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In reply to the discussion: Obama Says Income Gap Is Fraying U.S. Social Fabric [View all]SunSeeker
(58,240 posts)When your party is in power, the chairman of the corresponding national committee is a figurehead at best because the party's real leader is the President. Dean had no interest in being a figurehead, so he left.
Regardless, Dean would not have been able to salvage 2010. The economy was still really bad and our attention-deficit, quick-fix electorate doesn't take time to think about why things are the way they are. Citizens United funded astroturf Tea Party groups and anti-Obama propaganda 24/7 that swamped any Dem positive messaging. The Republicans were out in full force but the Dems stayed home as usual during mid terms.
If you want to blame a politician, it should be the individual Congressmen, particularly blue dogs, who ran away from the ACA vote. That is still going on, including here at DU, where folks keep bashing the ACA. In fact, Dean himself (wrongly) stated in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that the ACA's Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is a "rationing body" that will be "determining" what treatment Medicare patients get. Yup, he basically revived the old Sarah Palin "death panel" lie. As the L.A. Times pointed out today, via an editorial headline, "No, Howard Dean, Obamacare doesn't ration Medicare." With friends like these...