Three big ones: two obvious, the other one not so much.
The obvious ones:
- Provide cojones and backbone to the Democrats in general, and to the former lapdogs of W (Kerry, Edwards) in particular. Yesterday "feisty" victory speech by Lurch is an example. It's not just the tone, but also the issues: Iraq, NCLB, the deficit.
- The Trippi heritage. What DFA has done in terms of new networking and fundraising for the Party will prove invaluable in 2004 and beyond.
The not so obvious one:
3. This one is shared with Gep. By flaming out so spectacularly in Iowa he is pretty much precluding any of the surviving candidates to go after each other viciously. The CW was that Gep's brutal attacks on Dean mortally wounded both of them. Edwards already adopted a "be nice (enough)" strategy. He also seems to be accomodating his campaign for a possible VP slot anyway (he's done great in the "southern" states yesterday, with Kerry doing great everywhere else - you see where this is going, right?).
This is why it's really fine for the nomination battle to go on. Let Edwards battle Clark to see who's the best Southern candidate. Let Lurch bask in the glory of all those triumphs everywhere else. The media is focusing on these guys, the light is pretty benign, and they are not savaging each other. Even better, they are ripping W.
And thank you Dean for making all of these clowns more electable.