Nice blog at Huff Post...how Dean begat Obama.

The post is quite true in many ways. The enthusiasm, the involvement, the passion. The willingness to work. Interesting in its comparison.

How Dean Begat Obama

Seeing the crowds of young supporters at Barack Obama rallies, commentators have been trying to locate the precise source of the apparently sudden swell of the "youth vote." It's Facebook! It's a greater focus on students by campaign field operatives! Or maybe the relatively young candidate himself is the cause. But as I watched Super Tuesday returns alongside members of Manhattan Young Democrats and the liberal ACT NOW organization at a packed Irish pub in midtown Manhattan, I got a different answer over and over again: we were engaged years before Obama hit the scene, and we'll be engaged even if he doesn't wind up with the nomination.

.." So when were all these young hardcores formed? Another answer was consistent: many had been "Deaniacs," or supporters of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid."

...."Though the young "Deaniacs" who helped fuel the former Vermont governor's presidential bid did not wind up deciding the 2004 Democratic primary or the general election, Trippi (until recently an adviser to John Edwards) says it was the first presidential cycle since the 60's in which Democrats gave youth participants a sense of ownership. "I think what [youth activists] weren't used to was a campaign saying, 'Here, this is yours, too.' They were used to protesting totally outside any political institution -- whether it was the World Trade Organization protests or anything else -- because no one was giving them something to mold and help shape. And here they had a shot at impacting something, winning and changing things. The Dean campaign was one of those things.

Well, though, of course all of us Deaniacs know who is still first. But if we have to settle, Barack will do.

Thanks, Howard Dean, for the inspiration and hope.



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