Howard Fineman's Newsweek piece Dean In The Danger Zone
was posted late this afternoon. Fineman talked with Trippi and
gives some insight into the mounting problems at the Dean
campaign.
Joe Trippi was on my mobile phone. I had called him for some poll
numbers and he sounded, understandably, hassled. Not frantic, but
stressed. He should be....The numbers are a mess, he
(Joe Trippi) said, meaning that things were still uncomfortably
fluid. John Kerry was moving up fast, Dick Gephardt was sinking
just as fast, and even John Edwards seemed to be making a late
move. Front-runners dont like that much motion underneath,
even if they are ahead.
Deans own surge has clearly slowed. To revive it, this
self-styled non-Washington politician is trying to goose his
campaign in the most traditional way: with endorsements. Al Gores
seemed to help; Bill Bradleys clearly did not.
Last September, when Dean had 450,000 on his e-mail list, Trippi
confidently predicted that he would have 900,000 by the end of
the year. But the astronomical growth didnt continue, and
the total has barely inched to 600,000
And under the pressure of approaching Armageddon, campaigns make
mistakes. Deans own errors as a candidate and public
speaker are well-known, but generally have been rendered
harmless by the tactical and strategic skill of his campaign.
Until now. For the first time, Im seeing the Dean Team off
its stride, behaving like mere mortals.
I get the sense sometimes that the Deanies live in their own
worldI call it Dean Worldand that if it is OK with
the Blog, then they think they are fine. Its true that no
single gaffe hurt Dean much, and, for the most part,
their importance was dismissed by the chatterers on his various
Web sites. But there is a larger universe out there, not just in
the Democratic Party, but in the country, and its clear
that the small cuts have added up to some loss of blood. The
campaign was born on the Blog, but it cant sustain itself
there. Trippi knows that, which is why he is so nervous.
Rob is
the founder and editor of the progressive news site robwire.com and is a
frequent contributor to rob.dailykos.com