When you think of the current state of the Dean campaign, no one knows what will happen. Dean and his supporters (myself included) are all feeling the pain of being called insensitive and arrogant. As much as Dean gets hit on this, so do his supporters. That is the beauty and the beast of the way Dean runs his campaign. I hope that his people don't get discouraged by the way Dean handled himself lst night. I thought overall he did fine. Unfortunately it is gutwrenching to be perceived as insensitive towards issues of race and even to poor rural whites. I think that Dean's apology is very good however and it may easily get him back on track.
Despite this, I think Dean has had a valuable lesson in talking about race. I have and still think that Dean is valiant in his attempts to make race an issue to bring us together. Dean SHOULDN'T back down on race at all. I just think he needs to approach it with more care. Dean hasn't had to handle race with care until now because of being the governor of a state where 98% of the people are white. This is where Clinton and Gore excelled in politics. Both were able to talk about race with ease because they were atuned to the climate of racism that was the south in the 1950s. Dean, despite being concious enough to ask for a black roommate in college, has never dealt with these issues on a large scale and signing the civil unions bill doesn't make you an expert (although I thought it was a good reminder for people that he does care very much about civil rights.)I think that this has been a painful, but good learning experience for Dean.
What was sad about these attacks is that they were not entirely warranted. Dean was making incredible progress in courting African-Americans. Then this issue was blown out of proportion because Dean slipped up by totally ignoring the guy who asked the question and instead saying what he wanted to say. He looked careless to some degree. Then Edwards and Sharpton scored political points rather than true outrage. I'm not so sure that Edwards was so sincere in anger. Edwards played the Southern vs. Yankee card. That play may vault him back to the toop in SC if he's lucky. Sharpton, was a little more sincere, but not much. Sharpton, still smarting from Jesse Jackson Jr.'s endorsement of Dean, may have been more or less trying to put Dean in his place. Dean is barking up the wrong tree if he feels that because he got Jackson's endorsement he can get more credibility despite being insensitive. Sharpton let him know he still hs a lot of pull in the community.
Finally, the only good things for Dean on this issue is that this won't come out in the general election to hurt him. Things like Dukakis's prison furlough came out in the primary and in the general destroyed him. This won't hurt Dean if he wins the nomination. Republicans have no chance at hurting Dean on race. That would be the only bright spot for Dean. Also, Dean will watch his words from now on and start prepping for debates better. I don't look at this contreversy as something that will kill his campaign, but it will teach him.