Howard Dean was a small-state governor with big political ideas when he entered the maelstrom of the 2004 presidential race. Riding early momentum, Dean became the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. But his quest was derailed on one bitter Iowa winter night when he finished third in the party caucuses and tried to rally disheartened supporters with a speech that became a scream.
Dean went from national candidate to national joke as the scream echoed for days on national television and his campaign quickly imploded.
Now, Dean is back, expected to be elected Saturday as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Essentially, it’s a post about political nuts and bolts, rebuilding a party, raising cash and paving the way for candidates to win races. Since the end of his campaign, Dean has worked diligently to restore his image inside the party. He spent the last weeks of the presidential campaign flying beneath the radar, offering support to candidates in races around the country.
Dean’s work paid off. He outlasted his rivals in the DNC race by methodically picking up endorsements while opponents dropped out.
The rap against Dean is that he is an East Coast liberal, soft on national security and to the left of the nation on social issues. He is fighting an image of being a political elitist, more popular on the coasts where the Democrats remain strong, instead of the heartland and the South, where the party has in many places ceased to be competitive. To some within the party, Dean must still prove that he can work with all factions. He’s no longer running for president, but for chief political mechanic.
But selecting Dean may turn out to be a strikingly counterintuitive move by the Democrats, who are striving to broaden their appeal.
Before the phenomenon of Dean as darling of the left wing, there was Dean the centrist governor from Vermont. He was a fiscal hawk who managed to expand state-run health care. He courted the gun-rights vote. He shocked some fellow Democrats in November 2003 when he said he wanted “to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.”
Dean–who got Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to come to his defense–was merely saying that the Democrats had given up on a whole lot of voters.
John Kerry at the time said Dean’s quote was “simply unconscionable.” A year later, Kerry went 0-for-the-South.
Dean introduced creative Internet fundraising, a tactic Kerry adopted. Dean showed what was possible by tapping into tens of thousands of small donors, and creating an army of devoted followers, the famous Deaniacs. As party chief, he just might be able to turn the Democrats into more of a stakeholder party filled with millions of small donors, helping the party break its reliance on powerful special interests.
In a speech last December at George Washington University, Dean focused on what he termed the Democratic Party’s “destination,” using fundraising, technology and the sweat of party activists to win races, in all 50 states, and become a national party of reform.
“We are what we believe,” Dean said. “And the American people know it.”
Electing Dean as party chairman may be a gamble. But don’t be misled by the scream. He is a serious politician bidding to lead a Democratic comeback.
