We laughed, we cried, we mourned, we spat at the POTUS. I threatened to leave after NH. OK, I'm calmer now, and have been doing some thinking.
I've decided I'm sticking with Dean as far as he wants to go. I don't care if he pathetically limps into the convention with only Kate O'Connor at his side. If Dean doesn't get the nomination, there's plenty of time for me to wait around until I go into the voting booth and vote D (and hey, I live in PA where there's a senate race on, people. That's something else to get excited about). But while I don't have a weighty "endorsement" to give, I want to lay out why I support the doctor, and why there's no need for me to run around playing "second choice roulette" just yet.
This is a selfish reason, but no more odd than any of the other reasons for supporting people I've seen. I feel like Dean represents me in a very personal way, warts and all. My sense of him is that he's less concerned with ideology than with making things work. He doesn't suffer fools gladly. He's a tightwad. He sees through lies. He sees ahead to where we we're going to be, not just where we are. He sometimes makes decisions based on his emotions and sense of "what's right" rather than through political calculus. (his stand on the death penalty and mine are the same for pretty much the same reasons--my husband thinks neither of us makes any sense). Where he can't get results through glibness, he gets them through hard work. Everything I've seen Howard Dean say when he was being himself and not talking for political reasons has made sense to me and resonated in my "gut".
Now early on, before Dean took off, I said something like "He sounds great, but there's no way that someone who's that much like me is going to get elected--in fact, how did he get elected in Vermont?". I was pleasantly surprised when he became popular, and maybe lulled into a sense of false overconfidence (hey, maybe I can be prom queen this year too). But I'm not a big shot. I haven't even done much for the campaign. So for what it's worth, Dr. Dean, I'll support you as far as you want to go.
That is all...