Howard Dean, The Unsung Hero, Says this is a New Era

Brandon/AP

As many of you maybe know, HS, Yogyogibear, Terri, Myself, Miki, and other readers and commenters here consider ourselves to be DEAN DEMOCRATS. We became activists because of Howard Dean and his people powered politics!

You can read Tokyo Terri's -Thank you post here.

Here are some words of wisdom from the good doctor from yesterday in the midst of the voting hours;

We have believed for some time that the road to the presidency goes through the West,” he said. “The Obama campaign has been pretty determined in Arizona, as it has been in other states. I just felt it would be a shame to waste our resources once we got within a couple percentage points.”

Earlier this fall, Dean conducted a voter registration bus tour that hit 22 states. Party insiders, who once criticized Dean’s 50-state strategy of building up state party operations in even the most Republican of states, now laud the strategy for boosting the party’s fortunes.

“I’m hoping this has changed the Democratic Party forever,” Dean said. “Of course, it doesn’t hurt that we had a great candidate in Obama, and a sitting president who helped us by not paying much attention to what the people of this country are doing.”

Dean’s said he was gratified that Obama had borrowed some of the techniques Dean employed in his presidential campaign, including a reliance on small donations and use of the Internet.

“I told David Axelrod ‘You took all the things in our campaign that worked out well and used them, and with anything that didn’t work out, you got rid of it,’” Dean said. Axelrod is Obama’s chief political advisor.

Dean was planning to be with the Obama campaign Tuesday night, watching election returns, and will return to Washington D.C. today.- By Sam Hemingway Burlington Free Press

(links added by me)

Thank You, Howard. You were right. And we will always be your Dean people.