I don’t know about the 50 state strategy, but I think we can count on Kaine to pour money & resources into Virginia for this year’s gubernatorial and General Assembly races.

So, what’s Obama got for Howard Dean? Surely Obama owes him a lot because of the 50-state strategy.

Bob in HI

Dean seems to have been snubbed for the Kaine roll-out

I’m pissed. Furious.

This smacks of insider payback to the grassroots for being uppity in January 2005 and demanding Dean as chair.

I want to know why the rank-and-file membership weren’t asked; many states have not had their state party conventions yet, at which we’d likely vote for the DNC chair.

If we’re talking only about qualifications, Kaine has done jack squat as far as I can tell to develop the party.

I think we are now back to asking ourselves the three questions Dean put to us late in 2004 after the disastrous election: should he run for POTUS, should we launch a third party, should we take back the party?

I think we’re ready for all three options if this is how it’s going to go down, when democracy ends with the election of Obama and the big D Democratic Party forgets to be little d democratic.

If the answers were : Yes, yes, and why bother?, then what?

I think it’s a good idea to keep pressure on Kaine to preserve the 50-State Strategy and the state-level organizers (as DFA is doing), but without assuming that he’s unsympathetic to begin with. Tim Kaine is certainly aware of how he’s benefited from the program, since Virginia was one of the first states to get an organizer (my good friend Joe Montano) and was a test bed for the neighbor-to-neighbor outreach program. Kaine has also done a lot to support grassroots organizing to expand Democratic support in Virginia.

In my view, Warner was a more effective and more popular governor, but Kaine was a more effective party-builder, and I think he’s a good fit for this job.

1,881 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Phoenix Woman and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

“Is this the end of Howard Dean’s Fidty State-Strategy? Or will that strategy… be taken up by Obama’s ‘apparatus?’?”

That’s the lottery winner, Sister PW and the answer will tell us exactly what Obama’s politics really are and if he has a vision of decentralized democracy as a counter to institutionalized corporate power. I hafta believe that as a community organizer and a student of history, Obama really understands the need for grass roots infra-structure and I really think he wants that structure decentralized thru the states and doesn’t want to set up another “national” power center…but so far I’m worried about lettin the experienced organizers go and makin the states start over from scratch.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, MUCH IS STILL TO BE REVEALED!!

Dean was on tv yesterday and indicated that he wished to pursue other interests. He also indicated that he would be traveling.
278 hrs & 37 min

I’ll have to take your word for it for now.

Dean went to each of the 50 states in November of 2004 and talked with grassroots supporters about the next step; it wasn’t until after that round-trip that the grassroots pushed to have him made party chair. WE did that, but in no small part because he made a concerted effort to hear us, ALL of us.

I could be put in a better frame on this if I saw Kaine putting in any effort remotely like this, but so far I haven’t. By this time in January 2005, Dean had already been across the country — and I believe that Carville was already beginning to bemoan the lack of a machine to “fix this” in some smoke-filled back room. Is that what happened in January 2009?

Yeah. There are people who are better at promotion than governance.

My own take is to strike a balance between being critical enough to put useful pressure on pols and being so cynical it corrodes one’s will to act, which is a common problem on the left.

Although it doesn’t really excuse the actions (or lack thereof), there is the difference that at the end of ‘04/early ‘05 the Dems had just “lost” the second straight Presidential election.

Now, the Dems have just won the White House, and it is the tradition that the incoming President gets the DNC chair selection.

Doesn’t make it right, just makes it the reality.

But yeah, folks will still probably have to fight to maintain the 50 state strategy. Leading from the grassroots level whether the Villagers approve or not.

One of my best friends used to a political operative in Virginia. Kaine’s decent at the nuts and bolts of campaign organization, he’s a putz in almost every other way that matters to progressives and he’s definitely not charismatic. He’s a placeholder compared to Dean.

As for the 50 state strategy, I suspect, as I have for some time, that it will be rolled into Obama’s personal organization, such as it is, but as a party thing independent of Obama, it’s essentially dead. Not to beat a dead horse, but if it had been important to them, they would have kept the organzers.

As for Giordano, I can’t remember the last time he really disapproved of anything Obama did.

Is there a difference between the winning party and the losing party as far as filling this position? It seems like there is quite an effort by several vying for the rethug position now. Also I have heard many people saying that Obama is now the head of the dem party and have also heard that many of the functions of Dean will be done out of the WH.
278 hrs & 20 min

It will be up to us to keep the grassroots organizations separate from Obama’s team. Over the next 2 years there will be plenty of local elections to work on. In 2010 it will be the mid-terms (sounds like a college exam) for Congress. While we’ll certainly take any money available from the DNC we’ll have to run the show in our respective states. We’ll have to build our own organizations back up but the groundwork has already been laid for that. Keeping the 50 state strategy alive is just as much our responsibility as it is the DNC’s.

One of the most important things I learned as a project manager is that buy-in is absolutely essential to a successful migration from Point A to Point B, whether a corporate merger or a change in software.

If they don’t have an opportunity to buy-in, they don’t “own” it, don’t feel connected to it, are literally not emotionally invested in it and less likely to make any other investment.

When the grassroots are completely ignored in the process of appointing their leader, they don’t feel any real need to follow because they aren’t bought it.

Apparently this bit of organizational and change management dynamics has not yet been grasped by the people who believe they lead us.

I completely agree and as one of many who made nearly 500 phone calls to DNC delegates requesting that they vote for Dean for DNC Chair…..

I see it here on the state level, the Governor hand picked the State Chair and at the election meeting she introduced him and pretty much implied that he was it…… That is my beef with Gov Janet and abandoning us to the Repugs….

OMG katymine, bless you. All those phone calls…change really started with you.

And yes, you’ve given one more perfect example of the bloody old school machine at work; it undermines democracy which should start within the parties. Cramming a party chair down our throats after selection by a narrow few entrenched power gods does not engender our buy-in and commitment.