Continuing with the rundown of yesterday's DNC meeting in Phoenix. Previous diary here. [series continued here].

All of this is from notes, not tapes, so I apologize for any misquotes or omissions.

Gov. Dean talked some more about Katrina. After the hurricane, DNC staffers who wanted to go help were encouraged to do so, and the DNC paid their salaries while they were down in Louisiana and Mississippi. He told a story about two young women staffers from the finance department who were sent to Mississippi and found themselves teamed with 5 young women from the Southern Baptist Convention.

The staffers first thought about whether or not to mention who they worked for, but decided that they were proud to be associated with the DNC and so told their teammates where they came from. There were a few lifted eyebrows, but everyone was busy. And after three weeks of handing out blankets, water, and food  together, one of the Baptists told one of the Democrats, "You know, we're all trying to do the same thing."

It's a small story, but Dean said that it's people like that who change perceptions about Democrats--and that when one of these young women are sitting in church being told that Democrats are evil, they'll think about it differently. Personal experience trumps being told that Democrats are evil by your pastor. Personal experience trumps being told Democrats are wrong by your teacher. Personal experience trumps being told that Democrats are bad by your parents. He urged us all to start talking to all the people we know who didn't vote our way. (He also mentioned that it's gotten a lot easier in the past few months.)

He mentioned that the DNC had put $5 million into the Virginia governor's race and put some people on the ground in California to help defeat the initiatives sponsored by the "One Terminator."

Dean said, "We still have a long way to go. The collapse of confidence in the Republicans is not enough to show the world that we are better leaders for the American people. We are going to offer a real program of reform for this country." He then laid out the Together, America Can Do Better agenda, which is when he really got animated and started sounding like the Dean the Candidate. (He's good, and some of the following will sound very familiar to long-time Dean supporters.)

"We want real tax reform and middle class tax fairness. In three tax cuts, we've had one bill that gave a small tax cut to the middle class, but at the same time college tuition went up even more because of the cuts to the grant and loan programs."

"We want a strong national defense. We offer real security--we have seen the hollow promises of this administration, and we starting to coalesce around a vision for homeland security." He mentioned John Murtha's resolution, which the DNC members reacted to with a long standing ovation. Dean proposed a strategic redeployment and said that we needed to get the National Guard home especially. He referred us to the Lawrence Korb and Brian Katulis' paper on Strategic Redeployment at the Center for American Progress.

When we control the White House, "we may have to send troops someplace, but we will be honest with them and the American people, we will listen to the military, and we won't make up a strategic plan three years after we've gone into another country." (Lots of cheering here. Note to Matt: people were talking about Iraq quite a bit.)

"Health insurance for all is the right moral value to have." He related provision of health insurance to the availability of jobs, specifically mentioning GM's healthcare woes.

"We need a strong public education system and an end to unfunded centralized government mandates. Let local areas run their own schools." It's fine to have testing, but teaching to a test all the time does not produce good learning. "We need to trust people to know what's best for their schools."

"We will offer real reform and honesty in government. We will write a code of ethics to apply to congress and the administration. There will be no golf trips, no fat contributions to influence legislation." Under the ethics/corruption banner, Dean also mentioned that it's unethical to pay journalists to write flattering reports, and that a Democratic Attorney General will enforce the law for American citizens and not a political party. (This was in reference to the AG's office coming down on the wrong side of voting rights legislation. Dean specifically mentioned the new ID requirements in Georgia and called them unconstitutional.)

Then he got really wound up with: "It's immoral to let small children go to bed hungry while cutting school lunch programs. It's immoral to bankrupt the retired by cutting medical care while they're losing pensions. It's immoral to intrude in private family decisions--we want their government out of our lives. We ought to be proud of our values in this party. Many of us in this room benefitted from the Republican tax cuts, but all of us would gladly give up the extra money. Their party is selfish."

"Social Security is important because it cements us as a people. We are all in it together in this country." (Meaning that we all help take care of each others' parents.)

"We will do a lot of things to win back Congress, but there is one thing we will not do--we will not divide America. The Republicans used the word "quota" to divide people in 2002. In 2004, they put gay marriage, which was already illegal, on the ballot in many states. In 2006, it's going to be immigration."

"We need to enforce our border laws, that's true. But Bush is talking about locating all the illegal aliens in this country and deporting them. He can't find a 6 foot 4 Saudi, but he's going to find 11 million people?"

On the guest worker program: "The Republicans are creating a program of indentured servitude, which drives down wages for everyone."

Dean said that yes, borders laws need to be better enforced, but if people have been here for years and worked hard and paid taxes, we should have a program that enables them to become citizens. Bush should not have turned his back on Mexico because of their opposition to the war. The real answer is to help Mexico grow so people will have jobs there and not feel compelled to come to the US.

More in Part 3.