During the primaries, Dean stood up for Democratic values, but Democrats turned our backs on him and ran off with Kerry because Kerry told us he was "electable." Turned out he wasn't. After "date Dean, marry Kerry," we learned Kerry was a poor provider, and we can't remember why else we married him. Maybe we should have married for love, instead.
Now is the time to ask, What would have happened had we nominated Dean?
I see two possibilities:
Scenario #1: Dean would have lost, too.
But we would be better off than we are now. Dean would have paved the way for other progressives, just as Barry Goldwater paved the way for Ronald Reagan. Dean would have made us feel good about ourselves as Democrats, and we would have gone down with no regrets.
Scenario #2: Dean would have won.
Dean would not have wasted the convention talking about his glory months 30 years in the past. It would have been 4 nights of Democrats making the case against another term for Bush. The Republicans would have needed their convention bounce just to catch up. And the Dean-Bush debates would have put Dean well over the top.
Bush could not have painted Dean as a flip-flopper. Bush would have had to fight Dean on the issues. On Iraq, the American people were gradually learning Dean had been right all along, and unlike Kerry, Dean had had the courage to be right when it was unpopular. On the economy, Dean could proudly put his record of achievement against Bush's record of failure.
Dean would have done better with the youth vote.Even with Eminem and Howard Stern on his side, Kerry could not get young voters to turn out for him. Dean could. He proved that in the primaries. (On my college campus, Students for Dean had over 40 members and tabled on campus every day until our state's primary even after Dean withdrew from the race. During the general, the Kerry campaign had only 2 people tabling occasionally on our campus, and one of them wasn't even a student.) Dean would have excited young voters throughout the election cycle as he did in the primaries, and he would have excited more of them since the general election gets more attention than the primaries. With Dean's ability to energize voters, he would have left young people feeling good about the Democratic Party in general, and this feeling would last long after the Dean presidency. This would have given the Democratic Party an advantage for as long as Generation Y is alive and kicking. Dean would have brought this generation to the Democratic Party just as Kennedy and Johnson brought black voters to the Party.
Dean would have made good on his promise to help Democrats win congressional races. On Dean's coattails, the Democrats might have won back the Senate and maybe even the House.
As President, Dean would have done for liberals what Reagan did for conservatives. He would have moved the whole country to the left and ushered in a new era.