Chairman Dean

As you may or may not have noticed, Tough Enough has never been particularly fond of Howard Dean. This was due, mainly, to his primary campaign and the disgust with which he and his supporters treated John Kerry. As big Kerry supporters it got a little hard to stomach the daily cheering on of Dean and non-stop bashing of Kerry on most liberal blogs and among many of the younger Democrats we'd talk to. However, as we've noted a couple times over the last month (here and here), Dean does seem to have learned his lesson and run a rather skillful campaign for DNC chair. With yesterday's endorsement by the DNC's Florida delegation, there are those (like The Note) that are calling Dean the unqestionable front-runner. Someone 'big' could still jump in at the bequest of the anti-Dean faction. But Dean has warmed the hearts of party members with his inspirational, forward-looking speeches at recent gatherings that seems to have left many feeling invigorated about the party's chances under his leadership.

All this taken together confirms a sneaking suspicion I've had the last several weeks that Dean was actually going to win this race for chairman. While I think it's possible that he might be stopped somehow, I doubt it will happen. This is probably a good thing. There's been enough reappraising of the Democrat's strategy last year. It's time to close ranks behind a candidate for chairman and move on with the business of reconstructing the party so we can win in '06.