Dean: "Unfortunately, 'I Told You So,' Is An Incredibly Unsuccessful Campaign Slogan." [View All]

[babylonsister]

His Meteoric Days Gone, Quiet Dean Leads Party

By JEFF ZELENY
Published: October 21, 2007

ST. PAUL, Oct. 16 — There has never been a Democratic chairman with as much firsthand knowledge about running for president as Howard Dean.

Four years ago, at this stage in the race, he was flying high. Now, Mr. Dean is being sued by Democrats in Florida and second-guessed over how he is spending the party’s money. He seldom receives so much as a call seeking advice from this year’s candidates.

The rise and abrupt fall of his campaign now seems to hold lessons for some of the current contenders, from what it means to assume an air of inevitability to the dangers of counting on grass-roots energy to translate into votes. But Mr. Dean also sees ways in which the field has adopted elements of his candidacy, like its strong opposition to the war in Iraq.

“I often find myself ahead of the curve,” he said, a satisfied smile falling over his face. “Unfortunately, ‘I told you so,’ is an incredibly unsuccessful campaign slogan.”

For Mr. Dean, this could be a moment of great prominence, a chance to tower over the party at a buoyant moment. But most days, he conducts business in near obscurity, rarely appearing on television or at public events. It is a sharp departure from chairmen like Ronald H. Brown, a power broker known for firing off strategy memorandums in 1992, or Terry McAuliffe, a highly visible figure and one of the party’s most successful fund-raisers, who stepped down in 2005.

Mr. Dean travels the country without an entourage, often stopping in state capitals like here in Minnesota, inspecting the progress of projects like a door-knocking program that encourages people to stop by 25 houses three times before Election Day. To a room filled with activists, he declares, “We need to knock on most of the doors in America in the next year!”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/us/politics/21dean.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=9e192fe5bcac15f8&ex=1350619200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss