Monday, November 10, 2008

So long, Howard. Job well done.


Despite helming the DNC for arguably one of the greatest elections for Democrats in modern political history, Howard "Arrrgh" Dean is still planning on stepping down from the helm of the party in January.


Dean has always said he'd serve just one term, so it's not like it's news. Plus, it really is not his decision to make. As a practical matter, Obama will pretty much get to decide who will lead the DNC. But having said all that, let must add this: Dean did a hell of a job.
It was under Dean that the DNC implemented the 50-state strategy, which a lot of dems did not like. They thought it was a waste of resources. Let me say those arguments are hard to defeat. As a Democrat in South Carolina, I have seen those same feelings kill any chance we've had to build a true party for years. You will always lose 100 percent of the races you never run. SC Dems absolutely blew a shot to pick up one of our US Senate seats this year, by not getting a serious Dem to run against Graham. If you only want to run races you think you can win, you will stay the minority party.


Dean deserves a lot of credit for pushing the 50-state plan. If you think back to Dean's own race for the Presidency, it was his campaign returning the party to the idea of grassroots organizing combined with the 50-state plan that changed the party and brought about last Tuesday's results.


Thank you, Dr. Dean.

2 comments:

Thoroughbred 401k said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XWLp1TNDXU&feature=related

I can never get enough of it.. Loved it. BTW, I can do this one note for note. YEAAAAHHH !!!!

pluvlaw said...

You know, Franken had one of the best pieces of advice for Dean when this all happened. Al said he tried to get in touch with Dean's campaign several times in the days after, when he was getting killed by this video to give him advice.

Franken's advice was that he should have gone on the morning shows and started his interviews with, "Now...where was I??? Oh yeah...And we're going to North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana..." etc.

His theory was it would have been him laughing at himself and defused the whole thing. I think he was right.