This is a thought experiment I want you all to try with me.
I just finished reading LauraD's wonderful diary I was the "crazy screaming woman," and it is full of heartfelt gratitude for Dr. Howard Dean. Let me share a few comments with you:
I remember crying when he conceded (28+ / 0-)
There was a documentary (forgot the name) that followed the candidate campaigns. It showed the transformation of Dean's campaign after Iowa - how it went from the large crowds to hollow chambers. I cried again because the death of that campaign was the death of hope for me. I hated everything Bush and Dean was the voice crying out in the wilderness that captured my passion. I thought Kerry was a stuffed shirt who gained the nod based on some phantom characteristic called "electability" and I've hated the term ever since!!!
Okay, okay, I'll stop regressing as my eyes are welling up again!
Thanks for this reminder as it put me back in that place and really DOES help me to empathize someone. One thing I didn't do was to publicly bash Kerry or any Dem because it was MORE important to me to get rid of Bush (although like you, I might have voted for McCain v.2000). I came around and resisted the urge to claim "I told you so." when we all lost in 2004. My lack of passion for Kerry as a candidate made me disinclined to work for his campaign and I owned a piece of our loss because of it.
We cannot relive this sad narrative. It hurts too much.
by ILean Left on Tue Jun 03, 2008 at 01:03:17 AM EDT
I also was a Deaniac, (9+ / 0-)
and when he said "I want my country back" I stood in my livingroom and cheered and cried. The next week I asked my kids to get me a computer and the very first words I typed into this strange looking T.V. was Howard Dean and up came his DFA website.
I was so excited and dedicated, I made a 50 state quilt for him which I sent to his Vermont offices on his birthday. I had heard it still hangs in the DFA offices, but I really do not know.
And here I am still checking websites daily.
The other inspiring thing he has done for me is not quit when he got out of the race. The Clintons and others had not wanted him as head of DNC but the states put him in that position. And Obama is the beneficiary of that result.
It was also after Iowa that my anger spilled over here at DKos and Armando gave me some of the only troll ratings I have ever received. I thought I could never vote for Kerry, and while I liked Edwards, have never forgotten the Iowa caucuses and Kucinich and Edwards throwing all their support to Kerry. ARGGHHHHH.
by GrandmaJ on Tue Jun 03, 2008 at 06:46:36 AM EDT
In a way, Dean should feel vindicated through... (24+ / 0-)
Obama's victory -- especially tomorrow night when Barack officially goes over the top.
Reflecting back, Dean started this 4-years ago and what he accomplished back then was simply remarkable. But, I'm thinking the rest of the country just wasn't ready for the so-called "changing of the guard."
The country is ready now. And, there's no turning back except to thank Mr. Dean for sparking a movement.
Senator Obama, we're calling on you to do Governor Dean and the movement (that would be We the People) proud.
Good diary. Tipped & Rec'd.
by markthshark
Rancor became nostalgia (22+ / 0-)
After having had such a hard time letting go of Dean in '04, I now look back at him and that campaign so warmly. In addition to all of his other attributes, we forget that he was one of the first people who spoke out openly and comprehensively against the Iraq War. It felt like there finally was someone speaking sanity, and validating the opinions you'd been arguing in anonymity. He normalized criticism of the war and made it feel safer to speak out against it, and aggressively so.
Letting go was hard, but I now think back to that campaign with complete pride and fondness, even if he wasn't the nominee. Hopefully there will be others who feel the same way four years from now.
by jwgarp on Tue Jun 03, 2008 at 12:39:21 AM EDT
Word to that. (2+ / 0-)
I volunteered in Florida doing voter outreach for the election with a bunch of liberals in November 2004. Then we lost.
I flew back to New York the next day, heavily depressed and went straight to a friend's house, who was also a Dean Democrat. Gov. Dean had a conference call going that night that we called into, fresh off another electoral loss and facing the prospect of .... no hope.
It was on that call that someone asked Dean if he would think of running for DNC Chair. It was a "now what do we do moment." I remember him saying he would think about it. And I remember feeling a little bit more solid, that this man I respected did not just curl up and go away but instead, right after we LOST, was having a discussion about how to remain engaged in the best way possible. Made me feel like all was not lost if we could remain productively engaged somehow.
As this whole Clinton-Obama kerfluffle has waged on, one thing I've always had faith in was that Howard Dean would not be down with something that was unfair in picking our nominee. Although he perhaps was not as smooth at avoiding a MI-FL confrontation in the first place, I'm very glad "our man" was in there. Imagine how this could have turned out for the party if a DLC insider was Chair, as usual. Clinton might have wrested the nomination from Obama in violation of rules and split the party for real.
We really dodged a bullet.
by brooklynliberal on Tue Jun 03, 2008 at 10:20:25 AM EDT
And finally, this was what I had to say:
Yep, he was the guy. (0+ / 0-)
He was the man that engaged me, too. He's still the only candidate that I've traveled anywhere to see; the only one who's hand I sought out to shake. It was a cold, clear night outside the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Saco, Maine. He was on his way to his car when a big guy in a black coat and watch cap walked up out of the dark, just to wish him luck and thank him for giving me a voice. (He was even shorter than I thought he would be.)
It was still early days; his speech was sharp and his message was fresh and he was as righteous as my anger. When I got back to the apartment, I told my girlfriend that I was pleased to have had a chance to shake the hand of the next President of the United States.
Shit. But he was the first one to get it right, and to be right about the party in so many different ways. He and Edwards saw the same problems; Dean very early saw the need to build a base where there were only abandoned foundations.
Thanks to his work (post-shafting), we laid the groundwork for someone even more charismatic, someone who, although an intellectual, does not appeal solely on anger and intellect, who somehow offers a deeper hope.
I still want to grind these neocons under my heel. Dr. Dean has made this (and that) all possible. It's an historic legacy.
We're so lucky we got him when we did.
by Gooch on Tue Jun 03, 2008 at 10:43:58 AM EDT
You get the idea. And now we have a 50 state strategy and it is working. So much that is so important came out of the Dean campaign (not the least of which is DailyKos).
So here is my thought experiment, the one that's actually choking me with emotion as I sit here procrastinating:
Late August, 2008. Denver, Colorado. Dr. Howard Dean, Chairman of the DNC, steps to the microphone and prepares to speak...
Imagine the reception of the crowd...