Dean for DNC

[akirlu]

Ezra Klein over at Pandagon has some pretty intriguing reasons why making Howard Dean the next Democratic National Committee chair is a good idea.

I'll add a couple of my own:

Dean is a fighter; he's a fighter even in defeat. When Kerry got the nod, Dean didn't take his marbles and go home. He continued to campaign, this time for Kerry, and continued to push his organization to reach out to and bring in more Democrats and Democratic allies. This is not a man who's going to roll over in tough times, and we've got some tough times ahead of us. We're going to need a Churchill for this war, and Dean has that kind of grit.

Dean is upbeat. That guy smiles like he means it, like he can see a way through. Too many of us are going to be prone to occasional fits of despair in the coming months and years, and having that pugnatious, grinning mug to look up to when things seem darkest will make it easier to pull through. Anything that gets us fired up is a good thing.

Dean is a DNC outsider. Yeah, that doesn't seem like an advantage on the face of it, but I think it is. From what I can gather, the DNC has continued to suffer from cliquishness, even gearing up for this last election. They've been refusing to back candidates, or fully back candidates, who weren't DNC vetted already, who weren't part of the established boys' club. That has so got to go. It's big tent time. "Just Win, Baby," must be the new motto. Which means the DNC chair must be someone who doesn't give a rat's ass whether a candidate has kissed the right DNC butts in the past, so long as they've got the right appeal. Dean is all about outreach to parts of the Democratic coalition who have felt disenfranchised and ignored up to now. The party needs a healthy dose of that attitude.

Update:
The Draft Howard website is now up. If you agree that getting Dean in to do a thorough housecleaning at the DNC is a good idea, go sign the petition.

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's precisely that kind of butt-headed wasting of capital (both financial and political) that has got to be weeded right out of the party leadership. Starting the circular firing squads before the primaries even begin is nothing less than moronic.

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

Where they may have really lost is that without the tearing down of Dean, Kerry may still have been the winner but there would have been more excitement before the party convention.