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This will be interesting….

<![CDATA[Yahoo! News – Howard Dean Chosen to Lead Democratic Party: Howard Dean, whose high-flying presidential bid collapsed in disarray one year ago, won the post of Democratic chairman on Saturday and will take up the job of leading the party back from November’s election losses. I worked for Governor Dean early in the campaign, but […]

<![CDATA[Yahoo! News – Howard Dean Chosen to Lead Democratic Party:

Howard Dean, whose high-flying presidential bid collapsed in disarray one year ago, won the post of Democratic chairman on Saturday and will take up the job of leading the party back from November’s election losses.

I worked for Governor Dean early in the campaign, but lost confidence in him long before the fabled scream, which was hardly important. The reason I moved away from the Dean camp was that he failed to consolidate his leadership by broadening the range of issues he promoted in order to build a “big tent,” because it seemed there was enough money in the little tent to mount a viable challenge. Yet there isn’t enough electoral support in a small tent, no matter what people are willing to pay to be in it. By the time Washington had its caucuses, I was working to send an uncommitted delegate to the county convention who would focus on issues, not a candidate. We won a share of our precinct caucus, but someone else went on to the next level.
Now, I have hope that Mr. Dean will do what great politicians of the past have done: Learn from that first experience in the national spotlight. I’d happily follow him if he has the character to see the value of far broader sources of input and ideas in campaigns. But his Dean Dozen approach, which was a sort of support-this-candidate-because-she-is-one-of-us strategy, was only marginally successful, so I have my doubts now that he is chairman of the Democratic Party.]]>