Turn the DNC Purple
I have a feeling that Dean is going to make a bid for DNC Chair:
UPDATE: The inevitable Draft Howard petition website has sprung up.
Dean as head the DNC would be a strong move in favor of more Purple-based politics, in my opinio. The reason is that Dean was the first, and remained the only, candidate to articulate the idea that the Democrats should not concede the South. Re-orienting the Democratic Party towards a truly national one, rather than trying to cherry-pick a majority of selected regions, is essential towards changing the RedBlue political culture. At the very least, it would force the Republicans to compete on the issues in Red States, which would introduce more dimensions to the political dialouge than just "god, gays, and guns" - and I am not just talking about economic appeals. Rather, the opportunity for a morality-guided domestic policy, with regard to charity, social works, and a true culture of life (more on that soon...).
The important thing is to try to move away from the same old GOTV arms race paradigm and to try to craft a geniunely national platform.
There is a political benefit as well. The various factions within the Democratic party - the DLC, the Clintonistas, the Kennedy Clan, etc - all were united against Dean. In Kerry, they had the chance to finally unite and present their conscensus candidate (selected through the front-loaded primary schedule that McAuliffe, a Clintonista, crafted precisely for the purpose of a rapid selection). Kerry's failure has essentially bankrupted their political capital. Dean represents a bold change and in remains the Democrats' sole success story (with regard to transformative politics). As chairman, he would actually have a mandate of sorts, to try new strategies and stymie the firmly-inside-the-box inertia thinking of the old guard. After all,m he can simply say, "you torpedoed me, and you got your way - and you failed. Now its time to try it my way." That kind of freedom is almost comparable to that of, say, an incumbent President freed from the worries of re-election.
ADDENDUM: Steve Grossman is a former chairman of AIPAC, who seemed to be a turncoat during the Dean campaign's waning hours, but is someone who still has Dean's trust and therefore deserves benefit of the doubt.
UPDATE: Liberal Oasis disagrees, arguing that Dean should instead seek to be a Bill Kristol-inspired Strategist and Ass-Kicker At Large (SAKAL). It's an intriguing idea, but why wouldn't Dean's arguments be any less distorted if he were the SAKAL rather than the DNC Chair, by the right-wing smear machine?
UPDATE: The inevitable Draft Howard petition website has sprung up.
Former presidential candidate Howard Dean is considering a bid to become chairman of the national Democratic Party.
"He told me he was thinking about it," Steve Grossman, himself a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Monday. Grossman was a Dean backer during the former Vermont governor's failed presidential bid."I strongly urged (Dean) to seek the position," he said. "Howard is a voice of political empowerment and that to me is important, for the Democrats to get their sea legs back as quickly as possible, to get beyond the disappointment of the last week and to believe there is a bright future ahead for the Democratic Party."
Dean has been outspoken since the beginning of his presidential bid in saying that the Democratic Party must establish a separate and unique identity from Republicans.
Grossman said that if Dean were to run for DNC chair, he would need to pledge that he would serve the full four-year term, thus ruling out a presidential bid in 2008.
Dean as head the DNC would be a strong move in favor of more Purple-based politics, in my opinio. The reason is that Dean was the first, and remained the only, candidate to articulate the idea that the Democrats should not concede the South. Re-orienting the Democratic Party towards a truly national one, rather than trying to cherry-pick a majority of selected regions, is essential towards changing the RedBlue political culture. At the very least, it would force the Republicans to compete on the issues in Red States, which would introduce more dimensions to the political dialouge than just "god, gays, and guns" - and I am not just talking about economic appeals. Rather, the opportunity for a morality-guided domestic policy, with regard to charity, social works, and a true culture of life (more on that soon...).
The important thing is to try to move away from the same old GOTV arms race paradigm and to try to craft a geniunely national platform.
There is a political benefit as well. The various factions within the Democratic party - the DLC, the Clintonistas, the Kennedy Clan, etc - all were united against Dean. In Kerry, they had the chance to finally unite and present their conscensus candidate (selected through the front-loaded primary schedule that McAuliffe, a Clintonista, crafted precisely for the purpose of a rapid selection). Kerry's failure has essentially bankrupted their political capital. Dean represents a bold change and in remains the Democrats' sole success story (with regard to transformative politics). As chairman, he would actually have a mandate of sorts, to try new strategies and stymie the firmly-inside-the-box inertia thinking of the old guard. After all,m he can simply say, "you torpedoed me, and you got your way - and you failed. Now its time to try it my way." That kind of freedom is almost comparable to that of, say, an incumbent President freed from the worries of re-election.
ADDENDUM: Steve Grossman is a former chairman of AIPAC, who seemed to be a turncoat during the Dean campaign's waning hours, but is someone who still has Dean's trust and therefore deserves benefit of the doubt.
UPDATE: Liberal Oasis disagrees, arguing that Dean should instead seek to be a Bill Kristol-inspired Strategist and Ass-Kicker At Large (SAKAL). It's an intriguing idea, but why wouldn't Dean's arguments be any less distorted if he were the SAKAL rather than the DNC Chair, by the right-wing smear machine?
Comments
I've baswically added this comment to test how it works and for some fine-tuning. At present, anyone can comment, but I can enable comment registration at will if we have a troll infestation. I encourage people to register with Blogger - and if you do, to start a blog! I will link to Dean Nation regulars in a dedicated blogroll if you choose to do so.
Of course, my initial emotional response is "No! I want Dean to run in 2008!" I just don't like the idea of Dean essentially pledging not to run in '08. Would the country really have him? I still believe if enough people heard Dean talk about the issues without being wildly distorted by the mass media, he would have a great chance of being elected. We don't know what will happen in the next 4 years.... perhaps as the Bush administration drags us further down the path of no return, Dean's current baggage will look awfully light.
Still, the DNC job may be a smart move -- being chair of DNC would give him a lot more clout nationally for the next four years and allow him to use and retool the mechanisms and already considerable influence that the party already has. I would really rather see Dean as an out-front leader than a behind-the-scenes guy, though.