Conservative Blogger: The Best News Since Bush's Re-Election...

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has just been elected Chairman of the Democrat National Committee. This is almost as good as the Patriots and Red Sox winning championships in the same year.

"EEEEEYYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Oh my word, I can't contain my excitement today. I didn't fall in love...I didn't get an audience with the President...I didn't hit the lottery...today's development is far better than any of that, at least in a political sense.

Howard Dean has just been elected the new chairman of the Democrat National Committee.

Somebody pinch me!

Promising to rebuild the party in conservative districts, Dean represents an "old-school" Democrat philosophy. Remember, this is the guy who said he represented the "Democrat wing of the Democrat party" when trying to separate himself from his more centrist opponents in the Presidential Primaries. Dean then lost ground with voters when he proved he could appeal to the core voters in the Democrat Party, but couldn't draw the undecided or independent voters.

In his acceptance speech, Dean had some interesting if not contradictory remarks:

"We all know that we're the party of the big tent and new ideas."

Big tent? New ideas? Um...I haven't heard a new idea out of the Democrats in years. Besides, either the tent ain't that big, or the ideas ain't that new. In the graphic below, the red counties are ones that George W. Bush won and the blue ones were won by John Kerry:

Now, I'm no expert...no....wait...I suppose I'm as expert as any other American who reads and keeps track of these things. That doesn't strike me as a big tent with new ideas. In fact, what it tells me is that most people don't agree with Howard Dean's perception of the Democrat party.

"We know that we're the party for young Americans looking for a government that speaks to them, we know that we're the party for working Americans desperate for a government that looks out for them, and we know that we're the party for older Americans and veterans and members of the Armed Services expecting and deserving a government that honors them."

OK...the first one is true since the Dems tend to pander to college students. The party of working Americans? Well...they do get a lot of money from the labor unions but, again--looking at the county-by-county map, that doesn't appear to be true. It's safer to say they're the party of urban Americans. Older Americans? Veterans and members of the Armed Services? Well, I don't know which Kool-Aid Dr. Dean is drinking, but senior citizens and veterans historically vote Republican in overwhelming numbers. Sure...some vote Democrat. The historical trend is hard to ignore, however.

"And we know that no matter where you live or who you are, what you look like or how you worship, ours is the diverse party that welcomes you."

That is, provided you're not a church-going Christian. Then you're not only unwelcome, you're anathema to the Democrats.

You get the picture, no doubt.

Look, there are those in Dean's own party who aren't even sold on his new gig. Pennsylvania Governor (and former DNC Chair) Ed Rendell thinks that Dean will have to "reestablish his credibility." Yeah...that's a rousing endorsement, huh?

Howard Dean's election as Chairman of the DNC means that the Dems are using the only play in their playbook, yet again: a run to the left. He has a long road ahead of him and unless he and the Dems come a lot closer to the center, they're going to be exactly where they were in November of 2004---on the losing end of elections.

But wait! Dean has a "plan." Unlike John Kerry's "plan," Dean has actually documented his:

Chairman Howard Dean's DNC Plan

1. Show up! Democrats should never concede a single state, a single district, or a single voter to the Republicans. We must be active and compete in all 50 states and work with the state parties to build a true national party.

2. The success of the national party depends directly on the success of the state parties — we must better integrate our operations by:

Having the DNC pay the salary of each state party executive director to help ensure that the state parties have adequate funds.

Collectively building and sharing supporter lists between the national and state parties.

Recruiting, training, and encouraging candidates to run for office at every level — building tomorrow's farm team from the ground up.

Actively grow local Democratic committees and communities by working with neighborhood activists who can reach out in their communities and enable the grassroots to support state and local candidates.

Maintaining a permanent campaign in every state. We need to establish an ongoing, active presence, which does not have to be recreated every four years for four months.

3. Set core principles that define the Democratic Party and what we stand for and take a bottom-up approach to the development of the Party's message;

4. Use cutting-edge Internet and other technologies to fundraise, organize, and communicate with our supporters;

5. Strengthen our political institutions and leadership institutes to promote our leaders and our ideas — these organizations must work together in a coordinated and integrated fashion to elect Democrats at every level, so that we can take this country back.

What does all that mean? I'll tell you: lots and lots and lots of money. That's what it means. The Dems rarely raise as much money as the GOP, so how they intend to support this initiative remains to be seen. It's not like they can just raise taxes to do it.

So, what is Dean's new strategy in reaching out to people and bringing them into the fold? "The way I hope to deal with that problem, is not to abandon our core principles, but talk about them in a different way," he said. Talk about them in a different way?

Governor Dean, you can put paint on a pig, but at the end of the day it's still a pig.

The Dems don't get that what holds them back in reaching the middle is their ideas. It's not that people haven't gotten the message, they just don't like the way it sounds.

This is the best news since Bush's re-election because it means as long as the Dems fail to understand why they lost, they'll continue to lose.

"EEEEEYYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com

Posted by WilliamSmith on February 12, 2005 12:44 AM to Conservative Blogger