Before Dean ran he was a darling of the DLC, and even chaired the Governor's association. He was fought by many of the liberals in his state who labeled him a "Rockerfeller Republican", and Clinton stated that if you could bottle what Howard did, "Dems would win every race".
So, what happened? Sure, lots of Dems thought you would lose if you had not supported the war in Iraq, but it was apparent late in the primaries that Iraq was a real problem.
So, what was/is the real problem with Howard? Why did the Democratic leadership fight him so hard then, and appear ready to do so again? Why would you fight a guy who gets new people involved, fires up the base, and found a away to achieve parity with the Repugs without whoring the party out to the Corporations? Since Bush won by running Dean's race instead of pandering to the middle, why in the world wouldn't everyone want Dean?
Dean's great flaw in thier eyes was what we view as strenghts. He got real people involved again, he allowed folks to do thier own thing, and had the stated goal of returning the government to one that was "of the people, by the people". He wants to restore Democracy, that is the problem. Face it folks, the Dem leadership has no more interest in Democracy than the Repugs do. They don't want you and I envolved other than voting, if they did wouldn't Kerry have taken better advantage of what Dean had built on? Did the Kerry campaign work tirelessly to empower his followers? One reason Dean was so successful was that he listened to us, and made us believe we could make a difference. He believed/believes in us, did you ever get that impression from the Kerry campaign? Look how quick they cut us loose here, one intemperate remark by kos and they severed the link.
Our party sold out to the Corperations long ago, although not quite as obviously as the Repugs, and there is no way thier Corperate masters will tolerate Democracy...With the exception of the type we are working so hard to impose on Iraq.
Did Kerry call for the exporting of labor unions to the rest of the world to combat job loss? Did he talk about the need to riegn in Corporate power and the special interests who are running our government? Nope, I thought not.
The real problem with People powered Howard is the people part folks. Screw the DNC, we will have to take the party back through DFA, Kos, and Move-on.