A few days ago, kos put up a poll w/Dean as a fantasy candidate for '08, which Dean won. Earlier, he had listed Gore, who won that poll. The problem with a Dean run is obvious. We desperately want him to be our president, but don't want him to tarnish his halo by breaking his promise.
I was not in favor of Dean going for the DNC chair precisely because of the bind it would produce down the road. After he won though, I realized the wisdom of the move. Fact is, the netroots had picked Howard as our leader long ago, when he lost we "fell in line" because there really was no choise. After the bitter defeat in Nov., we turned back to the guy we wanted to lead us in the first place. Things were way to bad to wait till '08.
Now, just as I thought, the desire for Dean as the nominee is growing. Everytime he opens his mouth and states the obvious, takes it to the Repugs, and presents common sence solutions the cries go up. Ironically, Dean as chair is expanding his base by leeps and bounds, contributing to the pressure. Because of his promise, the press has backed off a bit in thier attempts to paint Howard as a loon. More and more Dems are being exposed to the real Howard, the Howard some of us fell in love with long ago, and they are falling in love too. On every Dean thread there are plenty of comments to the effect that "now I see why you Deaniacs felt that way", or "I wish I had supported him in the primary".
For along time I thought the perfect solution to this wanting our cake and eating it too dilema was a Gore run. Gore has been telling truth to power since 2000, has become a great speaker since shaking loose from his DLC handlers, and supported Dean and us all the way. We all know he really won in 2000, so a Gore presidency would have a "Return of the King" flavor to it. Plus, he could wait until the tradition point to pick a VP, and pick Dean. With only 3 months left before the election, Dean transitioning to VP candidate from the chairmanship wouldn't be a problem. The throne would be restored to it's rightful owner, and we would get Howard into the White House with his halo intact.
While I would still be happy with this, I am now starting to think it must be Dean because of current events. The disaster that is the Bush presidency is becoming clear to all, and the chickens are coming home to roost. By '08 this country is going to be in awful shape, it is scary to think of how bad it will be. And with every passing day, Dean looks more like a prophet than a nut.
In this Dean is like Churchill, who went from political pariah for telling the truth when his people didn't want to hear it, to the only real choise precisely because he was proven right. Who do you think the people will want to lead them in very dark times? A Political opportunist, a dupe, or someone who laid his own career on the line in an effort to warn us before it was to late? Gore tried to warn us too, but as he had already decided not to run, he had "no skin in the game" as Cindy likes to say. Besides, as Dean was running he got the press. Who in the country is even aware that Gore opposed the war too? Only political junkies like us, as the sycophant press buried that on the back pages if they coved it at all.
But the biggest reason is this, Dean was a great governor, and after the disaster that was Bush, we are going to need a great president, not just a Dem one. We need someone who has proven executive abilities, and being second fiddle to the president isn't enough. Don't get me wrong, Gore might be a great president too, but I feel that things will be so dire we can't take that chance.
And as for "the promise"? All I have to say to that is that Howard promised, but we never promised we wouldn't draft him. If enough of us cry out for a Dean run, he won't be breaking a promise, he will be bowing to the will of the people.