Like many I was disappointed when I heard that Obama was supporting the House capitulation on FISA, giving telecoms immunity.  I was so angry I sent a missive to the Obama campaign vowing that I would no longer support them with money or by volunteering.

Today I heard something that opened my mind.  

I must admit that up until now I haven't taken seriously the doomsday predictions of the effects of Hillary's negative campaigning on the Democratic Party.  But with Geraldine Ferraro's recent comments, the non-repudiation by the Clinton campaign, and Ferraro's unapologetic (Obama campaign is attacking me) resignation, I think it's beginning to reach a danger point where I think it will start damaging the Democratic Party.

Add to that the race-baiting by Gov. Ed Rendell (whites won't vote for blacks), Bill Clinton (equating Obama to Jessie Jackson, inferring that Obama is a polarizing black politician), Clinton pollster Sergio Bendixen saying that Latinos don't vote for African Americans, and Clinton's Los Angeles debate anecdote of a black man who blames immigrants for his financial woes, and it presents overall a very ugly picture.  

Not only does John McCain have an anger management problem and embarrassing foot-in-mouth, but according to  Mark Benjamin at Salon.com,  many in command positions in the military are frightened of a McCain presidency because at times they have seen that he "loses his mind."
 
On MSNBC's Keith Olbermann:

In some diaries, people have said how the excitement of the Obama campaign reminded them of their first connection with the netroots, Howard Dean.  I guess there were lessons learned from that one:  how internet popularity didn't necessarily translate into votes, that at a certain point we needed to step away from our computers and get involved in our communities doing the work for the campaigns we support (never got a chance to do much unfortunately; Howard was out before California had its turn), and most importantly, to stay humble and hungry.  

The only thing I would add is that we progressives continue to stay involved in politics at all times, not only during elections.

I love Howard Dean, and in 2004 his candidacy was like a breath of fresh air for me.  For once I not only liked the Democratic candidate but was also excited about the possibility of changing the way we operated, to ignore the Republican smears and not be afraid of who we were and what our values were.  

Even though I respected Howard Dean and all he'd done up to that point, in watching his speeches I always had the thought floating in the back of my mind that he came across as angry, and he somehow didn't seem presidential. I'd hoped that he would grow into the role and learn as he went, but he didn't seem to significantly change as time went on.  His harsh partisan rhetoric played well among Dems but ended up turning off the general public.  

He didn't end up being the candidate and we lost the election, but because of him my involvement in the Democratic party continues to this day.  I'd never felt an investment in the Democratic Party until he became head of the DNC, where he was trying to break the corporate, DLC stranglehold on the party.  His energy, skills and intellect seem a perfect fit for his current position as he is doing a wonderful job and has a chance to remake an organization that gets its direction from the bottom up rather than top down.