In the Sunday WaPo, Political reporter Perry Bacon Jr. has some good things to say about Howard Dean. I'm sure that many still mourn now and then that he was not our nominee in 2004. Frankly, I'm still not sure I understand what happened. I found his clarity and strength to be just what I was wishing for in a leader. His progressive values and technology savy were made to order as well. Some special politics seem to take place in Vermont. Senator Bernie Sanders is still a hero of mine. Take a look at what Bacon has to say about Howard Dean
In his article The Dems, Now Dancing to His Tune Bacon recalls some of the things Dean did to bring us to where we are now. Memories are notoriously short so it is good to refresh them from time to time..
As the Democratic presidential race turns into the political equivalent of the Battle of the Somme, lots of Democrats are glaring at the party's nominal leader, Howard Dean. The Democratic National Committee chairman (and 2004 White House hopeful) has not been able to force the race to a close or to fix a mess he helped create by tossing out the results of primaries in Michigan and Florida after their state parties violated DNC rules by jumping toward the front of the line in the campaign season. In 2004, Dean famously screamed at Democrats; in 2008, plenty of Democrats are screaming right back.
But Democrats have some good reasons to stop kicking Dean around. You don't hear the word "prescient" used very often to describe the much-maligned chairman, but one can make a pretty plausible case that his six years on the national Democratic scene have had a significant impact on his party -- on machinery, message and methods. If the Democrats win in 2008, they may come to thank Dr. Dean for providing the medicine that cured some of the party's ills.
Now that's pretty heavy stuff, isn't it? Do not forget to factor in the dissapointment he must have had to overcome when he went from rising star to almost ran.
One aspect of his brilliance is the ability to organize, especially in the area of fund raising.
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has been groundbreaking on many levels, but its widely hailed use of the Internet to create a large base of small donors largely recycles the breakthrough that powered Dean's 2004 campaign. Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, hired and ran the online fundraising team, but Dean himself had the foresight to embrace the Web revolution. Some 2008 candidates seem not to have followed suit: Despite having had more time to plan for her presidential run, Clinton has often found herself outmaneuvered at creative online fundraising by Obama, and unless Sen. John McCain builds a truly imposing Web-based money machine, he may find himself at a sizable fundraising disadvantage to either Democrat.
Not to forget that Dr. Dean went after "No child left behind" and the Iraq war with clarity and vigor early on. His way of keeping focused is a lesson for every politician who wants to prevail. Then there is his populism:
This presidential cycle seems to have ratified the populist shift that Dean had previewed; most of the Democratic candidates have at times sounded like versions of "people-powered Howard." Two leading DLC members, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, left the race early on, realizing that they had limited chances of winning in primaries dominated by more partisan activists. Even Obama, with his message of national unity, has taken some pains not to be portrayed as a classic Democratic centrist; in 2003, after the DLC listed Obama on its Web site as an up-and-coming state legislator, he publicly noted that he had not been a member of the group.
Bacon wonders if no small part of Senator Clinton's problems come from not learning from Dr. Dean.
Then there are the red states:
Dean's basic point was also something Democrats may come to embrace: Far more Democrats live in some very red states than you might guess, and if the Democrats want to build a permanent majority in Congress, they'll need to win at least some seats in those areas. (Consider an Obama rally in Boise last month that drew 14,000 people.) This year's long Democratic primary process may well be doing what Dean's DNC could not have afforded on its own: building Democratic organizations in states such as Idaho.
Yes there are 50 states out there and none of them are insignificant. That must be a painful lesson for those who thought otherwise. So we can thank Dr. Dean for much of what we are savoring right now.
It's no accident that Obama, not Dean, is benefiting most from some of Dean's insights. The DNC chief's checkered track record makes it hard for some Democrats to laud him. Many Democrats say that he has by and large failed at building strong organizations, both during his presidential run and his tenure at the DNC, which finds itself with far less cash on hand than the Republican National Committee, despite the paucity of grass-roots enthusiasm for the GOP. Dean is also often described as weak in the two areas party chairs are supposed to excel at: raising money and providing "message discipline." Many Democrats still cringe when the loose-lipped former governor appears on television to push the party's message -- an anxiety that will probably only worsen in the fall. Meanwhile, his limited relationships with many party insiders have made it harder for him to referee party disputes, such as stopping Michigan and Florida from moving their primaries up, or persuade the two Democratic brawlers not to bloody each other.
But those shortcomings don't tarnish the underlying point: Howard Dean has been a man ahead of his time. When he leaves Washington for good next year, the improved fortunes he has helped bring to his party may be enough to make him want to scream.
To me, the sign of a true leader is that he or she does not accept defeat. They just see each battle as another stage of the struggle to attain the prize. That prize is not their glory, but the good of the Party and the Country. For that I too am thankful to Howard Dean.