The Dean campaign may have been quixotic, but it did make a huge impact.
By: Hank Kalet
E.J. Dionne Jr. puts plainly the dilemma that the Democrats face and the truly revolutionary impact that the Howard Dean candidacy had on the party and still could have.
It’s not so much that he used the Internet or that he parlayed some early success in an odd Internet poll or that he flamed out so brilliantly. What the Dean campaign did was bring new voters into the fold.
"The style of the Dean campaign was different, suited to a new time and generation," he writes. "But don’t knock the Deaniacs for trying to create a sense of community. In providing an alternative to the soulless model in which so much campaign work is parceled out to private vendors, they were answering a real demand."
That he was unsuccessful as a candidate, ultimately, is less important than the medical procedure he performed on the Democratic Party. The good doctor "transplanted a spine into the presidential campaign" of the Democratic Party, the New York Times said in an editorial on Thursday.
If John Kerry is elected president, he should award Dr. Dean a medal.