The Last Waltz
With a heavy heart, I headed out to Dean MeetUp last night. Honestly, I went out of morbid curiosity more than anything else. That and the fact that I still need to return about 25 folding chairs to someone (Bill, if you’re out there drop me a line). Anyway, I cannot believe the difference a month can make. About 5 minutes before 7PM there were only about five people there. By the end of the evening there were twenty or so. We spent a good deal of time venting about the media, the lack of guidance from national, the lack of organization in Iowa, and even the way Dean has conducted himself throughout the last month. Several people had been to Iowa and/or New Hampshire and the talked about what they experienced. Not much of it was good. There was a lot of discussion about the futility of visibility-type projects at this point. In fact, one of our campaign coordinators has dropped out of the campaign solely because HQ is still pushing a visibility day this Saturday.
I think, in the end, the prevailing opinion was that the only way for the campaign to be successful at this point is to turn out votes. I agree. There was some discussion over whether we shouldn’t be making calls to other primary states, and the opinion of the coordinator was, do what you want, but, at this point the only thing we have total control over, and that includes quality of information, is Houston.
As I mentioned above, I went to the MeetUp, just to see how many people would show up and what we would discuss. Over the last few weeks, I have been making my peace with the fact that Dean is probably done. I had even been spending some time over at the Edwards site and was planning to contribute some money this weekend.
Halfway through the evening, however, it struck me that the state of the campaign right now is the same state it was in way back in April 2003 when I first signed on. I signed on not because I was a Deaniac, not because I wanted to be a part of the biggest grassroots campaign ever, and not because of an internet operation. I joined because Howard Dean was out there talking about the things that I had been railing about on this blog since 2002. He was the only Democrat who was standing up to the Bush Administration and berating the Democratic Party for rolling over and playing dead. He was the only candidate who made me feel that it was worth getting off my ass and getting involved.
Even though he was the longest of long shots, I still signed up.
The way the campaign went this summer was great and it was fun, but sometimes I wish it had never happened. I wish I had never let myself believe that getting the nomination was going to be easy. In some ways, it would have been better to fight this thing out as the underdog all the way. On the other hand, there is not one other candidate in the race right now that has effected the state of the Democratic Party and the political landscape the way Howard Dean has, and that probably would not have happened had he remained an asterisk in the polls.
The long and short of it is that things are not much different than they were in April. I could bitch about media onslaughts and push polling and stupid orange hats and Dick Gephardt’s Iowa murder-suicide and what the campaign should have done all I want, but it is not going to change the fact that, once more, we are the longest of long shots.
And, guess what, I am still signed up.
So last night I went to Meet Up for the purpose of saying some good-byes and turning in some portable chairs, and I ended up volunteering to go canvassing this Saturday. Because at the end of it all, I still believe that Howard Dean is the best candidate out there and our best shot to take out Bush. I still believe that Dean is the only candidate with the credibility to talk about reforming the Democratic Party. I still believe he, and not Kerry, is the electable one. I’ll fall in line eventually, but I am not going to give up until Dean tells me to.
Good commentary…keep the faith, getting people involved in the process is an important first step, if you do that with one person and they vote, that is a great step. Perhaps Gore’s endorsement put Dean in a “lockbox.”
Comment by Steve | 2/5/2004
I am happy to read something about Dean that doesn’t sound like it’s being jammed down my throat. Some Kerry supporter on another blog tore me a new one when I made a pro-Bush statement and then he proceeded to blast away at Dean.
You know, the only reason I had made a pro-Bush statement was because this one commenter was trashing our nation’s armed forces. And that hacked me off (I have family and friends who serve).
I am a member of no party, and quite frankly, have thought about starting one up. But you know, when I don’t even mention Dean, and when I am making a statement in retort for an asinine comment… well, for someone to trash me for that (and then trash Dean, which was an unrelated point of that conversation), that just hacked me off.
I hope Dean stays in. Yes, I poke fun at him on my site (everyone gets some, Dean was fair game after the Iowa speech, so my apologies), but he needs to stay in. He HAS to stay in - I will vote for him because what you say is true, he IS the electable one.
Comment by Gil | 2/5/2004
I hate to sound like a campaign shill here, but if you want Dean to stay in the race, the very best thing you can do is give him a few bucks.
He has a fundraiser going right now where he is trying to raise $700,000 by Sunday so he can afford to put up ads in Wisconsin.
Even $5 or $10 would help.
Here’s the
Please help him out if you can.
Comment by Rob Humenik | 2/5/2004
I’m hoping Dr. Dean stays in this race until March 9th at least. I’d like to be able to say that I voted for him.
Comment by Len | 2/6/2004
Thanks for this thoughtful bit, Rob. I feel the same way right now after pouring my heart and soul into the Michigan Caucus for the Dean Campaign. Dr. Dean is the only one who both tells the truth and has the record of results to back up his claims.
Wanted to let you in on something as early as possible, particularly since you’ve been a Dean supporter. There’s a movement afoot to try and build on our new unity, to help us stay together and work towards taking our country back regardless of the nominee. It will be an umbrella organization, one that welcomes people of all campaigns, political parties and paths to build a community of like-minded progressive folks, those of us who believe in building a *greater democracy* than we’ve had in the recent past. I’ll be sending out information about the first Meetup event, expected in mid-March.
In the mean time, I encourage you to continue to gather at Dean or other campaign Meetups, to continue to help Governor Dean’s or your candidate’s campaign and to discuss the kinds of objectives and outcomes you’d like the Democratic nominee to tackle and/or any umbrella “unity” group to tackle. Be sure to spread the word around, ask others to watch for and join this
There are some heavy-hitters on board this movement from across multiple campaigns and other groups, working together right now to launch this effort; I sincerely hope we’ll be able to continue our work together and expand our reach, strengthen our impact for positive change. We have the power to take our country back!
Comment by Rayne | 2/9/2004
Dean may be better than Bush, but he’s not the only one. How about someone with long term military experience? With the mess we’re in now, pulling out of the war is going to be as much of a fiasco as anything else. Wesley Clark may have supported the war initially, according to Congressional records (i think that’s what it was), but he’s the one to get us out if it now.
Comment by Sascha | 2/9/2004