Thank you, Joe Trippi!

The big news on the Dean campaign trail today:

Campaign manager Joe Trippi resigned after Dean promoted Roy Neel, a longtime aide to former vice president Al Gore, to chief executive officer. Trippi had been credited with organizing the 2003 drive that brought the former Vermont governor from obscurity to a temporary position atop the polls.

Although I have mixed feelings about Trippi leaving (especially considering his replacement is the consummate "Washington insider"), but one thing is certain: For the past year, Trippi has been the most important person in the campaign besides Dean himself, and America owes him a great deal of thanks for having the faith and vision to plant and grow a real, decentralized, grassroots campaign. Chris Lydon (whose reaction to NH is brilliant: "In his confused reiterations, his no-apology apologies about an unpopular war in Iraq, Kerry has conceded a point to Dean, not won one.") interviewed Trippi back in November and that interview captures Trippi's brilliant vision. Trippi may be out of this campaign, but his vision need not die, nor has it been discredited. It almost worked, and what it started may work yet. There's still time, and hope.

Of course, Dean has a lot of work to do. The campaign is saying it has to win at least one state to stay viable, so it's focusing on the "delegate-rich states most likely to determine this year's Democratic presidential nominee": Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, South Carolina, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Some Dean supporters have taken the first week of voting especially hard, saying things like they'd rather vote Bush than Kerry, or not vote at all if Dean doesn't win. I do hope these people will eventually come around to see that even Kerry would be much better for them and our world's future than Bush. But while it may be fun to mock the disappointment of "Deaniacs" right now, it seems only fair to point out that Dean has done more than anyone in this race to bring new people into the electoral process. This means a certain percentage of his supporters only care about this election because of him -- many of them have never voted before, or not in a long time. I suspect it's mostly those political neophytes who are packing up the toys. Dean has inspired people, but it's too much to ask for him and his campaign to also have taught them -- in such a short time -- how the political roller-coaster works and why they need not tear out their hair just because he hasn't won the first two contests (and may not win the nomination). Still, fun as it is, rather than ridicule these people, I think we ought to be concerned about them. If Dean doesn't win (and I still have hope he can), we may end up with an even more cynical, embittered, and apathetic electorate than we started with, and that won't be good for anyone (except, of course, G.W. Bush, and since he's not good for anyone but corporations, that's not really an exception with any meaning).

Thanks largely to Trippi, Dean's campaign has become a movement, and I hope, whatever happens, that movement will live on somehow so that all the energy and talent and passion that has taken Dean so far can continue to lead the Democratic party and/or America more generally in positive, more hopeful, more socially just directions.

Posted January 29, 2004 06:39 AM | election 2004