Why Dean?
Hugh asks for
some reasons the Democrats should elect Dean as their leader. I thought about it, and what a leader of a party has to be able to do is the following:
1. Recruit new workers and members to the party. Dean can argue that he did this.
2. Find new sources of money. Ditto.
3. Spend that money wisely and show solid results. Errr...
4. Not embarrass the party in TV appearances. Ummmm...
On #3, remember that Dean spent something like $42 million on Iowa and New Hampshire, for which he received a fourth place finish and a runner-up. In addition, Dean started a fund-raising effort for a group of politicians he called the Dean Dozen. There were several different Dean Dozens, but here's the first, and how they did:
Mary Ann Andreas for State Assembly, CA: Lost 42-58
Ken Campbell for State House, SC: Lost
Mary Chapelle for State House, MO: Won (Unopposed)
Scott Clark, Mark Manoil & Nina Trasoff for the Arizona Corporation Commission: All lost
Kim Hynes for State Representative, CT: Lost
Richard Morrison for US House of Representatives, TX: Lost
Barack Obama for US Senate, IL: Won
Rob MacKenna for Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections: Lost
Monica Palacios-Boyce for Massachusetts State Representative: Lost
Lori Saldaña for State Assembly, CA: Won
Jeff Smith for US House of Representatives, MO: Lost (in Democratic Primary)
Donna Red Wing for State House, CO: Lost
Now, Dean cheated here a bit; there are actually fourteen candidates (he counted the slate of three candidates for Arizona Corporation Commission as one), so overall Dean was three of fourteen. But one of the candidates was unopposed, and another (Obama Osama, as Teddy calls him) might as well have been unopposed, so really Dean was one for twelve, and that one was a state assemblywoman.
That's a pretty breathtaking indictment of Governor Dean's ability to allocate scarce time and resources to candidates with a chance of winning.
