How Howard Dean Saved the World

Howard Dean doesn’t get a lot of love lately. People have relegated him an obscure footnote in the history of politics - An ineffectual leader of the DNC who refused to take sides in what was seen as a destructive and potentially fatal primary battle between Hillary Clinton and President Elect Barack Obama. If he’s remembered at all by the wider population it’s more likely than not for his unearthly scream at the conclusion of the Iowa primary. Endlessly repeated by the news media - that scream drown out an otherwise remarkable grassroots campaign heavily relent on youth support and Internet fundraising. A recipe dutifully duplicated and improved upon by the Obama campaign. Could Obama have hoped to defeat the democratic frontrunner status and uber-power of the Clinton machine without the Dean Internet / grassroots campaign roadmap? Unlikely. But we aren’t taking about that ground breaking effort to re-engaged voters in the political process in 2004 as we should. Lets give Dean his dues. After all, to paraphrase Einstein, if the Obama campaign could see farther it’s because it stood on the shoulders of giants. But that was a long time ago. What has Dean done for us lately? Well after his defeat Dean became head of the DNC directing the efforts and resources to elect democrats across the country and birthing the “50 state strategy,” a concept perhaps most responsible for the scale of democratic wins in Congress and one whose adoption by the Obama campaign helped usher in a Democratic mandate unmatched in my lifetime. Still there are many who were frustrated by his unwillingness to support Obama over Hillary (or vice versa) and end a brutal battle that slogged from state to state. I say thank goodness, because sure enough those battles help toughen and swell the ranks of democratic ground troops in states that would have never otherwise have been in contention in the general election. Even more importantly, it helped create a volunteer infrastructure competitive with the much-vaunted Republican machine in the perennial battlegrounds states. So what's my point? My point is that us Democrats owe a lot of our current success to Dean and maybe the country and the world at large should consider showing a little gratitude. In short, I’ve dusted off my Deaniac beanie and so should you!