Nation-Building >> peaking? impossible | return to front page

Kos, who actually has the ear of the Democratic Party, dispenses bitter medicine to the DLC and the rest of the Democratic Party establishment:

So I'm no pie-in-the-sky idealist. I apply cold, hard calculus to every race and throw my weight behind the guy that has the best chance of winning. And I have no doubt in my mind that Dean is that guy.

Case in point, while the rest of the Democratic field scratches its head, wondering how to slow Dean's momentum (not realizing that every attack on Dean is good for thousands more MeetUp signups), Dean's team has been bold, daring, even exhibiting a bit of chutzpah.

How else to explain the ad campaign the Dean campaign will run in Austin this week, mocking Bush as he vacations nearby? Texas isn't a key primary state, and if it was, Dean couldn't win it, could he? And even if he could win the state's primary (and the nomination), he REALLY couldn't compete in Texas in 2004, could he?

Nah, Texas is out of reach. But this ad buy goes beyond that. It cements Dean as the star of the field. He fires up the base (ads in Texas? I was giddy when I first read about it!). He earns globs of free press as news programs and the cable news networks talk and talk some more about the ad.

Kos goes on to warn us Dean supporters that complaining about Kerry's, Liebermans's, or the DLC's attacks ultimately amounts to purist whining. Dean is taking the battle to Bush and that's where we also have to focus our efforts - as if we have already won the nomination.

Note however that the new meme out there to try and defuse Dean is that Dean is "peaking" - this is absolute nonsense. Dean has still barely scratched the surface.