[I wrote a slightly longer version of this last night as a comment on another poster's diary entry, which contended, once again without supporting evidence of any kind save the learned splenetic visions of its author, that not only would Dean lose big in November, but he would take down the Dem ticket in a number of southern states (and possibly even in IL (?!)), thereby increasing repub majorities in both houses of Congress, and indeed bringing "an end to progressivism as we know it in America." Since Kos seemed to be down most of last night (I got "site not responding" messages for hours) I am reposting my comment here, slightly amended, for any interested parties.]
I grow...so...weary...of these Dean Doomsday prophecies, based entirely on thin air...(to quote Dilbert: "must...restrain...fist of death....")
I will pass over in (semi-) silence your blithe omission of even the most wafer-thin shred-let of supporting evidence (polls? thoughtful commentary by political scientists? etc...), and just address some other things you fail to mention. Dean has shown greater ability to raise money, and ignited more broad-based grassroots action, than any Dem in the modern election era (i.e., since Watergate). These factors can help other candidates both directly (by providing resources to other Dem ticket candidates, as Dean has already done), and indirectly (through GOTV and registering new Dem voters, who then vote the rest of the Dem ticket).
Did you take these factors into account?
...And did you also consider that it was NOT under Dean's esteemed stewardship that the Dems lost the House, nor again when the Dems lost even more seats in 2002? Or that it was not under Dean's influential hold over the DNC or his sway over the back rooms of party power that the Dems lost the Senate in 2002? Did you encapsulate in your careful analysis that it was also not Dean who failed to articulate a Democratic party opposition to a war of lies and an economic policy clearly fashioned by Dewey, Cheatham and Howe, nor Dean who failed to use a national podium in his possession to galvanize Bush haters and indeed all Americans with a Democratic party vision of a strong, just, and prosperous America, an America not divided by race, gender or sexual preference, where people other than the rich are valued and other than the privileged are heard, where the consitutional rights of citizens are not stripped from them like some flimsy husk at the president's command, where endless special interest favors are not charged to the purloined credit card of future generations, where the health and opportunity and dignity of ordinary working people are exalted and protected like the sacred treasures they indeed are, and where people are vigorously reminded that in a democracy it is they who hold the power of government and it is they who must recognize and seize and use that power? Did you incorrectly imagine that the failure to articulate such a vision was Dean's? Did you forget that it was not Dean who represented the good people of Connecticut or the fine people of Massachusetts or the esteemed people of North Carolina or the excellent inhabitants of one certain congressional district in MO during the Congressional elections of 2002, while forgetting somehow to mobilize the party and the nation against what is surely one of the worst presidencies of all time? Did you think it was Dean who went to give speeches at tony gatherings to praise said horrific presidency, back in the time when um, what was that phrase, oh yes, "an end to progressivism as we know it in America" seemed to descend, already and quite palpably, on us all?
People, if you don't like Dean, that's fine. But before you cause old Pedestrian more indescribable suffering and a great and formidable nausea unto death, can you FIRST please please PUL-LEEZE, before claiming that Dean will ruin life on earth as we know it, gather up just the tiniest bit of evidence, or even just some old fashioned logical argument, so we're not left with merely a recitation of your personal fear and loathing? Not that I have anything against fear and loathing, or your right to vent in this space. But it's all been said before, y'know?