The Dean of Elections

Thinking back on the election, I can’t member the last time we’ve heard from Howard Dean, the nomimal head of the Democratic Party.  But I do wonder whether we’ve just seen the fruits of his labor.

Shunned by his party’s leaders for attempting to build a Democratic infrastructure from coast-to-coast, Dean has now presided over his party during what are arguably its two most triumphant election cycles in a generation.

Even more impressive is how they have achieved these conquests:  By competing in the same Republican strongholds that Dean vowed to fight for, despite the scathing taunts and abject scorn of Rahm Emanuel and other party leaders.  Whether or not Dean, himself, has been an architect of the recent Democratic renaissance (George Bush probably deserves chief credit), there is no doubt that his vision for a truly national party has been vindicated.  After all, Barack Obama’s victories in Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado have been attributed mainly to his vaunted “50-state strategy” — a direct echo of the game plan that Dean sought to institute for the party as a whole.

Of course, this year’s national onslaught wouldn’t have been possible without massive resources, and here again, the Obama campaign can thank the power of internet fundraising, another idea that Dean pioneered.

This is not to say that Obama was merely recycling someone else’s formula.  His victory can be traced to factors mainly his own:  his charisma and his color.  After all, black voter turnout was the decisive difference in catapulting Democrats over the top in states that used to be glaring red.  But now we know that, in fact, Dean was right:  Democrats had been unwise to write off half the country.

Why they continue to write off Dean is another maddening mystery.