Howard Dean is generating something no Democrat in recent memory has: excitement. Not just partisan cheerleading, but real honest-to-goodness shake-shit-up excitement.
In the last six months he's gone from nobody to the Guy to Beat. It started in February when the Bush administration was beating the war drum to a deafening crescendo, striking fear in the heart of any Democrat who dared withhold support.
Then a largely unknown former governor from a small New England state, Dean stood up before a meeting of the Democratic National Committee and questioned why the Dems on the Hill were cowardly acquiescing to the president's war aims. This, followed by, "I'm Howard Dean, and I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party!" The crowd went ballistic. At long last, a Democratic presidential candidate with a pair of balls. Hallelujah!
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Although he hails from the tie-dyed land of Phish and Ben and Jerry's, Dean is no Birkenstock liberal. He's a hard-nosed fiscal conservative who inherited a massive budget deficit when he took over as Vermont governor and turned it into a sizable surplus.
He's pro-choice, but also pro-death penalty. He signed the civil union bill into law--after the State Supreme Court essentially left him no choice. He's been awarded an "A" by the National Rifle Association for his refusal to toughen Vermont's lax gun control regulations. And slowly but surely Dean achieved universal healthcare coverage for almost every child in Vermont. The statehouse press corps that covered him as governor openly admire his ability to know the pulse of the electorate without polling or focus groups.
"Howard Dean and the Great Middle, always in the same place," says a Burlington, Vt., reporter who covered him as governor. "And that's a gift."
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The Dean campaign now claims 255,173 volunteers. They are expecting 450,000 by the end of September and 1 million by Dec. 31. By the end of the primaries next spring, Dean is shooting for 2 million volunteers and another million on top of that by the time the general election rolls around in November 2004. If all goes according to plan--and granted that's a very big if--Howard Dean will have awakened a long-sleeping giant: the American electorate.
Karl Rove is a smart man. A smart man in Karl Rove's shoes would be crapping himself right about now.
Wednesday, August 6
"President Dean - Got A Problem With That?"
So says the cover of the latest Philadelphia Weekly. The story, sub-billed as "Give 'em hell, Howard" may be our best chance to throw Bush overboard, is a must-read if you're still on the fence and are looking for someone to root for:
