I can testify that in my town, in July, ten of us came together as strangers because we signed up for the Dean meetup for our location. We looked at each other and said, anyone here from the campaign? Nope. Anyone here get an agenda of what we are supposed to do? Nope. So, we just started talking to each other where we were in the coffee shop, talking about why we had come to the meeting.

There were people there who said they just wanted anyone but Bush in the White House, there were people there from Vermont (tourists) who knew Dean well as their governor, there were people who owned small businesses, a doctor, a teacher, a student... many voices each telling a unique story. We didn't have direction from the Dean campaign, we just met because we saw the time and date and place on meetup.com. We didn't have an agenda, but we all agreed that from our many perspectives, Dean WAS the middle, and he was the one we respected.

We decided on our own what we could do for Dean in our town. We figured out our own plan to put together an event to hand out flyers. We printed flyers ourselves, we made our own display, we did our own management of outreach. Now that I've been reading the blog for a couple of months, I find that the meetups everywhere are doing just what we did in my town. Strangers came together, without being "handled" by the campaign, except to get some support materials if wanted, and have volunteered to do what they thought needed to be done in their home town. People have made their own Dean tee shirts, just like we have here in Montana, made their own stickers and buttons, and have gone out and done projects that help their community while at the same time informing the public about Dean.

Don't believe the Republcans' spin that Dean is unelectable... that is BAIT to try to get Dems to sabotage each other. Dean is the MOST electable of all the candidates. I can't wait for Dean's debate with W Bush.