Burlington Free Press Suggests Howard Dean Bow Out Now

[feistydem]

Howard Dean's Hometown newspaper the put it to him very clearly in it's editorial today.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/bfpnews/editorial/1000h.htm


The grace to leave

Howard Dean's presidential aspirations have come full circle. He is exactly where he was a year ago -- trailing badly in the polls and with little money to conduct a nationwide campaign.

But what a year it has been. From an obscure former New England governor to the momentary favorite to capture the Democratic nomination, Dean has experienced the full sweep of presidential politics -- the exulting highs and the crashing lows.

It's over. Dean will not be elected president in 2004.

After the hurrahs, the speeches, the debates, the media confrontations, Dean should exit gracefully from the presidential contest. Barring an electoral miracle today in Wisconsin, Dean will have lost every one of this year's first 17 presidential caucuses and primaries.

That represents a convincing rejection of Howard Dean by the rank-and-file members of the Democratic Party, from coast to coast. Dean had the money, the media attention, some powerful messages and impressive endorsements, but in every corner of the country he did not match what Democrats desire in their presidential nominee this year.

Should a similar verdict be returned by Wisconsin today, Dean is best advised to put the lid on his presidential effort. For pride alone, Dean does not want to be perceived as a vanity candidate, a punch-drunk fighter seeking one more round to prove himself the champion.

Right now, Dean is walking the fine line between respect and ridicule. His presidential campaign accomplished much. It set the tone for the early campaign and lifted electronic electioneering to a new level of sophistication. Dean sharpened the debate among Democrats on issues ranging from the war in Iraq to inner-city education.

That means he could leave the field defeated but unbowed and with dignity fully intact.

Or he could continue a quixotic crusade that has no chance of success and risk alienating himself from much of the Democratic Party by forgetting that in practical presidential politics, if you can't lick 'em, you join 'em. No one likes a sore loser, especially one who got a fair shot at the prize but came up lacking.

Moreover, Dean's future political prospects would hardly be enhanced should his harsh attacks against Sen. John Kerry help scuttle the Democrats' chances to defeat President George W. Bush this fall.

The Dean campaign will be a major topic in the 2004 presidential election histories. The phrase "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," the Internet meetups, the youthful energy, the 'scream," the former Vermont governor enjoying rock-star style celebrity: All will become part of American political lore.

But once it really counted, Democratic voters wanted someone other than Howard Dean as president.

[MercutioATC]

1. They're entitled to an opinion....I'm entitled to mine. We're staying in!

Neither Dean nor I (nor MOST of his supporters) are going anywhere. Glad to see them exercise their right to free speech, though...

[Moderator]

2. Locking.

Candidate threads belong in GD04.