"Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean." Today I'm missing Howard Dean's campaign, really badly. Last night I collected all of my Dean stuff in a box, and this morning I realized what I miss most: the positivity.
Seriously. I made so many friends, and I still have the friends, and we're still working on politics. But it doesn't match the fire we had before. It's more negative -- as in, we honestly hate Bush and we hate what he's doing to the country. We aren't excited, we're just determined. Big shift.
Dean represented some things that we believe in -- a new direction. Healthcare for everyone. Fiscal moderation. Planning, for god's sake. "Something good," not just "not something bad." It just sucks that the other Democrats went after him with such a vengeance.
During the critical days right before the primary, rumors surfaced that "someone" was robo-calling Iowa voters, some pretending to be from the Dean campaign in the middle of the night, some suggesting Dean wasn't Christian because his wife is Jewish. All that somehow just went away, like no one cared, like it's OK. Everyone suspected it was Kerry's camp. And now that's the guy we've got to work with. Skull and bones, indeed.
A photo posted on, I think it was Daily Kos, showed two giant campaign signs nestled next to each other. One said something like - DEAN: The politics of hope. The other said - Doubts about Dean? Vote for KERRY. To me, that just sums up the whole damn primary.