General Discussion

Howard Dean was elected DNC chairman after the 2004 election. He took that job more seriously (and did a far better job) than any party chair since then. Under his tireless leadership, we took back the Senate, the House, and then the White House.

Howard will be 77 in November, and he is not interested in doing it again (it was exhausting work), but he is quite willing to lend his expertise and his advice if someone is willing to listen. I hope Jon Ossoff keeps his Senate seat next year, but if he doesn’t, he might be ideal for party leader. He is young, eloquent, energetic, and probably has the highest IQ of any senator.

Several years ago, a friend of mine was running for a statewide position in a red state. I told him he should talk to Howard. He said he’d love to, but had no idea how to contact Howard Dean. I said “here’s how,” pulled out my phone, dialed Howard and handed him the phone. I don’t know what was said, but they talked for half an hour, and my friend won his race, the only Democrat to win a state-wide race in his state that year.

A DNC chairman has to understand that in a time when we do not hold the White House, the chairmanship of the DNC is not a ceremonial post. It’s WAY more than doing 3 minute segments on CNN or MSNBC. It is not a prestige or glamor job. It is constant work, travel, meetings late into the night, and little sleep. Howard was the last one in that position who had both the smarts AND the willingness to give it the amount of time and effort required to get results. If we can find someone else like him, we can do it again, too, and this time, we have the advantage of Howard’s been-there-done-that expertise to guide the next person willing to put in the time and effort.