Thursday, October 7, 2010

Howard Dean vs. Sarah Palin?

Everyone knows I respect and admire Howard Dean. In my opinion he broke the mold for liberal progressives, and he carries it off without being an extremist. I supported him when he ran for President, and would again. He is one of the dwindling few Democrats who have a voice in party politics that is still talking sense. His leadership of the DNC was the main contributor to the gains the Democrats made in Congress during his chairmanship, and he presided over the battle royale between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with ironclad neutrality.


His neutrality irked Rahm Emmanuel and Speaker Pelosi who were solidly in Camp Obama, and Dean got snubbed for a Cabinet position. (See my OpEd here: The Fall of the House of Dean ) He was tossed up as a serious contender for HHS Secretary, which was eventually given to Kathleen Sebelius, after both she and Hillary Clinton were vetted off the VP short list. Regardless, he took his leave with grace and has been advocating for progressive causes since. Likely he angered the White House further when he loudly denounced any health care reform law that excluded a single-payer (universal) system, openly criticizing Pelosi and the President.(See my OpEd here: Howard Dean Blasts Obama, Sebelius-- Calls Public Option Mandatory) When the Sunday show circuit bore no fruit, he launched his own reform campaign through his PAC, Democracy For America, and I still believe if the Democratic party bosses had listened to him, health care reform would not have been bungled so badly in Congress. (See my OpEd: Howard Dean wades into the healthcare battle)


Dean founded Democracy For America in 2004. DFA is, "the people powered PAC, has over one million members nationwide. DFA is a grassroots powerhouse working to change our country and the Democratic Party from the bottom-up. We provide campaign training, organizing resources, and media exposure so our members have the power to support progressive issues and candidates up and down the ballot..." Most recently, DFA is taking on the Tea Party and its firebrand pin-up girl, Sarah Palin.


Here is an excerpt from a fund-raising email I received from Howard Dean and DFA today titled simply, "Sarah Palin.":


I have been in politics for a long time now and I have never seen more extreme candidates than ones being pushed today by Sarah Palin.

They're not just attacking the work President Obama has done -- they're attacking our social safety net and the building blocks of the modern middle class. They want to kill Social Security and Medicare, abolish the minimum wage and end unemployment assistance. Some have even questioned basic civil rights.

Candidates like Joe Miller, Rand Paul and Christine O'Donnell are pushing an agenda that is more extreme than Bush and Cheney's ever was.

But we can stop them. We have a chance to beat two of Sarah Palin's top candidates with progressive fighters and pick up two seats in the United States Senate -- one in New Hampshire with progressive champion Paul Hodes and one in Palin's own home state of Alaska with small town fighter Scott McAdams.

(Click here to make a donation to DFA.)


Palin is wading into the midterms energetically, and in good American tradition, the election is becoming a referendum on the President and his legislative agenda. State and federal candidates are being forced to align with or against Obama, and one of the loudest voices calling out the President is Palin's. Most observers believe, probably correctly that these are the first sparrings of the 2012 presidential race. I don't think it would be politically wise of Obama to legitimize Palin further by directly attacking her. Most visibly, Bill Clinton has taken on the Obama-surrogate role with his ultra-charismatic campaigning style, but the Dean niche is still skeptical.


Howard Dean is uniquely equipped to fight Palin right now, and if he makes any headway, the Democratic party is going to owe him another huge favor. Dean is an ex-governor, as is Palin, and although the two are oil and water politically, it is what legitimizes both of them. Dean is not in elected office at this time, and therefore has no constituency to please, he can say what he wants. Dean also remains a viable presidential candidate, and has maintained, even increased his credibility with liberals and left-leaning moderates. Much more than the president at this time, Dean is the anti-Palin. He showed his stuff in terms of growing the Democratic party with his "50 State Strategy," and his PAC, Democracy for America supports dyed-in-the-wool liberal progressive policies: reforming the Democratic party, ending the Iraq war, solving the climate crisis and providing universal health care. All the causes seemingly abandoned by the Obama platform so eloquently spun out in 2008. Dean can easily storm the castle over at the Tea Party camp, and he has the ideological headroom to safely distance himself from the taint of the White House at this moment in US politics. Dean can spread the net to liberals and to independents whose critical support is flagging. Both are losing confidence in the president and giving valuable ground to the disturbing uber-conservative ground swell in the GOP calling itself the Tea Party.


Palin did not invent the Tea Party, but they have embraced her as their figurehead. Combined with this and her PAC, SarahPAC, and her growing celebrity, Gov. Palin is still holding the #2 spot in Republican presidential picks for 2012, narrowly behind Mitt Romeny. And the way the Republican primary process works, with their winner-takes-all system, Palin could plausibly shut out the competition with critical early wins. If Howard Dean is targeting Palin it is because he understands the threat she represents to liberal causes. Because of his now-outsider stature, Dean may actually be able to direct the commentary coming into the 2012 election, which is "officially on," once the mid-term Congress is sworn in. If it works, there could be a background rumble, "Dean '12." And wouldn't that be interesting.

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