Washington Post has a piece on the former Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean that is certain to deflate the idealism of the “grassroots” behind his campaign. It seems that when he urged his supporters to help him “take back your country”, he wasn’t quite sure he wanted it all that much.
The feuding and backbiting that plagued the Howard Dean campaign had turned utterly poisonous. Behind the facade of a successful political operation, senior officials plotted against each other, complained about the candidate and developed one searing doubt.
Dean, they concluded, did not really want to be president.
In different conversations and in different ways, according to several people who worked with him, Dean said at the peak of his popularity late last year that he never expected to rise so high, that he didn’t like the intense scrutiny, that he had just wanted to make a difference. “I don’t care about being president,” he said. Months earlier, as his candidacy was taking off, he told a colleague: “The problem is, I’m now afraid I might win.”
A lot of people were afraid you might win, Howard Dean. They had the right instincts, and to your credit, so did you.
The WaPo piece tells a story of a campaign of internal distrust. For example, The Al Gore endorsement was kept secret from Dean’s campaign manager, Joe Trippi.
It was, instead, a dysfunctional political family, filled with tales of blocking access to the candidate, neutralizing internal rivals, trying to penalize reporters deemed unfriendly. And some of its members just plain despised each other.
I wonder what the chick who sold her bike to give the money to your campaign is thinking right now – and how many disillusioned young “Deaniacs” may turn their backs on politics altogether. That would be the greater shame.
