Howard Dean has been an asset to the Democratic Party. Ultrageek is right about one thing. The Democrats needed the wakeup call that Nov of 2002 should have been. When you copy Republicans, when you don't counter their attacks, you lose, every time.
Dean has served his purpose. He re-lit the fire into the liberal base of the party. He got people excited again. He showed that President Bush expected an easy campaign b/c the Democrats would roll over, he singlehandedly said "screw you."
His purpose has been filled. Hardcore Dean supporters are furious that Kerry in particular sounds a lot more like Dean these days. Well what on Earth did they expect? Kerry has made mistakes, but at least HE is now willing to stand up to the President, to challenge him, and to prove him wrong. What's interesting is that these Kerry supporters weren't hiding in the woods, many of these people are former DEAN folk, who gravitated to Kerry either with one of Dean's disastrous gaffes or his dismal showing in Iowa b/c he couldn't resist getting into a spitting contest with Gephardt. Boy that worked.
I know the Dean supporters are disappointed, but honestly where do you think Kerry votes, particularly in NH came from? Kerry was losing to Dean by 25-30 points at one point. These weren't new voters that Kerry found to win, Dean's supporters abandoned him.
All Democrats owe a great deal of gratitude to Howard Dean. If we win in Nov, it will be largely due to his efforts. But he blew the nomination with his own lack of self control. He has stated that he will support whomever the nominee is. It's too bad some of his supporters say, "Dean or no one." That's really good. You want to complain about the Democrats who don't vote b/c they are disenfranchised, it might be best if you weren't one yourself. These upset supporters seem to be backing off on their claims with Dean that, "George W. Bush is what's wrong with this country." If they truly believed that, then they would support whomever is against him. Obviously some will not be able to do that, and that's a shame. For if Bush wins re-election, and they decided to stay home, they lose any credibility when it comes to being upset about what Bush is doing.
Thank you Howard Dean for saving the Democratic Party. Now do what's best for the party you love and you saved. If you don't win Wisconsin, get out of the race, throw your support behind John Kerry, assuming that he survives of course, and work to get rid of President Bush. A fractured Democratic party will win nothing in Nov. Dean has said that many times. What a shame it would be for his own disgruntled supporters, to be the ones that fractured the party when election time rolls around.
The DNC and DLC have not led. There's no argument there. They haven't. Daschle has only recently discovered that he has a backbone, but only on a few issues. I understand Maria's and Ultrageek's arguments there. THey are right, the leaders have not led. The time to fix the problem is not in an election year. The Democratic Party is uniting behind John Kerry. The leadership of the Democratic Party needs to be reshuffled. But first, the Leadership in the White House needs to be kicked out.
I'm proud of Howard Dean and what he has done for our party. His supporters have much to be proud of, but they also shouldn't forget that Dean blew the nomination himself. Kerry has been sounding like Dean for a long time, but his numbers didn't show it until right before Iowa, when Dean, rather than campaign, chose to spit at Gephardt. Dean blew the nomination, but he's ensured himself as a force in Democratic politics. His time came. It's now time for someone to finish the fight, b/c Dean proved all by himself that he couldn't handle a campaign against Dubya. Dean supporters can argue that only Dean can bring new folks in. Ok, but doing that while ignoring the rest of the Democratic party, moderates and conservatives, will get you nowhere. We can't ignore the liberal base, but we also can't ignore the moderates and conservatives in our party. Dean ignored the moderates, ignored the "Washington insiders" even while accepting the endorsements of some. John Kerry has learned his lesson. I think all Dems will be proud of him as President. Hopefully Dean and his supporters will recognize that.