Sunday, February 15, 2004
It's Time
Stories coming out today are saying that Howard Dean's aides are telling him he should hang it up if he doesn't win Wisconsin, and it's reported that some of those aides will be bailing if he doesn't. I concur. It's time. He won't win Wisconsin--one poll shows Dean with 11 percent support behind Kerry with 53 and Edwards with 16. Some Deaniac hardcores will be argue he should keep fighting, but the vast majority know the score and won't hold his dropping out against him.
It's time to start converting the Deaniac energy into a force for long-term change in the Democratic Party, rather than dissipating it in a pointless effort to postpone the inevitable. Every time Dean suggests he will fight on to California and New York, it diminishes his stature as leader of a movement and helps drive the movement out to the fringe. Presidential campaign historians will be discussing the arc of the Dean campaign for years to come. Better it should be the start of something that matters than a brief episode that doesn't.
Nice to meet you: In my post last Monday about the Dean rally I attended, I mentioned I was questioned by a member of the traveling press corps, whose name I didn't catch. Turns out it was Thomas Frank from Newsday, whose story appeared today. Scroll down, and there I am. With the last word.
Stories coming out today are saying that Howard Dean's aides are telling him he should hang it up if he doesn't win Wisconsin, and it's reported that some of those aides will be bailing if he doesn't. I concur. It's time. He won't win Wisconsin--one poll shows Dean with 11 percent support behind Kerry with 53 and Edwards with 16. Some Deaniac hardcores will be argue he should keep fighting, but the vast majority know the score and won't hold his dropping out against him.
It's time to start converting the Deaniac energy into a force for long-term change in the Democratic Party, rather than dissipating it in a pointless effort to postpone the inevitable. Every time Dean suggests he will fight on to California and New York, it diminishes his stature as leader of a movement and helps drive the movement out to the fringe. Presidential campaign historians will be discussing the arc of the Dean campaign for years to come. Better it should be the start of something that matters than a brief episode that doesn't.
Nice to meet you: In my post last Monday about the Dean rally I attended, I mentioned I was questioned by a member of the traveling press corps, whose name I didn't catch. Turns out it was Thomas Frank from Newsday, whose story appeared today. Scroll down, and there I am. With the last word.
