Dean = Goldwater?

I know that these comparsons get tiresome after a while, but there is some value in pursuing them. EJ Dionne makes a comparison that I hadn't seen before, drawing parallels to Barry Goldwater:

[Dean's] campaign is now a movement and his promise is to reorganize U.S. politics. On Wednesday Dean augmented his base of well-educated professionals and young activists with the endorsements of two of the country's most politically powerful unions -- the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. These unions don't take fliers on appealing underdogs like Babbitt. They like to certify winners.
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This is the key to the Democratic race: Will Democrats decide that this year is about issues and electability, or will they choose instead to build a movement?

One Democrat captured a central reason for Dean's surge: "Many of Dean's people are more in love with the campaign than they are with the candidate." Trippi rejects this, noting that voters flocked to Dean before the effort became the high-tech wonder it is now. But Dean's visionary campaign manager himself lays heavy stress on the imperative of inspiring the same level of commitment on the Democratic side that is so obvious among conservative Republicans.

Trippi waxes eloquent on Dean's capacity to create a mass fundraising base that could challenge the Republican Party's vast treasury. He speaks of the "energy" Dean inspires at the grass roots. He talks of the campaign's appeal to younger voters who could lead a political realignment.
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Goldwater and his legions built a mighty movement that changed the country and affects politics to this day. But in 1964 Goldwater was clobbered by Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide felt all the way down the ballot.

Dean's challenge is to prove he can inspire a movement and still win the election.

This is a spot-on analysis. Dean's message hasn't just been about pulling a lever marked D, it's been about rescuing America from the partisanship that has deeply divided this country since the GOP embraced the politics of personal destruction against Clinton. And the simple fact that Dean is pulling conservatives and Republicans into his orbit is the mark of that promise - this is a campaign for America.