His Meteoric Days Gone, Quiet Dean Leads Party
For Mr. Dean, this could be a moment of great prominence, a chance to tower over the party at a buoyant moment. But most days, he conducts business in near obscurity, rarely appearing on television or at public events. It is a sharp departure from chairmen like Ronald H. Brown, a power broker known for firing off strategy memorandums in 1992, or Terry McAuliffe, a highly visible figure and one of the party’s most successful fund-raisers, who stepped down in 2005. Mr. Dean travels the country without an entourage, often stopping in state capitals like here in Minnesota, inspecting the progress of projects like a door-knocking program that encourages people to stop by 25 houses three times before Election Day. To a room filled with activists, he declares, “We need to knock on most of the doors in America in the next year!”…. Mr. Dean appears content with his role, talking about the past and the present with a relaxed air of confidence.
Yeah, no one would be able to blame Howard Dean if he were to stand up and yell, “(&^% you! I TOLD you so!!” Given what Republicans have done to this country over the past few years, it would be difficult to argue with Dean. Of course, that sort of declaration will accomplish nothing, and Dean knows that “I told you so” is an incredily petty (and very likely unsuccessful) campaign strategy. Now that the Democratic Party’s fortunes are finally on the upswing, “I told you so” seems almost beside the point.
Honestly, I really admire Howard Dean for the way he’s directed the Party over the past few years. It would have been understandable had Dean used his chairmanship to position himself for a Presidential run in 2008. Instead, he stayed out of the headlines, largely working quietly to build a base from which the party could make a run at gaining or consolidating power. It looks as if, given the rank corruption with which the Republicans have steered the ship of state, that Democrats will be a distinct minority after November of next year. If that happens, as appears likely now, no one will be more deserving of kudos, and yet less likely to receive them, than Howard Dean. Here’s a man who determined early on that for Democrats to have any chance at electoral success, they would need a solid base. That meant organizing at the grassroots level, a task which Dean has ably shepherded over the past few years. By creating an organized and disciplined party at the grassroots level, the fortunes (and fundraising) of the Democratic Party looks pretty bright. Were it not for the hard (and often unnoticed) work of Howard Dean over the past few years, it’s possible- and indeed likely- that things would look very different right about now.
I TOLD YOU SO!!!
I know…I couldn’t resist….
