Howard Dean is currently the Democratic Presidential Candidate frontrunner with 37% support vs Kerry, Gephardt, Edwards, Clark, Lieberman, Kucinich, Braun, and gag "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton.

Joe Trippi is Howard Dean's Campaign Manager, who vaulted him past far better known candidates by his revolutionized use of the INTERNET for political organizing and fund-raising!!

After a lifetime of long shots, including five failed presidential campaigns, Mr. Trippi is the political consultant of the season, as head of the Washington-based firm, Trippi, McMahon & Squier

Trippi is barking, self deprecating, has innovative ideas and razor-sharp elbows, a cult hero to  the C-Span set, brings an outsider's gall and an insider's savvy, a risk-taker, shameless self-promoter, zealous competitor, dresses like an "unmade bed",
speaks in a glum monotone, ever gloomy and anxious, inspires legions of protégés,
a most fascinating, compelling and maddening boss, with a "midnight rule", zeroes in on a nugget with potential amid a stream of nonsense, a relentless talker, and the hero of all his stories.

"Trippi comes at you really hard, he doesn't take time to word it nicely," said Paul Blank, the political director. "If he was wrong, and he was doing that I would quit,
but every single time he's right."

Trippi went to San Jose State University to study aerospace engineering, but got
sidetracked by by an underdog City Council campaign. The candidate lost, but he was hooked.

Even better than the story of  teaching his West Highland terrier, Kasey, to play dead when asked if he would like to work for George Bush (or Senator Kerry),
is the story of the boxing glove — which Mr. Mondale used to show he was a fighter — that makes Mr. Trippi cry.

Trippi had told Mr. Mondale that his father, an Italian immigrant, thought him a bum for pursuing politics instead of taking over the family flower shop. After his Pennsylvania primary victory, Mr. Mondale autographed the gloves for the elder Mr. Trippi; one was buried with him when he died in 1998.
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Thanks to John DeMatteo

DEAN'S MANAGER: INSIDE SAVVY AND OUTSIDER EDGE

New York Times
By Jodi Wilgoren
December 13, 2003

BURLINGTON, Vt.— If Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's campaign manager, had a bumper sticker, it would read, "The biggest myth in American politics is that Joe Trippi is running the Dean campaign."

When he says this to supporters, it is a political slogan, implying that those who fill the campaign's coffers, chat on its Web sites and canvass their communities control the candidate's destiny. When he barks it at the campaign's headquarters here, it is a self-deprecating whine, complaining that the young staff fails to heed his command.

Mr. Trippi, of course, is the myth's top promoter as well as its debunker-in-chief. But many Democrats are increasingly intrigued by the man behind Dr. Dean.

After a lifetime of long shots, including five failed presidential campaigns, Mr. Trippi is the political consultant of the season, having helped transform Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, from an asterisk in the polls to the man to beat for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Trippi has revolutionized use of the Internet for political organizing and fund-raising, while becoming a cult hero to some members of the C-Span set.

The Dean phenomenon is, undoubtedly, due to a synergy of man, moment and message, but people inside the campaign, rivals, independent analysts — even the candidate himself — agree it would not be happening without Mr. Trippi.

Known equally for innovative ideas and razor-sharp elbows, Mr. Trippi, who spent more of the last decade working in Silicon Valley than inside the Beltway, brings an outsider's gall and an insider's savvy, other strategists say, a rare recipe that has helped catapult Dr. Dean.

"He kind of sees ahead in politics," Dr. Dean said. "He knew what we had before we knew what we had."

It is Mr. Trippi who not only demanded the creation of the campaign's Web log but regularly snags ideas from its blather.

It is Mr. Trippi who calculated that it would take 2,000 nights of 1,000-person, $100-a-plate fund-raisers to match President Bush's expected $200 million purse, and thus turned to the Internet as the only possible cash-raising tool that could compete. Dr. Dean's campaign has raised $25 million.

It is Mr. Trippi who tromped around New York and Washington with a PowerPoint presentation persuading, among others, two of the nation's largest and savviest unions, to join the Dean campaign.

"He's a risk-taker, he's always been a risk-taker," said Pete Giangreco, a consultant who is married to Mr. Trippi's former wife's sister and is working for Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. "He's always in the middle of some tumultuous, sometimes disastrous, thing."

"In the quest for victory," Mr. Giangreco added, "there is a certain recklessness.

"In whispers, some of Mr. Trippi's colleagues complain that he is a blur into overzealous battle, takes politics too personally and employs questionable tactics, though with his success, they are wary of speaking openly.

"The basic rule of thumb for Trippi is if you talk to him for five minutes, you're convinced he's an absolute genius," one rival said. "He's the guy who everybody will one day say, " `He came out with 9 bad ideas out of 10 but that one idea was worth the bad ideas.'

"Ever gloomy and anxious, Mr. Trippi insists he is just glad to have outlasted Jim Jordan, the recently fired manager of Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign. After a recent cross-country trip culminating in a red-eye flight, Mr. Trippi wished aloud that he were dead, so at least he could get some sleep.

Charitable descriptions liken Mr. Trippi, 47, to an unmade bed; nastier ones compare him with the "Peanuts" character Pigpen. His wrinkled suit coat inevitably has in its pocket one of the dozen Diet Pepsis he downs a day, while his fingers constantly replenish the cherry Skoal tobacco in his cheek.

Mr. Trippi, as much as Dr. Dean, inspired the legions who dropped jobs and graduate school to trek to Burlington, Vt., many as volunteers. The inner circle of the campaign, except for a few Vermont holdovers, is made up mainly of Trippi protégés.

Though his young aides endlessly mock Mr. Trippi's bulging eyes and glum monotone, and chafe at his midnight rule — which requires one member of each department to be at their desks until the clock strikes 12 in case he calls — they also wonder, constantly as they make tactical decisions, What would Trippi do?

"He is the most fascinating, compelling and maddening boss I've ever had," said Zephyr Teachout, a lawyer turned director of Internet organizing for the campaign.

Mr. Trippi inevitably interrupts every suggestion with "no, no, no, no. no," yet zeroes in on a nugget with potential amid a stream of nonsense. He freely barks at colleagues, yet they walk away saying they are glad at least to know where they stand.

"He comes at you really hard, he doesn't take time to word it nicely," said Paul Blank, the political director. "If he was wrong and he was doing that I would quit, but every single time he's right."

Born in Jamestown, N.Y., and raised in Hollywood, Mr. Trippi went to San Jose State University to run track and study aerospace engineering, but got distracted by an underdog City Council campaign. The candidate lost, but he was hooked.

Mr. Trippi is a relentless talker, the hero of all his stories, which he repeats as long as there are listeners. Though he had little to do with scoring Al Gore's endorsement of Dr. Dean this week, Mr. Trippi rambled for more than an hour reconstructing it for reporters on the press plane Tuesday, while the former Gore aide who actually engineered it gave a 15- minute background-only briefing.

Mr. Trippi's career in presidential politics began in 1979 — Nov. 8, he remembers — when Senator Edward M. Kennedy's presidential campaign called seeking the country's 100 best organizers. He quit college and drove his gold Pinto to Iowa, where he was sent to heavily Republican Jones County. The Kennedy campaign lost the county by 300 votes, but, Mr. Trippi points out, that was better than most others on the list of organizers did in friendlier areas.

He and his Pinto landed in Dallas later that year, where he came up with what seemed like a cockamamie idea — setting up lemonade stands outside polling places where organizers could try to persuade primary voters to attend the more-important caucuses that evening. The lemonade stands ended up being adopted around the state.

"Like a lot of his stuff, at the beginning you never know what the outcome is going to be," said Bill Carrick, who was in charge of Senator Kennedy's Texas campaign at the time, and now works for a Dean rival, Representative Richard A. Gephardt. "It's always a big mystery: is this going to blow up in his face or is it going to be successful?"

In 1984, Mr. Trippi ran the Iowa campaign for the presidential bid of Vice President Walter F. Mondale. In 1988, Mr. Trippi started out with Senator Gary Hart (it was Mr. Trippi holed up with the Hart family as the campaign imploded in a sex scandal). He finished with Mr. Gephardt.

Mr. Trippi is one of several people who claim authorship of the Hyundai advertisement attacking import tariffs that helped Mr. Gephardt win the Iowa caucuses that year. This is only one of his tales that others dispute.

Mr. Trippi says he had sworn off presidential politics after helping Jerry Brown in 1992. But his Washington-based firm, Trippi, McMahon & Squier, had made Dr. Dean's campaign advertisements in Vermont and helped Dr. Dean look for a new campaign manager last winter after Mike Ford, a political operative known for his field organizing, turned the job down.

So Mr. Trippi, who had met Dr. Dean once years before, went to Iowa and found the candidate — the campaign — of his dreams.

"I started having this argument with myself," he recalled. " `You've got to go, you know you want to do that.' `You're crazy, you won't even live through it.' I absolutely couldn't not do it."

Now Mr. Trippi is at his desk at 2 a.m. checking arcane facts like the number of hits on his rivals' Web sites, while his accountant, unable to reach him on the phone, writes in to a Web chat to pester him for tax information. His wife, Kathy Lash, has moved here to work on the campaign, along with their West Highland terrier, Kasey, which has been taught to play dead when asked if he would like to work for George Bush (or Senator Kerry).

Mr. Trippi insists this is his finale, offering as a metaphor the Kevin Costner film "For Love of the Game," in which a battered old pitcher's last game becomes his best. He keeps a copy of the video in his messy Burlington office, near a framed boxing glove from the Mondale campaign in 1984.

It is the story of the boxing glove — which Mr. Mondale used to show he was a fighter — that makes Mr. Trippi cry. He had told Mr. Mondale that his father, an Italian immigrant, thought him a bum for pursuing politics instead of taking over the family flower shop. After his Pennsylvania primary victory, Mr. Mondale autographed the gloves for the elder Mr. Trippi; one was buried with him when he died in 1998.

Now it is Mr. Trippi's autograph that is in demand as he works the rope line after a Detroit rally. He bearhugs people whose names he recognizes from the blogs. They pose for pictures. They bring him Diet Pepsi.