[KeithH posted this article in a diary, but I think it's so important for anyone who wants to understand Dean's candidacy, I'm reposting the link with some comments]
The Washington Post published an article today entitled Dean's Unlikely Road to a Major Boost from Labor.
Here's the nut graf:
From the beginning, Dean believed that the SEIU and AFSCME, with their own grass-roots strength and highly diverse memberships, would provide the two most important endorsements he could get, and he worked methodically, from outside and inside, to win their support
Well, it's only unlikely to people who don't know Dean. Dean has an exquisite understanding of the political landscape. He can identify the power centers and bring those power centers into his campaign and, later, into his governing coalition. John McClaughery, one of Dean's gubernatorial opponents, recently said, "He has a knack of finding where the political capital is stored, and then he grabs it." This is, BY FAR, the most important skill in politics, and Dean has it in spades. This article is a good example of why Dean is such a formidable candidate, and people underestimate him at their peril. I remember telling DHinMI that he shouldn't discount Dean's chances at the service unions because Dean is a master at this kind of politics. Like him or not, support him or not, he's the real deal.
This article in the premier political newspaper in the country will go a very long way to discount any feeling that Dean is a quirky outsider. Safire can rant all he wants about Clinton conspiracies, but stories like this one are much better illustrations of what primary politics are all about.