Howard Dean on supporting Dems "who may disagree with us on a fundamental issue"

[karynnj]

43. it wasn't even a trade off

I can't think of any case where the more conservative Democrat recruited by Dean and others won a seat that a true liberal would have won.

However, Dean had the political swing working for him in both 2006 and 2008. Where Bush and the Republicans in Congress still still had reasonable support in 2004, by 2006 they were discredited. The really smart thing that Dean had done starting in early 2005 when the Democrats were demoralized was to put money in states and districts that others thought impossible - if their were a credible candidate. He also rebuilt the Democrat state parties everywhere - which was greatly needed as many were a mess. This meant that when the tide turned, we were ready.

Part of the problem in 2010 was that things were horrible and people shifted against the Democrats who were then in control of everything. The huge emphasis on local state parties (by Dean) might - had he have stayed in control - have led to better GOTV etc. Where we would still have lost some strength, we might have kept the House and might have done better on state legislatures and Governors - important because of redistricting.