Dean to stay at head of DNC

Obama is keeping Dean as Chair of the DNC, which is a smart move and a way not to ruffle additional feathers at this time. Sure, Dean isn't well-beloved by the Clintonistas or Rahm Emmanuel, but he has the loyalty of state party chairs and activists who finally for once got some staff on hand.

This arrangement works because Obama is really all about a 30+ state strategy or a strategy where you fight for most of the states and you campaign hard in untraditional areas, and Dean was all about going onto Wisconsin and YEARRRRGH!

I love Dean and Obama together - a priceless combination.

I'm pretty sure Paul Tewes will take over once Obama is elected though.

What Dean fought for

I know Howard Dean has been under attack in some quarters of the left, mostly by Hillary supporters as of late. But I was watching this video of what it was like being in the room when he gave his now infamous Iowa speech and "scream" and the dkos poster is correct - the media frame and filter always colors how they present the news and consequently, what ordinary Americans see and believe.



So yes, I believe that the media's portrayal of Wright is just snippets and not necessarily representative of everything Obama's preacher said or did. But going back to Howard Dean, who came across so angry.

Now, the average public may not understand the technical difference between a vocal mic and a room mic. And so they may not understand how manipulated the infamous "Dean Scream" really was. But I can assure you with 100% certainty that the people at CNN, NBC, and Fox knew exactly what they were doing.

And they know exactly what they are trying to do to Barack Obama.

Whether it's to drag this race out for increased advertising revenue (political campaigns are big bucks) or to eliminate a threat, this spectacle is nothing less than the media manufacturing "controversy" to manipulate American democracy.

Everything that Howard Dean said is right - we want to take back America for the normal people. We want and need to run a 50 state strategy so that our message is carried in all corners by everyday Democrats. So that all Americans see that Democrats care about them - about Democrats in big and small states, in states that have traditionally been ignored, and in states that have traditionally acted as ATMs.

It has been said before, but it bears saying again - Howard Dean was right about most everything - his opposition to the Iraq War, his desire to move Southern voters beyond god, guns, and gays, his drive to talk to voters in all 50 states. And as DNC Chair he is implementing these things, but he's not on the Sunday talk shows like Terry McAuliffe used to do, because his audience isn't the politicos who are up watching Sunday talk shows. Indeed, he knows the media isn't his friend.

Witness the incredible turnaround from when they were raising him up as an insurgent, and then the quick Icarus flameout when they roasted him on a spit, turning his words over and over in the eyes and ears of the American people via their cruel instrument of tv.

Instead he has organizers on the ground in 50 states, paid staff that have rejuvenated the party in states like Idaho and Montana, as well as South Carolina. Obama has taken Dean's strategy and expanded upon it, with just results. But Obama know he has to be just as wary of the fickle media, because they can make or break you.

He gave a good speech, one that resonated with people across the country. He gave a speech where he reminded us of the best that this nation has to offer, and he did it all by himself, writing and crafting it by himself.

I think part of it is that the media is just friggin glad to have a president who can think and talk for themselves, but this doesn't mean that they don't want to roast Obama so that the race drags on, whether for ratings or otherwise.

Hillary and Howard, Obama needs to fight back

I don't know, but I would guess that Hillary and Howard Dean have a working relationship, but that if Dean supported anyone, it would be Edwards or Obama. Obama because he is running the 50 state strategy and understands the need to engage more people into the Democratic party, to open it up and make it inclusive.

Well, one of the best things that Dean ever did was to change the primary/caucus system so that it included the more diverse states of Nevada (APIA and Latino voter concentration) and South Carolina (African American voters), not to mention, it increased geographic diversity. So while I feel bad that the people of Michigan and Florida don't get to have their delegates count, it was a compromise. And yes, these two states also have a lot of minorities, but their state party leaders decided to muck up the whole process by cutting in line. Hillary should not go and explode the delicate truce by demanding now that these voters are heard when her campaign was more than eager to disenfranchise Casino workers on the caucus strip.

Actually, I have to say that this was a friggin' BRILLIANT strategy by the H-camp - they distracted the Obama campaign with a head feint while beating them with their organizing of other workers near the Strip. Because the lawsuit was bogus, they knew it was bogus, and the judge knew it was bogus. But they knew it would draw media attention, and also the resources and energy of the Obama campaign and throw them off their game. I have to admit that they are excellent at practicing sleight of hand, or "pay no attention to the left hand that is going to sucker punch you when you least expect it."

By winning over Casino workers and turning out other union members, whose leadership FAILED to give them some direction for months, they did an artful job. Of course, they also provided the GOP with fodder for all the upcoming elections to disenfranchise Democratic voters and union members. But nevermind the long term view as long as Hillary can win.

Also, Asian Americans in Nevada apparently voted 2 to 1 for Hill and Bill, whereas Latinos voted 3 to 1, an astonishing lead. I wouldn't be surprised at all if these figures didn't match the national sentiment.

Lastly, I wonder if Hillary calling attention to gaining the delegates of Michigan and Florida isn't another feint designed to draw attention away from something else. I gotta say, the Clintonites understand how to spin, what will lure reporters pads and pens more than anything else, and they know how to use it. They might complain that they don't get good press and well actually the worst press, and they might but they also know how to work it.

Really lastly, when is Obama going to get some surrogates who go negative on the Clintons? He's expending all his energy attacking Bill, for whom there is some nostalgia (if only because we remember him so fondly compared to the current piss poor excuse for a national leader that we have.) So Obama has to disengage from that while shining his bright hopeful beacon smile and getting Jesse Jackson Jr and nother notables to be hitting the Clintons hard. I understand that it's not supposed to be politics as usual but there are ways to hit the Clintons without slandering their character.

Also, Hillary is basically setting Bill up like some kind of giant media-sucking net, to take and deflect all the blows. Meanwhile hillary's up to something, I don't know what shape but I can feel it.

He needs to hit hard, and now, because the New York Times endorsement is not insignificant. I mean, I knew it was coming for Hillary because she's their home state senator (or carpetbagger, if you prefer) and well, it's going to do some damage.

Okay, last bit I promise, but so much the day before South Carolina. Obama's folks have answered my Fantasy Democratic Administration prayers and are floating the idea of Edwards as Attorney General. So exciting! (Well, if you can trust bob Novak farther than you can throw him...) Oops - I had Edwards as Labor and Spitzer as AG but I think both would be great in either position. Edwards is a fantastic trial attorney.

Younger Asian American Democrats win big this cycle

I am a huge proponent of young Asian American Democrats because I look up to their drive and dedication to public service. I just read that Scott Kawasaki, Fairbanks city councilman, was recently elected to the Alaska state legislature at the age of 30 (maybe 31?) I haven't seen him mentioned by any other Asian American blogs or national organizations, but this one's a keeper. He's a Western Democrat, and opposes the Patriot Act like newly elected Senator Jon Tester of Montana. The Alaska Dems defeated one incumbent Republican in the State House (Kawasaki) and one in the Senate, as well as picking up 2 Republican-held open seats. Who says Governor Dean's 50 state strategy doesn't work?!? I remember reading Matt Bai's NYTimes Magazine piece on Dean's leadership at the DNC (read the whole thing, it is that good and prophetic - unlike others, I have always found Bai's writing sharp and incisive), and how after a visit to the Alaska field troops, Dean told his DC staff to get the money for another state party organizer for Alaska, and thought: 1) he's really truly committed to the grassroots if he's willing to contest Alaska and 2) Terry McAuliffe never would have done that.

That night, after meeting with Dean at the sad little storefront office that houses the state party, Alaska’s party chairman, Jake Metcalfe, announced to 400 assembled Democrats at a fund-raiser that Dean had just promised to hire an additional organizer for the state. The ballroom erupted in grateful applause as Dean sat there beaming. The members of his staff, gently rolling their eyes, began calling back to Washington, warning the political staff that they would need to find the money for yet another salary in, of all places, Alaska.

In just a few hours, Dean had nicely demonstrated why so many leading Democrats in Washington wish he would spend even more time in Alaska — preferably hiking the tundra for a few months, without a cellphone. . . . . .It’s true that adding a second organizer in Alaska will cost the national party only a modest sum, maybe $35,000 this year, but that same money could pay the salaries for canvassers in Pennsylvania or Connecticut, where a few thousand votes could mean the difference between swearing in Speaker Hastert or Speaker Pelosi next January. Overall, Dean’s investment in state parties could cost the D.N.C. as much as $8 million this year

Now we have a new Asian American legislator in Alaska of all places who won handily over his Republican opposition. Plus he is anti-Patriot Act because his grandparents were interned during World War II, so we know that he is someone who stands for his principles, for civil rights and civil liberties.

This is the difference between having someone like Gov. Dean who believes in the grassroots and who is willing to really listen and not just pay lipservice to Asian American involvement and service with the party. It's what Carville doesn't get when he dumps on Dean - that Dean is a leader because he inspires us, and he sticks to his vision, even when everyone else thinks he's crazy. He's a leader because he has followers, unlike Carville, whose public smearing isn't being echoed by anyone - not Rahm, not Donnie Fowler who ran against him for DNC Chair, not Hilary. Not even Harold Ford who Carville put forth as a better DNC Chair candidate. Hell, Democrats even made gains at the state level in North Dakota, and South Dakotans decisively voted down an abortion ban.
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UPDATE: Steve Gilliard sez:
What attempted coup?

It was more like drunk Uncle Jim demanding the car keys to get more beer. Finally, someone pulled him aside and told him to shut the fuck up and eat more cornbread.

Carville was spouting off because he thought he had power.
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Dean sticks to his guns because he knows it takes time to build a farm team and to (re)build a base and a winning coalition. And I wouldn't be surprised if he was secretly surprised that the groundswell victories have happened so soon after he took office, but I give him a lot of the credit for having the vision to win by running in all 50 states, because you don't win by running in only 40% of the states and districts.

Other Asian American Dems who won new seats this cycle include 37 year old Blong Xiong, the first Hmong American and Asian American Fresno city councilor. And Steve Hobbs, a 36 year old Iraq War veteran from Washington State who opposes the war, and won over a 12 year incumbent Republican state senator. Also give a warm welcome to Kris Valderrama, a labor and civil rights activist, and 31 year old Saqib Ali, who is a South Asian American man endorsed by the Montgomery County Fraternal Order of Police (!!!), who both just won their first seats in the Maryland state legislature. (Hmm, I wonder if George Felix "Macaca" Allen helped boost Asian American turnout across the river - you think? It kinda makes me wish Allen was sticking around to make stupid comments in 2008 and increase our turnout, but not enough that I wanted to see his mug back as the Senator from Virginia.)

Howard Dean's 50 state strategy has dividends not just for the farmers in Kansas or the fishermen in Maine. It benefits Asian Americans and Asian American candidates too. And soon I'll be able to say that it benefits Asian American farmer candidates from Kansas and Asian American fishermen who want to run for political office in Maine, with the way Asian Americans are running for office, uniting disparate groups of voters, and winning all over this crazy beautiful patchwork country of ours. Because hell, we already have our Asian American artist/actor/activist elected official, Cy Thao from Minnesota. And while we could use more like him, we need some diversity in here! I want to see the day that we have at least one Asian American elected in every state, at every level. I want to see us represented in proportion to our population, and I want to see the full spectrum of our Asian Pacific Island American heritages included.

Gov. Dean's profile in NYTimes

Check the NYTimes Magazine's profile of Gov. Howard Dean - Matt Bai concurs with Dean's vision of a truly national, 50 state party. It covers Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's dustup with Dean over more money for the 2006 midterms (and continued grousing by Emanuel, who doesn't come off as well, IMO) and quotes from Donna Brazile and a look at Alaska's Democratic Party's ground game.

Interesting grafs include the insight that Dean was adopted by the disenfranchised outsiders of the party rather than him catering tot heir opinions:

These Democrats opposed the war in Iraq, but they were also against a party that seemed to care more about big donors and swing states than it did about them. Attracted to Dean’s fiery defiance of the Washington establishment, these voters adopted him as their cause before he had ever heard of a blog.

“What our campaign was about, not that I set out to make it this way, was empowering people,” Dean told me recently. “The ‘you have the power’ stuff — that just arose spontaneously when I realized what incredible potential there was for people to get active who had given up on the political process because they didn’t think either party was helping them.”

Another great glimpse at Dean's mind, and how his campaign evolved. I remember back in the winter of 2003, watching his speech to the California Democratic Party in San Diego on C-SPAN, how incredibly evocative and energizing his words were. His raw determination to fight, and to empower us, ending with those stirring words. More on Dean's affiliation with activists within the party:

The Colored Girls, as a whole, are unusually influential with Dean. It’s an odd pairing, given that Dean governed one of the whitest states in the country, but what Dean and these women share is resentment, sometimes subtle and sometimes not, of the elite Washington Democrats who have always run the national party. Activists like Flournoy and Brazile have attained star status in the party, but they have never thought of themselves as insiders. This is partly because they are black women in a party dominated by white men — men who often seem to prize them more as symbols of diversity than for their expertise. But it is also because the women came up in Democratic politics as local field operatives — that is, as young organizers who knocked on doors, principally for Jesse Jackson — in an era when all of the power in the party was concentrated in the hands of the Washington consultants who made TV ads and polled the electorate. Dean came to Washington vowing to take power from the insiders and give it, instead, to ground-level activists. “That’s our loyalty to Dean,” Brazile says. “He gets it.”

Reading this profile, I'm struck by how similar it is to a profile that Bai did of Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union - both focusing on whether the two men are trying to rebuild their respective institutions by gutting most of the framework and rethinking long-held beliefs.

Also striking is how much more favorable this profile is than the one of Gov. Mark Warner (at least the photo is much much better.)