There was a moment in the aftermath of the New Hampshire primary that, to me, defined how New Hampshire fundamentally changed the dynamic of 2008.
NPR's Bob Simon was interviewing a jubilant Clinton spokesperson about the factors that had created the groundswell that led to Senator Hillary Clinton's 3-point victory in the Granite State.
What impressed me was not so much what Senator Clinton's spokesperson said...spokespeople spin, we all know that...so much as the fact that there was an awkward moment when this well-known Democrat from the Clinton camp had to pause and inform Bob Simon that, indeed, he was more than a "spokesperson" for Hillary Clinton, he was her campaign chair.
The man Bob Simon was talking to should be familiar to all of us in the netroots...Clinton's campaign chair is none other than Terry McAuliffe.
Markos was right about New Hampshire. Now it's a real race. Voters across the country in a wide array of states will get to have our voices heard in a meaningful way. We voters are relevant, we aren't going to be afterthoughts.
I would also say that New Hampshire fundamentally changed the race for the Democratic nomination. What the media had begun to define as a "rush to embrace" Senator Barack Obama and his message of reform and hope paused for a reality check. After the voters in New Hampshire had their say, the nomination can no longer be simplified and written off in the media as a high school popularity contest. To use Markos's line from Yearlykos Las Vegas, we aren't "dating" the candidates any longer, or even, "going steady"; we're talking about marriage. We're getting serious.
That's a good thing.
Something else changed in New Hampshire that the Bob Simon interview hinted at and, in light of that seriousness, I think it's time we take a look at it. When it comes to party reform and future of what it means to be a Democrat in all 50 States, the stakes could not be greater.
New Hampshire represents the start of a debate about what it means to be a Democrat within our party, and what's at stake is the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.
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When the netroots were "born" in the aftermath of the 2002 elections, we were dealing with a Democratic Party we inherited from the 1990's. The party we inherited was shaped and built in large part by the legacy of President Bill Clinton and, in many significant ways, by Terry McAuliffe.
That's the truth.
Democrats were spineless triangulators. Our Congressional representatives were beholden to the powerful and not the people. Our state parties were in disarray. Too often Democrats were about dollars, and not much more. This was true not just at the top of the party...in the halls of Congress...but all the way down the line, deep into our state and county organizations.
Somebody needed to kick the Democratic Party in its Ass. (...we still do...we still do....)
In 2003, that somebody was Howard Dean.
What did Howard Dean's candidacy mean?
You could say it was about opposition to the war in Iraq. You could say it was about reforming the Democratic party. You could say it was about the courage to take common sense positions that moved our party forward. You could say it was about a 50 State Strategy that fought for our values and our candidates in every state. You could say it was about 'small d' participatory democracy and using technology and peer to peer communication to make our party stronger. You could say it was about our party and our candidates "growing a spine."
All of those would be true.
But if there was one thing that epitomized Howard Dean's message it was this phrase.
You have the power.
Those aren't words that Terry McAuliffe was ever particularly comfortable with, to make an enormous understatement.
But that's the truth.
Reform was about us, the people, the grassroots activists, not the powerful. It was our donations, our elbow grease and our participation. It was about getting local to make a difference. And in 2006 we proved that people power could, indeed, make a difference in all 50 states.
Terry McAuliffe had nothing to do with that.
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I want to be fair.
President Bill Clinton made his name as a candidate doing town hall forums barnstorming and caravan-ing across the United States talking to everyday people. That was a big change from George Herbert Walker Bush. Senator Hillary Clinton, in her victory speech in New Hampshire, spoke movingly about "finding her voice" through listening to the voters of New Hampshire. That's powerful stuff.
But the Clinton campaign is, in point of fact, not about party reform.
Nor is the Clinton campaign about the single most powerful message we as a people sent in the elections of 2006: that we as a nation want our elected officials to get us out of this war in Iraq, not in 2013, or someday, but sometime soon.
In a nutshell, Hillary Clinton expressed herself perfectly clearly at YearlyKos Chicago. She looked us in the eye and told us straight up: Federal Lobbyists represent "real people" too. When talking about reform in Washington D.C., you can't be more clear than that.
I think the netroots have a difficult and perhaps decisive choice to make over the next weeks. And it's not about who we "like" or "hate"...it's not about what the media says we "should" or "shouldn't" think. It's not about the "flavor of the week" on the blogs or the "hot story" of day.
The question is, what does you have the power mean in 2008?
What is the future of the movement that Howard Dean started to take our party and our country back?
Can we be pragmatic and work together and continue to build what we started five years ago on issues ranging from the war in Iraq to health care to gay equality? I think so. But it won't be easy. And, for each of us, the result will probably involve some personal effort to do what's right and yet still work together towards a common goal.
That's all any of us can do.
In light of that, I would like to make something clear in no uncertain terms. New Hampshire did change things. We in the netroots went from hearing the surprising results to hearing a jubilant Terry McAuliffe over our radios. To me, that asks all of us a question:
What does the heart and soul of the Democratic Party mean to you?