Rosalyn Middleton's blog

This morning I read a USA Today article that quoted Dean as saying he was
going to go back to being himself...this is supposed to make us feel more
comfortable? Which is his true self? I hope that there are no more dirty
politics amongst the Dem hopefuls.

I will being watching the debate tonight on C-SPAN. Hopefully I can get a
complete broadcast of the debate.

An Iowa grad student who referred to Dean as a "cowboy without the hat and the boots" sent me an email today with the following:

"I think Kerry is looking good, but Edwards made the biggest move with his reference to Gephardt. I think he won a lot of people over and if he can continue to display that kind of eloquence and charisma, he will be a force in the later stages of the race. He might be able to cancel out Clark and make a way for Kerry. I think he will be a very attractive running mate if he doesn't win the candidacy."

I as well as others are still trying to figure out what happened Monday night. At my caucus there were a lot of Dean supporters and not all of them were young. However Gephardt had the largest contingent and as expected most were UAW members. Kerry also had a number of UAW people which showed me that the union paid attention to the endorsement and then factored in other concerns when choosing their candidate. The rank and file are not the sheep the media sometimes portrays them to be.

I had a long distance call from the engineer who decided on Dean at the very
beginning-nothing...but nothing has swayed him. However, the most undecided
are women in my circle of friends and acquaintances. It is not that we
women cannot make up our minds...its more that we want to be right...we are
a thoughtful lot. The people I have been talking to have been very
representational..black, white, Asian, mixed race and one who never

I saw the announcement on CNN this morning that Carol is dropping out of the race and giving her support to Dean? I'm not sure this is going to help him much as she didn't have a huge number of followers on the books (there were a number of people I talked to who put her at or near the top in credibility and stand on the issues but one in particular said he couldn't afford to giver her his vote when so much was at stake-getting control of the white house)

Here's an interesting encounter I had:

Dan is a registered Republican who asked me today to find out how he could change his party affiliation. I asked if this was a ploy to get votes for the person he thought would be the weakest opponent for Bush. He said not at all. He thinks Gephardt is the only Democrat who stands a chance of beating Bush this fall and he wants to help make him the nominee. He said he like he liked Carol Mosley -thought she was bright and articulate- but didn't feel he could afford to waste his vote when we need to get Bush out at all costs. His next choice is Kerry.

Meighan is a 28 year old Black mother of two who is back in school trying to reach her version of the American dream. She stated "I was for Dean until the confederate flag incident. It made me take a closer look at his whole platform and it left me wondering. Not so much the flag but his plans in general." Her husband hasn't shared any of his thoughts about the candidates, yet. But she is going to do some real hard looking at their records as soon as the semester ends and she can spend more time ferreting out the truth. Then she will "make up her mind. I am not impressed with Kerry and I still want to believe in Dean."

I was at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center last week. A few of the regulars talked about their candidates of choice and five out of five picked Dean. These are women who are all supporting their families essentially alone and saw higher learning as a necessity. They are in their early to late forties and are politically aware. The concensus was that Dean had practical experience as a govenor dealing with domestic issues (that being of greater concern at the moment for them). The Center director, Mary is a bootstraps individual now working towards her PhD who thinks Dean is smart, definitely smarter than the present resident of Pa. Ave. and that he has no ax to grind on his fathers behalf.

Around the water cooler the feeling is that neither candidate is going to win the nomination and then it is divided between those who feel we were dissed and those who feel that both candidates lost some credibility with
that move.

Dave Nagle, a lawyer long time Dem and a former U.S. representative from Iowa is worried that if by a fluke one or the other wins the nomination and then goes on to

After today the Democratic presidential hopefuls will not be competing with the gambling vote in Black Hawk County or the California recall/election. It has been less than easy to wade through all that and then do my homework on the candidates.

Before I go any further let me say this. Just ONCE I would like to see an election without any personal attacks, character assassinations etc. Does anyb