Now that the dust has settled from "Super Tuesday II" a couple of points seem evident. First, as Taegan Goddard, the proprietor of the indispensable Political Wire writes in his new Political Insider blog, Howard Dean has proved once again how useless he's been as leader of the Democratic party. A lot of Democrats had serious doubts about his selection as party chair back in 2005 and in the years since Dean has done little to prove them wrong. Like his campaign for president, his party leadership resembles a balloon that pops into nothingness after a big buildup. Dean's initial stubbornness and current dithering concerning Michigan and Florida are damaging the party and alienating voters in two key states. Let's have a do-over in June, and I'm not just saying that because I know it will help Hillary Clinton.
Speaking of Hillary, don't you just love the now out-in-the-open feud among her consultants? As readers of my earlier newspaper articles and posts on this subject now, I believe that my fellow consultants are harming democracy with their egotism and greed. Mark Penn, that means you. The Washington Post story linked above (and to be sure you don't miss it, again here) contains this lovely exchange between Penn and Harold Ickes:
"[Expletive] you!" Ickes shouted.
"[Expletive] you!" Penn replied.
"[Expletive] you!" Ickes shouted again.
Priceless.
You are so wrong about Howard Dean. The 50 state strategy is crucially important to our long-term success. The writing off of huge parts of our country was wrong and sent the meesage that we were elites who won't even speak to folks that disagree with us, preferring to pick the easy, low hanging fruit of our base. Thankfully, the "regional" Democratic Party is headed for the ashbin of history.
Posted by: Bill | Wednesday, 12 March 2024 at 08:05 AM