Do They Have A Dean?
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When the histories are written about the rebirth of the Democratic party from 2001-2008 – and Lord knows there will be a lot of them – one of the key narratives will be the rise of Howard Dean from obscure governor to failed presidential candidate to triumphant party chairman. Without Dean, there is no Obama. He was the vehicle that brought in outside ideas to a party that had been boxed into submission by the Republican party.
Is there anybody like this in the GOP? I see talk swirling around about people like Palin, Romney, Thompson being bandied about as the future of the right, but do any of those people bring fresh new ideas from outside the party? I’m doubtful.
To be honest, I don’t want them to find one. I hope they become the modern Whigs, but we’ll see.
14 Responses to “Do They Have A Dean?”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
Good question. I am sure such people are out there, but unless they can unseat God as the President of their party, it won’t matter.
Serendipity being rampant these days, I just happen to have a poll (my first ever) on a related matter.
Why did God abandon Palin and the Republicans in 2008?
http://thetimchannel.com/?p=242
Enjoy.
McCain’s campaign and the republican party have unraveled – the catalyst? the party base. If they can ever actually put country first and stop tolerating hate…they might get somewhere. Here’s an
artistic interpretation of what the morning after may have been like for John McCain and Sarah Palin…
I was just commenting on the same thing. I think the closest the Republicans had to a Dean was Newt Gingrich, but I don’t know if they have anyone like that now.
Please, let them think it’s Rudy.
I was telling my wife this the other day. Howard Dean is the one who bought the Intertubes age to the Dems and without his planning and behind the scenes work now things might have been very different.
Still, Obama brought the positive and strong voice to the campaign… what I always felt Dean lacked.
From Howard Dean’s concession speech in the 2004 primary race: “Change is very difficult. there is enormous institutional resistance to change… it is natural for people to resist, but it is also inevitable that we will win.”
None of this happened overnight. The massive turnout in favor of Obama didn’t appear out of nowhere. The liberal blogosphere and online organizing and fundraising didn’t appear out of nowhere. The appearance of “partisan activists” unattached to any specific, traditional liberal interest group didn’t appear out of nowhere in 2008. They’ve been bubbling around for years and went through a lot of failures before everything started to come together.
Even the Newt Gingrich-led takeover of the House in 1994 happened after almost 15 years of careful planning and plotting by Gingrich and his allies. The Republican Howard Dean might be somewhere, but it’s likely someone we haven’t heard of, yet, and the odds are probably pretty good that he’s facing a lot of resistance and opposition from his own party right now.
Do They Have A Dean?
When I saw the headline, I thought you were referring to John. And perhaps we’d have someone who would truly get the whole investigation/indictment process rolling.
When Dean became chairman a lot of rightwingers took great delight in predicting disaster for party.
I’m not sure anyone can do a whole lot for the Republicans. Their policies are the problem. Prior to 2006 the GOP made promises to the family values social conservatives but delivered for oil corporations, Halliburton and the extremely wealthy. The last thing Karl Rove would want to happen is for Roe vs Wade to be overturned. No one knows the gullibility of social conservative voters better than Rove.Come to think of it, maybe Rove will become the new chairman. He’s been on a roll lately. Why not?
I’d been wanting to call Dean The Architect. Unfortunately that term has been ruined forever.
buma,
Bingo.
Obama was the right candidate to sell people on ideas, policies, that America as a whole had favored for years. He overcame a lot of crap (Muslim! Communist! Abolish private property! Pallin with terrists! Socialist!). But one thing he didn’t have to do was to rewrite the entire platform of his party.
I’m interested in what Republicans will come up with, but they are at 3-way cross-purposes: The enthusiasm of the wingnut base and the money structure of the fleece-the-Treasury rich are at odds with each other and also the few voices of grownups they have left, like Olympia Snowe.
“Without Dean, there is no Obama. He was the vehicle that brought in outside ideas to a party that had been boxed into submission by the Republican party.” I agree totally. And, frankly, I don’t understand why people aren’t giving him a lot of props. After all, it was Dean who revolutionized fundraising on the internet and who developed the 50 state strategy, from which Obama and Axelrod borrowed liberally.
I got you linked over at daddyBstrong.blogspot.com
My Dad is a hardcore Republican/Limbaugh fan. I haven’t really spoken to him since the election for obvious reasons, because it would be way too tempting to gloat.
Thing is, when he mentions Howard Dean it’s in the tone of voice like “Hitler” or “Baby Rapist.” I try to explain to my Dad that while he may hate the guy, Dean is responsible (along with Markos Moulitsas) for transforming the Democratic party into a winning machine, since 2006. (Granted, it’s only been a few years, but I think it’s safe to say we’ve got a “trend” going here.) Fund-raising? Check. GOTV? Check. Pushing back against Republican spin? Check. Throwing out tired conventional wisdom and platitudes about “what we must do”? Check.
So it’s not just that the Republicans don’t have a Dean (Patrick “Obama is toast if he doesn’t taken public financing” Ruffini? LOL!), they don’t have a widely reviled poster boy for Democratic hatred either, which I think is kind of interesting. Simply put, nobody fucking cares about the increasingly marginalized Republican party. They are receding into a Southeastern-Great Plains minority phenomenon.
Another way to look at it: Robert Novak recently wrote that the Republican party’s best shot for 2012, indeed, it’s _only_ shot, is (drumroll): Newt Gingrich.
Newt freakin’ Gingrich. Wow. The Republican Party is truly sunk.
“Newt freakin’ Gingrich. Wow. The Republican Party is truly sunk.”
I’m loving it.
There’s only one guy whose name I’ve heard spoken when people discuss national politics that I worry about. And that’s Tim Pawlenty. As far as I can tell, he’s boring, which is a step up from most Republicans out there.
Thanks, Oliver. Dean needs to be lauded. The 50-state strategy gave us victory in states where we had no chance in 2006. More importantly, he gives hope to the Dems in staes that are still red. . . for now.
And I liked his scream.