February 18, 2004
Source: Dean to suspend campaign
CNN is reporting that Howard Dean will suspend his campaign. The Democratic front-runner heading into the primaries, he has yet to win any of the 17 primaries. In suspending his campaign, he plans to leave his name on the ballots but will no longer actively campaign.
Now that the race has been all but conceded to John Kerry, many will speculate on what caused Dean’s drop in support just as primary season started. Was it the electibility issue? Was it his personality? Was his famous legion of supporters too busy preacing to the converted rather than reaching out beyond their blog readers and MeetUp participants? Was it simply the primary election schedule? He drops out before large Democratic states like New York, California and Illinois had their say.
Rather then look back, however, we should look at the positive contributions that Dean's campaign made to politics. By embracing the Internet and its ability to connect people, he forced the rest of the candidates to do the same. Ultimately all voters benefit from this as they have direct lines of communication to the candidates and staff; are able to plan events and connect with other supporters; and spread their candidates' message in a more cost efficient method.
Also looking forward, where does Dean go from here? NPR suggested he will work to help fundraise and campaign for congressional democrats. But will he come out in support of Kerry or Edwards, the lone serious contenders for the presidential nomination? And to what extent? Does he hold out hope for a VP nomination?
And what happens to Dean's ardent supporters? As they look around today much like the Dead Heads did following Jerry Garcia's death, they need to move on. Hopefully they will apply their passion and optimism towards the eventual Democratic candidate and towards the important progressive causes they support.
A combination of things conspired to end the Dean campaign, some of his own making, others completely beyond his control.
First was the fact that Dean peaked nearly three full months before the first votes were cast. That is way too early for most voters, and gives his competitors a lot of time to opposition research. As with all seemingly invinveable front runners, there is a tendancy for the candidate and staff to get fat and happy, as the tape of Dean telling a Canadian audience that the Iowa caucuses were dominated by special interests. I’ve worked on campigns before and the Dean team should have discovered and spun this tape months ago. After a couple of months as front runner, I think Dean may have started to wear on the voter’s nerves.
Secondly, it is a lot easierto get fired up about an outsider insurgent than it is a traditional politician. When Dean was the fire brething populist from outside the beltway, folks thought that they actually had someone to change the way things work in DC. The he got the endorsement of Al Gore, who is the posterchild for the establishment. After teaming up with Gore, Dean became just another politician.
Finally, this year things jusy started to snowball. There was his yelling at a reporter, and his shouting down of an elderly voter. The Edwards basically co-opted Dean’s populist message, sans the temper tantrums. After Iowa, Dean never really reovered. His message got lost and his campaign became an endless series of shake-ups and departures. Also his cherry-picking strategy of competing in only certain primaries also really hurt him.
In short I guess it was just a combination of timing and personality that spelled the end for Dean.
Dean’s campaign will be studied for years to come both for what it did right and what it did wrong. I don’t entirely agree with all of Nate’s comments (Dean did not “shout down an elderly voter”) but he gets it right for the most part, I think.
Posted by: Chris Andersen at February 18, 2004 01:10 PMDean did peak too soon. He also turned a lot of people off my only participating in the primaries where he thought that he could win. The message then became these people are important and the others are not.
Also, he became annoyingly self righteous. It is easy for him to say how he may or may not have voted on an issue. This is where he shows his naivete because politics is not so black and white.
If he truly drops out we will miss his enthusiam, ideas and intelligence. Let’s hope stays involved in the political process. He will make it better.
Posted by: catherine at February 18, 2004 02:20 PMI am a republican but yet Dean always appealed to me due to his support of gay issues. I do feel gays should marry as all states should have these rights. We should not be discriminated against for our sexual orientation. It’s too bad really that he is out of the race.
Posted by: joebagodonuts at February 18, 2004 02:50 PM“This is what I’m good at. I like meeting people, my fellow citizens. I like
interfacing with them.”
George W. Bush
September 8, 2000
Comment made at campaign stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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