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archived: 13 - 19 Feb, 2005 Back Next UPDATED: February 15, 2005 DR. YES The writing is on the wall. The omens are in alignment. The runes we have been reading confirm that Dr. Howard Dean, known to his staff as, “The Governor,” has now become the Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Readers of this column will recall that we have been admiring Governor Dean’s meteoric career over the past two years. In late 2002, it became obvious that the New Democrats were planning to lead the Party into yet another disaster at the polls if they were allowed to follow the advice of the clique of right-wing and dreadfully neoconservative political consultants who have consistently steered the Democratic Party into defeat after defeat for the past two decades. In January of 2003, Bob Mulholland, a veteran of the DNC, visited London to tell us all about the personal weaknesses and foibles of George Bush and to disabuse any of us who believed the notion that we needed a somewhat more progressive presidential candidate who would be palatable to a broader swathe of voters. According to Mr. Mulholland, we definitely did not need to be more progressive. No siree, Bob, we most certainly did not need to contemplate that risible possibility! According to the highly experienced Mr. Mulholland, for our presidential nominee, we were going to get exactly what was needed to defeat Bush – a ramrod straight, conservative war-supporting, flag-waving Democrat from the “center” of the American political spectrum. From his delivery, I suspected Mulholland to be a prospective member of the Joe Lieberman cabinet. After his talk, I approached Mr. Mulholland over drinks. What did he think of Governor Howard Dean of Vermont? Mr. Mulholland was not only dismissive; he was politely appalled at the thought of a Dean candidacy. “He has a smattering of gay support, but little else,” the veteran DNC operative from California told me as he took another swig from his glass of sherry. I told him that I thought he might be mistaken, that I felt we needed to change course, that the Party was far too timid and far too deeply under the ether of the relatively rightward-leaning political consultants who had masterminded a lengthening chain of losses. At that point, Mr. Mulholland began to lecture me on his theory that I had been away from America for far too long, and that the country had changed – drastically and definitely for the worse – after 9/11. At that point, I could see that he was of the same ilk as so many DNC employees and Democratic presidential consultants that I had been butting heads with over the past thirty years, so I politely took my leave and left with a group of friends to go home to Oxford. Within one month, Governor Dean was surging in the polls, but much more importantly, he was swiftly becoming the man to beat because of the surge he was getting from his powerful anti-war message and his innovative use of the internet. Actually, the Dean campaign was being directed by an old friend of mine, Mr. Rick Ridder. Rick Ridder had done wonders for the Dean campaign. He had taken a presidential campaign that was getting a couple of dozen hits per day on its website to a 5,000 hits per day – and he did that in about three months. From there, the momentum swiftly built up into a skyscraping tower of power and a humdinger of a home-run hitting series of fundraising bats on the Governor’s website. Governor Dean literally skyrocketed from nowhere to front-runner. By mid-summer, the Dean campaign had set records for fund-raising that had eyes popping out of their sockets all over Washington. He was leading the pack of nine candidates, and he had become a political phenomenon of planetary proportions. The evidence of the power and effectiveness of Governor Dean’s message came in the form of gigantic sums of money he raised over the internet. Swiftly outpacing all of his rivals, Governor Dean accumulated stacks and stacks of political contributions and heavyweight endorsements. The good doctor handled a constant stream of media interviews and public appearances with great dexterity, and he reinvigorated the American body politic with a gigantic jolt of much needed energy. Governor Dean reminded me of a previous presidential candidate. In my very first sally forth into presidential politics in 1968, I visited the campus of Davidson College with Donald Dell, the College Coordinator for RFK. Bobby Kennedy was electrifying. His energy, his drive, his piercing intelligence, his ruthless drive for justice, his sheer personal momentum were phenomenal. While his older brother was a presidential candidate without peer, Bobby was charisma on steroids. Bobby could strike at the heart of issues. Boldly and brilliantly, Bobby brought the message home to the people that mattered, the voters. He was for civil rights, the New Frontier, peace in Vietnam, fairness and social justice for all Americans. Launching his presidential campaign, Bobby drove his messages home amidst one of the most tumultuous times in American history. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Bobby led the mourners at Dr. King’s funeral in Atlanta. He reached out across the class and racial divides that segregated America into the country of haves and have nots that we know so well today. Bobby challenged the old mores. He recharged the battery of the body politic, and he launched a driving campaign for social progress that still reverberates somewhere in the hearts of all Americans. When Bobby Kennedy died on the 6th of June, 1968, his spirit and his message did not die with him. They live on today in the words and minds of us all. Governor Howard Dean, MD, now the Chair of the DNC has just shouldered the mantle of Bobby Kennedy. He is a man much like RFK. He has personal power and charisma; he speaks the language of the common men and women of America; he is forthright in his quest for justice; and he is ruthless in his demand for equality, freedom and the preservation of the US Constitution. A new day is breaking over the political horizons of America. Here it comes. Dr. Yes is now moving onto the dais of American destiny. He is poised on the podium, holding his baton at the ready, and the Democratic orchestra is preparing to play the opening stanzas of a new and much more invigorating anthem than it has played in many years. The audience is riveted, rapt with attention and thrilled to be awaiting the moment of truth – the midterm elections of 2006 that will launch the denouement of the dreadful Bush presidency. Dr. Yes will drive home the pulsating syncopations of that forceful symphony of reinvention, rejuvenation and renewal he has inherited from the titanic echoes of RFK. Dr.Yes, we applaud your arrival, and we long for your opening attack. RELATED ARTICLES: “Howard Dean's ascension to the Democratic chairmanship - an event virtually unimaginable last year, when he was racking up 17 losses in 18 presidential primaries - signifies a historic power shift within the party, from the Washington establishment to the foot soldiers who are fed up with defeat.” -- Dean's victory marks historic shift in party __________________ Since 1968, Michael Carmichael has been a professional political consultant. Beginning as a Student Coordinator for Robert F. Kennedy, he has worked in five US presidential campaigns as well as over 100 major American political campaigns for federal and state offices. In 1985, he founded The Oxford Centre for Public Affairs in the United Kingdom. In 2003, he founded The Planetary Movement Limited, a global political action organization based in the United Kingdom.
Last Update: 03/23/2006 |
