Monday, June 2, 2008

Dean gets it, and gets votes

I read that the Democratic National Convention is giving full press credentials to hundreds of bloggers, including one locally-focused blog from every state. This is yet another example of how Howard Dean gets it, the 21st century, and I still can't believe that the Democratic Party actually, for once, did the smart thing when electing him DNC Chair.

Maybe it seems like electing Dean was a no-brainer, or that even poorly-trained monkeys could have been elected to Congress in 2006 if they had a D next to their name. But if you paid any attention to the RBC meeting this weekend -- or tried to avoid news of it -- it's worth noting that Harold Ickes was a contender for DNC chair. If you just emerged from the cave you hid in this weekend to avoid the RBC updates, you might need to go back into it to cope with even the thought of Ickes as DNC chair. (It's also delightful to note that the linked blog -- which just happened to be the first google hit for this -- thought that Dean would be a disaster as DNC chair. If this is a disaster, I'll take it!)

Meanwhile, the Republican Party will also be issuing press credentials to bloggers, but they don't sound enthusiastic about it:
How many independent bloggers are ultimately credentialed will be determined by several factors - including interest; space available; the reach and influence of a particular blog; the amount of original content the blog typically generates; and other factors.

The difference in tone is remarkable.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought Dean was going to be a disaster as party chair, because it seemed like exactly the wrong sort of position for his set of skills (I saw him as high on flair and low on subtlety, basically). Turns out I not only misunderstood the job (British party chairs are much more boring functionaries) but also badly underestimated Dean.

I am still a bit worried about the Michigan-Florida primaries crap, but so far that's looking like less of a disaster than I thought it would. I don't know how much of the credit for that goes to him, but at the very least he's not screwed anything up, having been handed a really stupid, awkward situation.

Becky said...

His skill with grassroots organization seems to have outweighed his flair and his occasional difficulty in staying on message. He's just crazy enough to make it work!

I don't think he was very involved in the recent crap with the MI and FL primaries, but I think he did urge the RBC to deal with it before June 3. Likewise, for some time he has been putting pressure on the superdelegates to decide by June 3.