Also read the chapter "Losing Our Party" which is the best thing I have ever read about why former activists like me get disgusted and quit the party (I was reg. Indep/NAV for 6 years).

Howard pulled me into activism. People who think the Deanies are a bunch of rock star-worshipping groupies, come to a DFA Meetup and/or visit Democracy for Oregon. It's not a church service. :)

I agree with the above posts. This is the single best thing to happen to the Democratic Party in a long, long time.

I realize there will be those who snicker, but Dean did the most to unite the party of any candidate. Loosing in Iowa has little to say about his national appeal. Iowa has little in common with New York, California, Florida or Oregon.

Go Howard Go!

So the party is turning to a man who ran a disastrous campaign, blew $50 million, lost every single primary and caucus (with the exception of his tiny, rural home state), and humiliated himself on national television? This is the guy who's going to revive the once-great Democratic party? I don't think so.

Dean may appeal to left-wing activists and dumb college kids in places like Eugene and Berkeley that are already solidly Democratic, but he isn't going to appeal to anyone else. With Dean in charge, the Democratic party will only further alienate swing voters and make it all but impossible for any of the red states to turn blue.

Let's all hope that Dean's campaign for DNC chair implodes just like his presidential campaign did. Should he win, the Democrats are in for a very, very bumpy ride.

And lets not forget how b!X himself contributed to the Dean for DNC grassroots initiative. I remember how, after the elections, he inspired dialogue here on this site and went beyond what most would do in backing up his stance -- and -- he was right on-target with his vision and hopes.

"but he isn't going to appeal to anyone else"

The falacy in your statement is evident in that I am neither a 'left-wing activist' (just because I dont agree with the current administration), nor am I a dumb college kid, and -- am registered independent.

Dean for DNC appeals to me.

Danziger on Dean. Great cartoon.

Dean shook up a moribund primary when most had little interest and less hope in the possibility of winning. He roused us and woke us up and put spine in a bunch of weenie craven pols who suddenly found the voice to say, oh my god, perhaps we shouldn't have supported this war...

And then everyone jumped on the Dean bandwagon, and then -- oh god, we can't let him really win -- all the Republican spin-meister's tell us we will lose if he does... -- we all jumped on him. And then we got Kerry. And Dean bowed out and all the oomph went out of the party and we weenied into a sad, sorry, apologetic loss.

And then we started looking for who to blame. We looked everywhere, except in the mirror.

Yes, Dean the governor had a moderate record. Dean the candidate did not. I'm not sure which one is DNC chair.

I hope Dean does well, I really do. But we need to be clear: his did not fire up the "base" (and even if he did, the base of the Democratic party is shrinking year after year -- we must expand our base or be mired in opposition status). He fired up the most liberal segments of the party --including college towns where he raised lots of money and recruited lots of volunteers -- and pioneered a new method of raising money.

Winning the DNC does not say a lot about the breadth of his appeal -- many, many studies have shown the party activists are substantially more liberal (and on the Republican side, more conservative) than the electorate at large.

But perhaps a rock star can fire up the moribund DNC organization. God knows it needs it.

I hope Dean has a plan to win middle America. But honestly, seeing excited posts from this most Blue of Blogs doesn't get me particularly excited.

<h2>Out here in Scotland, laziness dictates that I drink often and post rarely. But here, to add to the flow, is a short article I just wrote for my college paper about the upcoming Dean coronation.</h2>

The Doctor Is In … Again

As far as consolation prizes go, former Gov. Howard Dean can’t be disappointed, being days away from becoming the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee and the unelected face of the Democratic Party.

There are few second chances in politics, but Dean’s greatest strength was always his tenacity. At a time when the DNC looks helpless in the face of a disastrous start to the 21st century, a man who doesn’t know when to quit even when he’s doubted by everyone who matters is a powerful asset. Dean’s tenacity meant that even after being chased out of Iowa, he kept shouldering on with his Democracy for America PAC, giving money out to underdog candidates across the US and maintaining a strong grassroots network. Derided at times as being “bulldoggish” both in appearance and behavior, his upcoming coronation, barring some massive uprising in support of 9/11 Commission member Rep. Tim Roemer, will place Dean in one of the most powerful positions in the Party. With no Democrat in the White House and a relatively weak leadership team in Congress, a man who is not afraid to use the bully pulpit may be exactly what the Party needs to jumpstart itself.

While many people fear that the Republicans will have a field day with a Dean-led DNC, the truth is that DNC chairman is a completely different position from the presidency—the chairman’s role is to create talking points for candidates, raise money, and present a face for the Party who won’t be answerable to a single constituency. What were seen as Dean’s weaknesses by moderates may just as well come to be seen as his greatest strengths a few years down the road.

In fact, of all currently prominent Democrats, Dean has the most potential for erasing the Republican Party’s grassroots advantage and stranglehold on new initiatives. Here is a man who understood the Internet, knew how to give fiery partisan speeches, and loved talking about the average Joe Democrat on the street. Everywhere that Terry McAuliffe failed—from coming across publicly as a slightly slimy suit to failing miserably at inspiring anyone—is an area where Dean is an expert. He has fought in the trenches, won headlines, turned a bit role as a small state governor into a crusade for a revitalized Democratic Party—he’s got a resume that screams, “use this man!”

The established Party powers that be are obviously not equipped at this point to maintain Democratic parity or superiority over the Republican Party, and seem to have even less interest in asserting any form of an independent identity or policy platform at this time when elections in Iraq are proceeding too smoothly to protest. The Democrats are not an inferior party to the Republicans, nor is there a Republican mandate in the works. Instead, it is only a matter of underperformance—since the 1994 Republican Congressional takeover, that Party has built up a comprehensive network of volunteers, workers, and candidates that subtly took power from the vaunted Democratic grassroots machine. Dean’s focus on using his position to integrate Democratic Party operations at the national, state, and local levels to ensure competitiveness in every election is desperately needed to counter the Republican inertia.

In the end, though, the future of the Democratic Party depends on the assertion of a platform of proactive changes that steals the spotlight from President Bush now, and the Republican Party in the future. Howard Dean, among all of the 2004 presidential candidates, was the least afraid to shake up the status quo. There is a lot of potential in this country for a challenge to be raised to the power of the Republican Party, but to do so, the DNC must take a page from the Dean playbook and push for loud, vocal, grassroots reform. I’m overjoyed to take up the cry, once again, that the “Doctor Is In!”

With all of the discussions that take place during every election about how we can get young voters interested in politics so they turn out to vote in greater numbers, I find it curious that the fact that Dean energized college students is seen as a negative by so many people.

Some folks seem to see the DNC leadership choice as Dean versus Kerry, when it actually Dean [grassroots] versus McAuliffe [DLC]. Whether Dean was your idea of the best presidential candidate is not the point. No one closely inspects the political positions of DNC chair.

<h2>I think Dean will do a great job of energizing the grassroots and may even bring some disgruntled progressives back to the party. How the multinational corporations and other big funders will react is another question.</h2>