Included in the very interesting piece posted yesterday on Kurtz's Dean postmortem, was the following tidbit:
It was during this period that some senior officials became convinced that Dean wasn't serious about doing what it takes to win the White House, especially when he refused repeated requests to ask his wife, Judith Steinberg Dean, to make even an occasional campaign appearance.
I was pilloried for making basically taking the same stance: that you can't, in 2004, just refuse to "use your family as a prop" as Howard Dean characterised it. (Maybe in 2104, or 3004, this will be doable...but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.) I'm very curious: are people here still convinced that Howard was right, or have you come around? And what do you think about the fact that behind the scenes, his senior staff was as incredulous as I was?