I had to wait for about ten minutes, because I had come early to reserve a good seat, and so I had time to notice many things about the place where Howard Dean was about to give his speech explaining his plan to reform the Democrat Party. It was a very small auditorium with only 360 seats–probably one of the reasons I had to make sure I had a ticket for it. I also noticed how religious everything looked, almost exactly like the inside of a church. The Anabel Taylor Auditorium, where he spoke, is mainly used for religious events. A lot of people from different MSM networks where there, and it surprised me how big their equipment was, and how much of it they had. They all got permission to video tape and take pictures from the balcony, or from the back of the auditorium.

After about ten minutes of waiting, the president of Cornell Democrats, Timothy Lim came up and introduced the new Chairman of the Democrat Party: Howard Dean. To my surprise, he was mainly introduced to us as someone who realized the necessity and power of the blog. Everyone, myself included, stood up and clapped as he entered the room, and walked up to the stage. Besides when he left the room, that was the only time that I stood up, or clapped in the whole speech, for most of the time, whenever the room erupted in clapping, I just sat down, shaking my head vigorously to show my displeasure. I am sure that Dean noticed me, as I was quite far up in a small auditorium. Many times I wanted to jump up and prove that he was lying, but kept myself down, knowing that the whole place would be very hostile to me, and that I could get myself into big trouble.

He also started his speech with talking about the power of blogs, and that things really should start in the living room, when a bunch of people came together and decided that they wanted change, they would design fliers, and pass them out, and the Dean headquarters would hear about it only a couple weeks later. He believed that his living room model, as well as the Internet, which he admitted to have found out only by accident, were the ways that a campaign should be run, he also encouraged people to give their five or ten dollars to the candidate that they supported. He mentioned that, through the internet, his campaign had raised more money then any other campaign.

He said that “blogs are important because they let us [politicians], know what people are thinking” I hope that he will read this post, and thus know exactly what I am thinking.

Congressman Maurice Hinchey was present, sitting in one of the front rows reserved for different people from Cornell Democrats. I meant to ask him some questions, especially as Dean was so much praising blogs, but he quickly escaped out of a side door, and was gone by the time everybody was done clapping. I am not sure if he even stayed to listen to the whole speech.

Dean said (as he also said at the rally) that to win the Democrats had to ignore Republican issues — “Gun, God, and Gays”, as well as abortion. I felt it almost sacrilegious to be giving such a message from a sanctuary with stained glass behind him. Although he though that “Republican issues” were best ignored, he at least twice mentioned homosexuality, and said a lot about abortion. The important issues he said, where things like healthcare, jobs, etc. . . These were the things that he thought the Democrat party had to get big on. A big mistake of the Democrat party, he said, was that they believed that their were such things as swing states, and that they would lose if they only campaigned in these states, but that they had to campaign everywhere.

He admitted that, if nothing was done to Social Security within about 30 years benefits would have to be reduced to 80% of what it is now. He thought that something had to be done with Social Security, but that it could not be privatizing it. He said that he thought “privatizing social-security has a lot more to do with how much money Wall-Street has poured out to the President”. He said that a Wall Street bonds were not secure, and that their would be some people who would be doing well, and some who would not be doing so well.–Depending on what they had chosen to invest in. No better option then the President’s plan was given, even though somebody specifically asked for one. He said that only Bill Clinton had been able to balance the budget, and that Democrats were the only people who were fiscally conservative.

He talked a lot about defense, saying that he though that how much money was used on defense was not the big issue, the big issue was how that money was spent. He thought that it was very bad to borrow money at all, not even for defense, because if the three countries that America is borrowing from: China, Japan and Saudi Arabia decide, the value of the dollar can go way down. He especially mentioned Saudi Arabia, a country where according to him, they teach Islam to their kids from 0-3, telling them to hate each other, and to hate America. According to him, this was not a country we should be in debt to. I was very surprised that he would say such a thing about Islam, and even more surprised that nobody said or did anything about it, especially after the big outcry last semester against Sara Townsley�s column �Mecca, We Have a Problem�.

A couple very interesting, and not very well founded statement that he said, but which don’t really belong in any category are: “Because Democrats think better, they’re a better party to Control America”, and: “It is so typical of Republicans not to think ahead”

He talked a lot about labor unions, and said that making it difficult to join a labor union, made it very hard for people to be financially secure. He said that if a factory closes down, then their are all of a sudden lots of people who used to be getting 20 dollars and hour, with benefits, and who are now having to work for WalMart for only Seven dollars and fifty cents without benefits. He said that he was proud that he had never bought from WalMart, because even though they charge a dollar to a dime less, they push wages lower in China. He said that he would gladly pay the extra amount of money to make sure that everyone would get a fair wage. Although at first he said that he believed in free trade, later on he turned around and clarified himself saying that we should only have trade agreements with countries that have similar labor standards as America.

He criticized people for thinking that if they voted, it would be enough, for just voting he might give you a “D”, not a “F”, but still not great. If you want to sustain democracy, you have to run for office, although you might not think you’d be really good at it, probably everyone in the room thinks that they can do a better job then our current President. If you can’t run for office, at least you should help in other peoples campaigns, and that you should donate money.

According to Dean, a very small percent of Americans have health insurance, and that it is something that every American deserves. It should not necessarily be free, but every American should be forced to get insurance. He said that when John Kerry’s healthcare plan, which he really liked and said was very similar to his own, was released, President Bush called it “Socialism”, when Republicans start “name-calling”, you know that they don’t have anything better to say.

He also mentioned a big company who had just said how good this would be, because they pay more money on their employees health insurance then on steel (this company buys a lot of steel, I wish I could remember the name) He said that “We need healthcare reform”, and spent a lot of time talking about this. He also criticized how much George Bush was doing to take care of poverty, especially child poverty.

I meant to ask him a question, and when they allowed people to start lining up in the isle, I got a pretty good place. However, questions were being screened, and because my question was about abortion, they decided that the person in front of me would be the last person to ask a question. I felt bad for all the people who were standing in line behind me. (They did not want to obviously reject my question, but knew it was not going to be one that would make Dean very happy.) Even though he did not want to talk about “Republican issues”, and even though I was not allowed to ask my question (which was going to be whether or not the Democrat Party would change it’s views on abortion or not. I was going to mention a Zogby poll that said that 56% of Americans, and 60% of Americans between 18 and 29 years old think that in most cases abortion should be illegal). I think that my question was basically answered.

He said that the Democrat party’s position on abortion would not change. Democrats instead should be very subtle; they should change what words they use, and in most cases just try to ignore the issue. He said that he hated that Americans like to call the Democrat party the pro-abortion party. He did at least twice say that he though everyone agreed that abortion was bad, but that a women should be able to decide about her own health-care.

Dean always talked like he assumed that no women would choose abortion, because it was bad, but it was up to them, and they should come to that decision themselves. Should murder become legal, because we think that people should be able to make a wise decision themselves?