Fit To Print

Meet the New Chairman, Same as the Old Chairman

June 13th, 2008

I’m not really sure how closely y’all follow various events during the campaign, so sometimes I don’t know what balance to strike between insidery and accessible. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Anyway, you may or may not have heard that more than a few folks were happy to learn Obama was keeping Dean on as head of the DNC, as the nominee of the party usually gets to decide how things are run at the old Dee En Cee.

But of course, the nominee always keeps the chairman, even if his name is Terry McAuliffe and he sucks as much as he blows. What they also always do is install their own man as well, who often goes about running things. Obama has indeed installed his own guy. But a couple days ago he praised Dean’s 50 state strategy and announced that his campaign plans to follow suit and have an office in each and every state.

So while the Obama camp certainly has its own ideas on how things are going to be done, they acknowledge the importance and effectiveness of Dean’s plan, which is essential to longterm Democratic success, and is detested by the DLC and Clintonistas. Working to broaden the electoral playing field verse playing defense in a small number of battleground states is a key ideological argument within the Democratic Party (with a god damn no-brainer of an answer), and we should be thankful we have a candidate who is going to stomp out the nattering nabobs of negativism who couldn’t see the bigger picture if it had enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

The path to a better country isn’t 270 electoral votes long. It’s much bigger than that, with 60 senators and wimp-proof congressional majorities, and all 50 states feeling they are involved in the political process and that their voices are being heard. It’s also idealistic and preachy, but don’t tell the path that.

As one last note, some have said that Dean has lost his soul/isn’t the same since becoming chair of the DNC, blah blah blah. In terms of his expressed opinions, there may be a sprig of truth to that. But in terms of “strategery”, he’s got Dems doing exactly what they need to be doing, despite the vocal opposition of some big hitters in the party, and despite Democrats own hard-to-suppress instincts to snatch defeat from the jaws of an overused line.

Entry Filed under: Politics