Howard Dean for DNC head?

this should be fun, at any rate.

Is Dean exactly what is needed? A firebrand shot-in-the-arm, and someone who will take it to the Republicans, in stark contrast to the previous 'centrist' leadership... or is this effectively mirroring the UK Labour Party in 1979-83? I would personally caution against the latter, considering that it hardly seems agreed that Dean is wholly a 'leftist' candidate. The significant end of his campaign came not with any specific policy but with his carried-away hooting, post-defeat.

This can only be good for Democrat politics, because let's face it after the last election the Democratic party can frankly NOT get much worse off than it is. The country can, yes, but the Democratic party is basically powerless to stop that downward slide as it is and I saw no indication that anyone else who was being put up for the DNC had a clue how to prevent that slide into irrelevancy from occurring. And I'm not sure Dean does either, BUT I am pretty sure that Dean will do 1) his damndest to try to prevent it from continuing (guy just loves power too much for that) and 2) will not be hidebound to some idea that ISN'T working. And that can only be for the good.

The pick should not be viewed primarily through the lens of ideology (and, once again, all together now, Dean has long been a centrist). It's going to be a primarily mechanical position, focused on building the party at the state and local level. Picking Dean brings along the self-acknowledged risk of gaffes, and he's going to try to keep his head down to avoid them. But message can't be ignored. And his is more outspoken.

Sorry, I got excited.

I'm about as big a Dean-o-phobe as Chait these days, to be frank, (it's why I've probably burned most of my bridges over at the Daily Kos, where some days I think only RonK and a few others have their heads on straight) and I hope I'm wrong when I say we're probably headed off to the political wilderness for at least one more election cycle. I also hope Dean has the good sense to stay off camera, because he is 100% incapable of not shooting his mouth off at inopportune times, and the GOP is as always poised to exploit the hell out of it every time he does so.

Still, if the powers-that-be in the DC establishment can't get their act together sufficiently to unite the party behind another candidate, they deserve whatever train wreck they're getting.

Dean and Rosenberg were really the only candidates I was excited about. Frost I was absolutely disgusted with.

I heart the netroots people but they live in an echo chamber; step outside of it and go to a red county and talk to people, or sit and watch mainstream media coverage, and you start to realize just how far the political dialogue has shifted and how hapless and out of the mainstream we Dems often look. Meanwhile BushCo were referencing JFK and Roosevelt during the campaign season. Not only are they gaining more of the center, they're eating our party's legacy, and nobody seems to know WTF to do about it.

I don't see the GWOT issues magically disappearing before the next election and I think it's dangerous for the Dems to continue to cede this ground to the other party and focus exclusively on domestic issues. Kerry knows his stuff on the foreign policy front and instead he's busy with some child health insurance act - not that it isn't extremely important! - but can't we pull someone else off the bench to throw up idealistic domestic initiatives that'll never make it out of committee?

Once again, I hope I'm wrong, but I think we're in more trouble than many of the bloggers realize.

steal back. a "message" based on small government, small if you consider the budget for defense vs. domestic spending. reform the cia so that it can work with the military so that military intelligence units are unjustified. realistic healthcare reform. a policy in iran based upon encouraging demoncratizing forces within the nation, as suggested by vahid here.
i don't know.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050516&s=kucinich

While Republican leaders wine and dine the super rich, Chairman Dean will spend his day today talking with ordinary Americans. He will be calling regular folks who have given $25 -- not $25,000 -- and listening to what you have to say about our party, our country, and our future.

(I do think that it's a cool idea.)