Obama Keeps Dean at DNC

[Demeter]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080605/cm_thenation/45327056


The Nation -- Overseeing a fraught Democratic primary was not an easy task for DNC Chairman Howard Dean. His relationship with key Clintonites was strained from the beginning--a result of their unhappiness with his fifty-state-strategy--and the controversy over Florida and Michigan directly challenged Dean's authority and the DNC's rules...Dean eventually won that battle and got some long-overdue job insurance as a result, with the Obama campaign deciding today to keep him on as DNC chairman through the election, while putting Paul Tewes, the architect of Obama's win in Iowa, in charge of operational planning inside the DNC. The DNC also announced today it would no longer accept money from federal lobbyists or PACs, in line with Obama's own pledge.

Dean and Obama complement each other in unlikely ways, with many Dean insiders viewing Obama's campaign as Dean 2.0, the next iteration of the grassroots-fueled, people-powered, bottom-up, web-savvy operation that Dean pioneered in 2003-2004. By broadening the Democratic map to include previously ignored red states, Obama became the living embodiment of Dean's fifty-state-strategy. As I wrote in a piece about Dean's legacy in February: "In contrast to Clinton's campaign, Obama's--with its hundreds of thousands of small donors, Internet buzz and red-state appeal--reflects to a great extent the realization of Dean's ideals. Dean's argument for how to rebuild and expand the party base for the long term found its perfect short-term exponent in Obama, whose appeal to independents and liberal Republicans and talk of "unity" is planting Democratic roots in unfamiliar places."

Stylistically and rhetorically, the brash and rumpled Dean and the smooth and graceful Obama couldn't be more different. Yet the link between the two dates back to '04, when the offshoot of Dean's presidential campaign, Democracy for America, supported Obama in the Illinois Senate race. Dean's advisers admit that Obama is a more inspirational and disciplined presidential candidate than was Dean, able to excite the Democratic base while bringing in new voters, energizing a new crop of organizers and expanding the electoral map. This is borne out by Obama's remarkable performance thus far in red states like Idaho, Alaska and Alabama--places where Dean has invested heavily. In his sprint across the country before Super Tuesday, Obama wisely hit places where the party had barely existed years before. "They told me there weren't any Democrats in Idaho," Obama told a raucous crowd of 14,000 in Boise. "I didn't believe them."

Obama's organizing has been greatly enhanced by new technologies like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. "We pioneered it and Obama perfected it," Dean campaign guru Joe Trippi says. Obama embraced elements of the new politics, hiring the co-founder of Facebook, for example; but other efforts came from the grassroots--just as with the Dean campaign--as supporters organized themselves online and on the ground. The net effect is Obama's large base of small donors, who are enthusiastic supporters he can tap again and again. Obama has fused a tightknit group of advisers with a mass of ordinary people, creating what Trippi calls "command and control at the top while empowering the bottom to make a difference."

Moving forward, advisers to Dean and Obama hope the synergy between the two will be just as seamless.

[LakeSamish706]

1. I love it, Doctor Dean is a good man.. n/t

[RayOfHope]

2. Yearrrrgh! Great news!

[Kdillard]

3. Cool

It is amazing what Obama has done together with his supporters. I hope all this grassroot organization makes more than a few Red states Blue.

[democrattotheend]

4. Even before he won his Senate primary, Obama was compared to Dean

I dug up an article from March of 2004 when I was doing research for a blog post a while ago. This is what I wrote:

Even before he was selected for the Dean Dozen, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4442628/">Obama had already drawn comparisons with Dean for his outspoken opposition to the war and the grassroots energy he inspired. But when he picked Obama for the original Dean Dozen, Howard Dean probably never imagined that four years later, Obama would be standing in his shoes.

[graywarrior]

5. Exxxxxxxxxcellent! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

[Cha]

6. Awesome! I think Dean always looks great even when

he's been working long hours. It was Dean For America and he still is and now it's Obama for America..a very positive message that delivers the goods.

[mopinko]

7. a match made in heaven

even an atheist like me can see that.

[Cleita]

8. It's a winner! n/t