Why Dean should take charge

[cal04]

With his passion and populist appeal, Howard Dean is exactly the leader the Democratic Party needs right now.
By Mark Hertsgaard

Florida Democrats' decision to unanimously back Howard Dean as the new chairman of the DNC shows two things: first, there are still some Democrats out there -- including in the supposedly hopeless South -- who have brains and guts and aren't afraid to think for themselves; and second, Dean now has a real shot at winning the DNC job and launching a much-needed makeover of the Democratic Party.

Political and media elites in Washington are at once horrified and dismissive of Dean's quest. They insist that Democrats would be crazy to pick a raving liberal like Dean as their next party chairman. But as is so often the case, this inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom is based on dubious "facts" and assumptions about how ordinary Americans relate to politics. Dean is exactly the leader Democrats need to become relevant again.

The Florida Democratic chairman's statement to the New York Times reveals just how out of touch the Washington establishment is: "I'm a gun-owning pickup-truck driver and I have a bulldog named Lockjaw," said Scott Maddox. "I am a Southern chairman of a Southern state, and I am perfectly comfortable with Howard Dean as DNC chair."And the reason Florida Democrats like Dean? "What our party needs right now is energy, enthusiasm and a willingness to do things differently," Maddox added. "I think Howard Dean brings all three of those things to the party."

Maddox isn't the only prominent Southern Democrat backing Dean. On Tuesday, the state chairman from Mississippi and the vice chairmen from Oklahoma and Utah announced that they too were endorsing the former Vermont governor, leading ABC News' influential The Note to declare that Dean "is now emphatically the front-runner" for the DNC job. What's more, in the wake of the Democrats' loss to President Bush in November, Dean's political message, and especially the way he delivers it, looks better and better.
The Florida and other Southern Democrats' decision to back him will, of course, be enormously helpful to Dean's prospects, but it also figures to call forth still more "anyone but Dean" efforts from the party establishment.
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2005/01/24/dean/index.html

[Larkspur]

1. This is what terrifies the Clintonistas

Dean's real secret was to give supporters real influence within his campaign and thus hook them on continued political participation. The idea of meet-ups, for example, came from the grass roots, not from campaign headquarters.

Giving power to the people, not to the plutocrats. That terrifies Clintonistas or corporate Democrats and Neo-cons alike.

Go Dean!!

[Larkspur]

2. This is what terrifies Neo-con Repukes

Dean, after all, is a populist. And his populism is not the brand espoused by President Bush -- a millionaire who shills for billionaires while talking like the common man. Dean's is the real thing. Which is why Republicans privately fear him.

[Cheswick2.0]

4. You are right in both cases.

[BlueManDude]

3. Just to see Leon Pannetta have an aneurism

I am not a Deaniac by any stretch - but I am 100% behind him for Dem Chair. This party needs to foot up it's collective ass.