairmanships to African-American lawmakers.
429489
As swing states with large elderly populations  such as Florida gear up for another presidential election, a sleeper issue has been gaining attention on medical, legal and political radar screens:  Many people with advanced dementia appear to be voting in elections -- including through absentee ballot.
541862
The Internet's chock-full of information and persuasion to help you solidify your vote.  Here's a quick guide.
735715
One of the most influential unions in politics is giving Democrats running for president the once over.
374200
The Democrats this year are looking for votes wherever they can find them - even on the Left Bank
73775
Inside the battle for a critical chunk of votes
159460
Former presidential candidate Howard Dean, once the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination whose candidacy stumbled, has decided to seek the party's chairmanship.
678048
Republican Alan Keyes needs votes, so he is here to meet and greet and make nice. This is a daunting task. Not many of his fellow Republicans have expressed great interest in the the former presidential candidate now running for a Senate seat from Illinois.
53616
It seemed like old times: Howard Dean lambasted the Republicans in a speech before 300 cheering supporters at a union hall on Sunday. But now he is running not for president but for the national chairmanship of the Democratic Party.
383205
Comment is free: Jonathan Freedland: The lessons of successive US elections are clear: voters want their leaders to appeal to the heart, not just the intellect.
154029
THE Internet has changed the way political campaigns are run.   In 2004, Howard Dean showed that the Internet can be a great way to connect directly with voters and target grass-roots fundraising.
727054
For those U.S. residents still unsure which presidential candidate to vote for -- and there appear to be quite a few who can't make up their minds less than a week before the election -- there's a new Web-based tool that can help voters match their positions to those of the major presidential candidates.
751127
I think something pretty amazing may be happening with our political process that mirrors what's happening on the Internet, in the blogosphere. I've been talking about it on and off since the Howard Dean candidacy in 2003, which I think most people misread or misunderstood, seeing it only in the existing context of how it can be used to make a candidate more competitive in raising money to buy ads to run on TV. Perhaps that's what was going on from the candidates' point of view, but it was not what was going on from our side of the tube. What was happening was we were flexing our political muscles using a new tool for organizing, the Internet. We were waking up, saying Hello World to the candidates. One of them heard us, Dean, although he misunderstood what we were saying. It's as if we, collectively were tapping a microphone and tentatively asking "Is this thing on?" Anyway... Let's summarize what's happened so far in the 2008 political process. 1. We had a long run-up of a year or so, with candidate debates, lots of punditry, two front-runners, one in each party, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. 2. The Democrats outraised the Republicans for the first time in a long time. Obama actually raised more money than Clinton did. 3. Huckabee, a candidate who raised little money, and who was never considered a front-runner, won the Iowa caucus on the Republican side. Money didn't choose the winner in Iowa for the Republicans.  4. McCain, a candidate who in the end spent very little money and had almost no organization, who had long since been forgotten as a front-runner, won the Republican primary in New Hampshire. Again, money didn't choose the winner in NH for the Republicans. Now, in the aftermath of New Hampshire, the pundits on TV, most notoriously Chris Matthews on MSNBC, are quickly snapping back with new crazy theories on why what happened happened, but we shouldn't believe them or pay much attention, because they don't see what's happening in the electorate. Neither does Clinton, but the Republicans may be beginning to get a clue (and Clinton will soon too).  My belief: The electorate is waking up. Maybe it's just my hope speaking. Can't tell yet.  The electorate doesn't need messages, just as Doc says there is no market for messages. What the electorate needs is to hire someone to lead us for the four years between elections. It needs someone who will ground our collective behavior in something resembling reality, so we deal with the problems that are collectively in front of us: 1. The honor and prestige of our country (the equivalent of goodwill for companies, settle the wars we started, accept that we have to protect against terrorism, stop hyping it in terms of conventional warfare, that's insulting). 2. The integrity of our homes (everything from disaster response to changing behavior on a global level to respond to global warming). 3. Caring for ourselves (health, education, protecting the Constitution). We've gone crazy in the last seven years. The 2004 election was amazingly crazy. The candidates appeared to be running for President of Iraq, that's all they talked about, what was good for the people of Iraq. The lunacy of the electorate is that we didn't throw it back in their faces saying "Let us know when you have something to say about the USA." We need to communicate with each other and with the pols and pundits without going through the polling process. When they quote blogs on TV they're quoting people who used to be print columnists who now publish on the Internet. That changes nothing.  I'm not expecting very much from people who live "Inside the Beltway." I don't live there, never have, don't even like visiting the place. To me it's much like the arrogance of Silicon Valley. You can't pop out every four years get us to vote for you and then go back into your nest. Politics belongs to all of us, in this country, the people are the government. We really lost our way, now it's time to come back. It's the change that's happening in everything, decentralization, disintermediation. Obama speaks of a plurality, his campaign isn't about a mere election, it's about changing the way we do things.  My advice to candidates going back to Dean was and is to start implementing the change you seek before the election, while you have the full attention of the electorate. Ask us to give money, not to buy ads, but to buy health insurance for 50,000 uninsured people in a particular state, so we can see how powerful we are collectively, how we can do good, starting right now. We yearn for this, to feel our muscles flex collectively, and individually to make a difference, not just in your hype, but in real terms. Hillary Clinton could have gotten up yesterday and said "There's no time to waste. We can't wait until January 2009 to solve the problems. Let's start right now." Maybe she won't get elected, but getting us organized now would make it more likely. JFK: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." See how that works??
300352
Howard Dean, who is weighing a bid for leadership of the Democratic Party, will call on Democrats to fight for victory across the country instead of ceding wide swaths of the South and West to Republicans.
480656
In a change that could give new meaning to direct democracy, San Franciscans will soon cast ballots listing their first, second and third-place choices for municipal offices under a new "ranked-choice voting" system that would eliminate separate run-off elections.
105615
HIS was supposed to be the positive campaign. Late last fall, Democrats and Republicans alike predicted that a new campaign rule requiring candidates to appear in their own
763226
Winning votes in the Midwest will be crucial to Democratic hopes to regain power in Washington in November, party Chairman Howard Dean told about 400 young people at the College Democrats National Convention on Thursday.