I'm a Dean fan, but I don;t thinkl he should be DNC chair

[Armstead]

I tend to agree with Joe Trippi that Dean's best asset is his outspokeness, and willingness to tell the truth, even when it's unpleasant.

The chair of the DNC should be a tactitian and manager, who can also be an articulate spokesperson for the Democratic Party concensus.

I DON'T want to see some bloodless DLC type trying to impose the pseudo-centrist corporate agenda on the Democratic Party. What is most important is someone who can relate and support all of the different factions and branches of the Democtratic big tent.

I think Dean would be more effective as an obvious leader and spokesperson for the center-to-left factions, and oopenly fight for those principles without being hamstrung by having to be "diplomatic."

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. See, I think we need an infusion of boldness.

And I think Dean as DNC Chair would have him setting the tone for everyone. I don't think any fight would be passed up with Dean in charge.

[Adelante]

2. I agree with you

Dean as chair sends the right message to those who would avoid the hard questions this party has been avoiding. It means we out here are demanding answers.

[Skink]

4. We shouldn't overlook..

His management skills. Until this race he was just a very succesful Governor.

[Adelante]

7. NGA chair

He chaired the National Governors Association.

[asjr]

3. He would make a great Chair,but I want to see him run for

President again. He tells the truth, but not many in this country (Repbs) want to hear the truth.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. I still don't think he could win that race

Unless he changed his tactics. Somewhere in between the campaigns of Dean and Kerry, there's a nice balance of boldness and pragmatism. I don't think hammering away for a full year would've held people's attentions long enough for Dean to win.

[Cha]

6. If Dean wants the job..I think he knows what

he's doing. Dean is all those things.."outspoken"..and has a gift of bringing people together..check out his record of Governor of Vermont.

You can be a diplomat who isn't repuke whipped. I wouldn't be taking joe trippi's advice on what to have for lunch.

[CWebster]

8. But Dean is a Centrist

Isn't that the irony?

[CWebster]

9. John Nichols weighs in:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050131&s=nichols

[welshTerrier2]

10. "spokesperson for the center-to-left factions"

well, you've identified the factions ...

got anyone in mind?

[Armstead]

11. Me

:evilgrin:

[welshTerrier2]

12. well, you got my vote ...

having seen you around in quite awhile ...

miss some of your long, thoughtful posts ...

[gottaB]

13. I'm not a Dean fan, but I think he should be DNC chair

I disagree with Trippi. Dean's greatest asset is that he is the leader of a movement to reinvigorate the Democratic Party from the bottom up. During the primaries he went from being an insurgent candidate to being the widely acknowledged frontrunner in a short period of time. His campaign failed, but it was an interesting failure. It demonstrated that Democrats could raise money from small donors, generate real enthusiasm among ordinary voters, and channel that enthusiasm towards productive ends.

Where we are now, we can raise money to compete with Republicans, and generate enthusiastic support, but we don't how to capitalize on that, not to the extent that is needed. Dean's proposals for empowering local Democratic leaders imply a closer relationship between institutional knowledge and the people who need to call upon and implement it. I don't doubt that Democrats have gifted strategists and tacticians inside the beltway, but as a group they have shown themselves to be out of touch. It's very discombobulated. I don't see that we've done very well by having all our eggs in one basket, so to speak. The value Dean places on inclusiveness, a political value most of us share in the abstract, can be turned to real advantage.

Finally, on the level of personal character, Dean's greatest asset is that he's a cheapskate. I think we're facing a wicked Bear market for Democrats. We need the wisdom of value investors as well as growth investors. Most of all we need some protection against the squandering of our political and economic assets. That consideration alone favors electing Dean to chair the DNC.

[Eloriel]

16. One of the better posts I've ever seen on the subject

Really.

of course, you realize, don't you, that you encapsulated the reason the Washington insiders don't want him in your first sentence:

...Dean's greatest asset is that he is the leader of a movement to reinvigorate the Democratic Party from the bottom up.

Dean wants to organize the Party in the way most of us either want it organized or thought it was or should be organized. Many of us have had the sad experience of calling our state Dem Party, or trying to hook up with local Dems only to find out that they're moribund or nonexistent. It didn't used to be that way -- there used to be a party structure (remember the term "precinct chair" and such??).

Now, to be honest, SINCE Dean's candidacy there have been a lot of Deaniacs reinfuse and reinvigorate the Party all across the country, but it's still not a real party organization like in the old days. He wants grassroots activists, grassroots organizations, grassroots candidates and campaigns, grassroots contributions funding the whole party.

So do I.

Does anyone remember Maynard Jackson? I've told this story before but I'll tell it again because IMO it's really relevent here and indeed in ANY discussion about what the Democratic Party should do and become.

Maynard Jackson was the first African American mayor of Atlanta, an amazing man, and one of the civil rights veterans IIRC along with Andrew Young, Hosea Williams (also now dead), Joseph Lowery, and others.

When Terry McAuliffe was running for DNC chair after Clinton got out of office, so was Maynard Jackson. Maxine Waters and some if not all the rest of the CBC backed Jackson. What Jackson wanted to do was reinvigorate the grassroots, and that's what the CBC wanted too. But Clinton and his forces were very powerful and during the actual DNC convention they finally persuaded Jackson to back away from the race and accept a brand new position -- head of the I-can't-even-remember-the-name. But it was a snazzy name for this brand NEW department within the DNC which Maynard would head starting right after the election.

And so Maynard stepped away from the race for the DNC chair, Maxine Waters and others were apparently mollified and satisfied with the emphasis there would be on building the grassroots with Maynard in that position, and ...


...was never heard from again...

... until he died of a heart attack (broken heart?) a couple of years later, coming back to Atlanta from Washington on one of his many trips.

I have NO doubt that they put him in this brand spanking new office and didn't give him anything with which to DO the job he was going to do -- budget, staff, or any other resources. We didn't see or hear from him anywhere -- no spots on any TV show, no articles or columns anywhere, no nothin'.

ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING.

I heard Jimmy Carter memorialize Jackson on a public radio program I heard one day while driving to my first Dean House Party (spring or summer 2003): when Carter was running for President, he went to Baltimore and even tho he was an unknown, he was met with a large contingency of supporters and an organization. Maynard Jackson had done that. When Carter went to Detroit, same thing. Everywhere Carter went in those early days, when he had no money and was just getting started, Maynard Jackson had done the organizing work for him. Carter credited his WIN to Maynard Jackson.

Could Maynard Jackson organize the grassroots? Yeah, apparently so, when given a chance.

[renaissanceguy]

14. The good news is Dean is not going away!

If he gets the DNC chairmanship, then he will be the leading voice of our Party (which we need).

At the same time, if he doesn't get it, he will run for president in 2008, and I'm sure people in our party will give him a second look. He was right about a lot of things (i.e. the Iraq war) from the get-go.

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.16472020

[rucky]

15. What are your plans for Dean for the next few years?

TVPundit? Radio show host? I'd hate to see him reduced to that.

He is good at being outspoken, but without some cred, there's no forum for him to speak from.

[David Zephyr]

17. Dean is a"tactician and manager"

and was a very good and popular governor of Vermont.

[Vidar]

18. We need a tactician, a real fighter, not a collaborator. Go, Howard, go!