Dean the Frontrunner

From the Washington Post (registration required)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51686-2005Jan31.html

This isn't the first time that Dean's name has been mentioned on this blog (see here and here)

I'll be the first to admit that I was wrong in my prognostication skills. I had thought that Dean's loony leftism would not be a draw to a party that was looking to regain the political center after it was snatched away from them following the 2004 election. Instead the Democrats look like they're going to be heading back towards the anti-war crazies that Dean drew his support from in his abortive election campaign.

However, as mentioned in the Dean's December post, it looks like Dean is centering his campaign on making the state chairs more power and devoting more resources to them. So while it may not work on a national level, it does appeal to the state chairs and as such will appeal to the state chairs especially in states that were not "battleground" states.

As the frontrunner for the DNC chair, it's interesting to see where Dean will take the party. I still believe that the Democratic Party is firmly in the hands of the interest groups that give the Democrats money and resources. (Not to be seen as a partisan hack, the same can definitely be said of the Republican Party as well). So I doubt there will be any kind of shift in the Democrats focus in terms of issues or the candidates that they will run. As seen in the 2004 election, I doubt that the Democrats can run a candidate on the same platform that Kerry ran on, unless that candidate is charismatic enough to overcome the shortcomings of the Democratic platform. Do the Democrats have a candidate that can be that charismatic? The one candidate that comes to mind is Barack Obama, but he might be too young to take the flagbearer of the Dems. Hillary (no last name needed) is also seen as a possible candidate, but she is just as polarizing on the right as on the left, no gain will come from her candidacy.

So the Democrats still have their work ahead of them. The first real test for whoever the next DNC chairman is will be the 2006 congressional elections. Even more than the Presidential elections, these elections will depend greatly on the issues and ideas that the Democratic party puts forth. I don't know if a Dean-led Democratic Party will have a successful enough message to gain support to take back the Senate or House.