It's Dean

After nearly all of the competition bowed out of the race, it appears that Howard Dean will be the next DNC chair. Indiana's Tim Roemer remains as Dean's only rival; the only thing I've heard from Roemer is that the party needs to make more room for pro-life Democrats, like himself. While I agree that middle ground is easy to find, apparently this particular election won't be the stage for the reconciliation Roemer is seeking.

So what does Dean's election mean for a minority party that showed an amazing amount of fund raising prowess and get-out-the-vote capability in the 2004 elections but not a lot in the way of victories?

I admit, I was a Deaniac in 2003 and early 2004. I wrote letters to Iowa voters and was inspired to start Simianbrain by the incredibly active blog at Dean for America. I saw him speak at GSU and was highly impressed by not only his rhetoric but also the response of the audience. I gave some money to his campaign at a time when I had been unemployed for months following my move back to an Atlanta that just wasn't hiring, because Howard Dean had a message of hope and opportunity.

I'm well aware of the scream. I'm well aware that he talked a good game on fiscal responsibility and 50-state strategies but blew all his cash on two contests. Still, Howard Dean is somebody who I think gets it.

Do you remember the Confederate flag flap, where all the other candidates who didn't become President or win a single southern state went after Dr. Dean for saying that he wanted to be the candidate of guys with Confederate flag stickers on their bumpers, too? You remember that he'd been saying that for a year at that point, right?

Dean inherits an organization, like the one he left last March, that is competitive in fundraising. He inherits an organization that is seeking a leader who is grounded in priciple, not style. He inherits an organization that he almost single-handedly invigorated in 2003, and which is hungry for vision.

He's got all of these, and I think he understands the need to, and displays the capacity to, frame Democratic issues for what they are: ethical answers to problems facing our families, our communities, and our country.

I know that everyone has been delighting in burying the Democratic party for the last few months, but I think this is misguided. Right-wing extremism has opened up voters in the Western and Mountain states for solutions that are based in policy, not faith. Colorado, of all places, was a major success for Democrats in 2004. Montana handed over the governor's mansion to a Democrat who ran on, among other things, a policy that would ensure that float fly fishermen could float public streams even where they went through private land. Remarkable where we can find agreement on what community and public mean, right?

I think that Dean, who comes from a largely rural and eccentric state and was fantastically successful there even after being cornered into creating civil unions for gays, has something to him that no number of Terry McAuliff's will provide.

Good luck, Dr. Dean. They've been declaring your patient dead for quite some time. Your training is not just an asset, but a prerequisite for this job.