A message from the DNC Treasurer

[DFW]

11. Democrats well organized is a realtively new phenomenon, and there is one man to thank for that

His name is Howard Dean. After running a chaotic short-lived presidential campaign where, in his own words, "we didn't know what the hell we were doing," he learned quickly and built the DNC from a footnote into an organization that brought result after result after result. Obama stumbled when he didn't beg Howard to stay on, probably figuring it would be smooth sailing after the huge victory of 2008 (oops). Howard himself said that the position of DNC chair was a much bigger deal when Democrats were in the opposition, but when your own party is in the White House, the President becomes party chairman, and the national committee chair loses a lot of its clout. Under Kaine, anyway, it sure lost its clout.

But after Citizens United, even though we have the White House and the Senate, the Republicans have the House, the Supreme Court, Fox Noise and a billion or more dirty anonymous Super-PAC dollars more than we do. We are almost in a de-facto opposition position again, irregardless of whether we have the support of a majority of America or not. The Republicans are desperately trying to make that irrelevant. Only a tight organization, clever allocation of resources and a lot of volunteering can counteract that because most billionaires that spend freely do so with the Republicans.