The following is excerpted from a longer piece on my own blog.
I'm a Dean supporter. These times now remind me of Mid September. Clark coming up in the nationals, passing Kerry in NH. No word from Iowa until Sunday, so we're in the dark about the storm. Are thousands of out of state volunteers making a difference, or are attack ads carrying the day? A little pit of worry sits in me.
With the flier that came out in NH yesterday, I think about how the campaign might have to "go after" General Clark in a serious fashion. I don't like it. Wes Clark doesn't seem like a bad guy. His policies aren't bad. He voted for Regan, sure, but so did a lot of people. Why should I really fight for Dean over him, I wonder?
With all this in mind, I went to my meetup; and it's about par for the course. But it's nice to have that moment of meeting people. Always sense a lot of latent potential in those things, but don't quite know how to tap it just yet.
And then I get home and turn on the TV, PBS late night. Charlie Rose has Dick Perle and David Frum talking about "An End To Evil," their blueprint for how to keep pulling the train on the Middle East (and N. Korea too).
It begins coming together in my mind. We have to win. The Neo-Imperialists may have the most lofty and humanitarian goals in mind, but they're clearly drunk with delusions of power and they're clearly far too comfortable with telling lies to get what they want. We have to win.
And when I say we have to win I don't mean we have to beat Bush. That's the first step, but we have to prevail with a different vision of how the world should be. We have to think as big as these bastards. Bigger, even. We need to change the system because the system isn't working. We need to clean house in this country, and put a lot of things in order. Wes Clark, nice guy that he may be and great resume that he has, is not in a position to do this.
To my ears, Howard Dean is the only candidate who speak to the enormity of the political moment. This is what came though in the beginning with "I want my country back," the idea that we're on a bad roll here, and it has to do with more than just one idiot pResident who was gifted with political capital like manna from heaven. This is what doesn't come through in the debates, with everyone squabbling over petty differences and dragging one another down in a fitful quest for personal power. Dean speaks to me and acknowledges what I see: unless we make some serious progress in the next decade, this country is headed into decline.
Our problems have deep roots, and they will take years to set right. I'm optimistic about our chances. We can set something in motion this election that will begin a process. A true American Renaissance is in the offing if we want it. With enough will to participate we can set these problems right. Dean's movement can rescue America from oblivion, but for that to happen enough of us need to believe.
But now the crunch is back; and the best thing to do is remember to breathe. There's work to do, but the most important thing is to stop struggling. Remember why you are here and learn to ride the storm. If our campaign founders now, we would have no chance against Bush. But if we've charted a course straight and true -- and I still believe that we have -- we have nothing to fear but fear itself.