From Democratic frontrunner to the butt of every late night joke, oh how far Howard Dean had fallen. For those of you out there who don’t remember the 04 election, John Kerry tried to run an honorable campaign against Karl Rove’s dirty tricks…and we all know how that wound up. But before Kerry won the nomination, it looked like Dean might have actually had the Democratic nomination. Now there’s no way to properly knowing how it might have played out, but taking a few of Dean’s quotes you can see how much more of a fight he could have put up.
"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for…”
“ I want my country back! We want our country back! I am tired of being divided! I don't want to listen to the fundamentalist preachers anymore! I want America to look like America, where we are all included, hand in hand. We have dream. We can only reach the dream if we are all together - black and white, gay and straight, man and woman. America!”
Okay, so they don’t exactly play to Obama’s message of bipartisanism, and rising above our party lines. But…and this is a huge but, the Democrat party was in its death throes at the time and it was only going to get worse ( at least for another two years). It was a war for the soul of America, and…the Democrats lost and America suffered.
So what imploded this rising star’s candidacy? Ever heard of the Dean Scream? Feel free to youtube it if you want. For those of you who didn’t know who I was talking about, yes its THAT guy.
So why mention him now?
Because he’s the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Democrats, you know…the party that just dominated the last election?
Everyone knows Barack Obama. Fewer are familiar with the 50 State Strategy, it was Dean’s much derided plan of allowing Democrat candidates to have a fighting chance in traditionally red states. Makes sense doesn’t it? Except it was looked down on by many prominent Democrats at the time it was incepted.
So lets summarize shall we? Lost the nomination? Check. Become internet sensation for all the wrong reasons? Check. Have your nomination to Chairmen of your party resisted by prominent members (Cough. Pelosi. Cough.)? Check. Have a huge chunk of your party laugh at your political strategy? Check.
In two years use said strategy to take the Democrats from the political fringe, to the majority in both houses? In two more years, expand on that majority to the point that it shatters the opposing party? Have a political party candidate, whose very campaign is historical, win the White House by a landslide? Oh yeah.
Talk about vindication.
Or rather, “BWEYAHHHH!”
