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February 11, 2005

Dean May Not Be As Bad As Some Expect

Bill Sammon makes a good point on the Fox News panel today. Despite the apparent gift to Republicans of having Howard Dean become the DNC chair, are they underestimating him? Sammon says that Republicans shouldn't go around "high fiving" each other quite yet, as Dean could turn out to be a force for unleashing Democratic passions in such a manner as to get the party back on track again.

I was thinking about this yesterday. Republicans clearly expect Dean to lead the Democrats over a cliff, as illustrated here. But things rarely turn out as expected. Dean collapsed as a candidate in 2004 because of the scream and Democratic primary voters' desire to nominate someone that they thought could be competitive against George W. Bush. The latter factor will not be operable now, although the former is always possible. We'll know the first time Dean goes on with Tim Russert on a Sunday morning and gets his buttons pushed.

I still think that Dean is not the best person to be chairing the DNC at a time when Democrats need to center themselves, but Republicans would be making a mistake to think that Dean is likely to be a disaster for his party. In short: Don't underestimate Howard Dean.

Posted at 04:02 PM Pacific