Dean wants to lead, lacks place to go

What does Howard Dean want?

Though his was perhaps the greatest flameout in the history of presidential politics, it is still a question worth asking. Dean claims a movement, and he claims leadership of a movement. And, as such, he is demanding respect both for himself and the movement he purports to lead.

The former Vermont governor prides himself on his clarity and bluntness. But he provided neither when outlining his vision for where he would lead his band of Internet supporters, who look closely connected but are in fact quite loosely linked.

The fight to “take our country back” as he so likes to say, is evocative, but what does it mean? He never did a very good job of filling in that blank except for a fairly predictable list of “special interest” villains in Washington. When Dean was specific, as he was in opposing the war in Iraq, he won converts. But they proved to be more of the virtual kind.

This country really isn’t big on movements, especially ones with amorphous ideas. Dean’s is not a movement like the one that led to civil rights or women’s suffrage. It is not like the one that demanded an end to the war in Vietnam. It is not like the movements for abortion rights or against abortion rights, or the ones for or against gun rights. For that matter, it is not necessarily even as potent as the push that demanded the repeal of Prohibition.

Still, Dean claims leverage, and like anyone with leverage, he expects something for his cooperation. It is a bit of a shakedown, and it will be interesting to see how things play out.

“I will support the nominee of our party,” Dean told supporters when he halted his campaign last week in Burlington, Vt. “I will do everything I can to beat George W. Bush. I urge you to do the same. But we will not be above, in this organization, of letting our nominee know that we expect them to adhere to the standards that this organization has set for decency, honesty, integrity and standing up for ordinary American working people.”

So which is it? Dean will support the nominee without reservation or only so long as the nominee hews to Dean’s views on issues?

What Sen. John Kerry or Sen. John Edwards really must covet is Dean’s campaign infrastructure. They too would like to employ the Internet as an organizing tool and a fundraising fountain. But it is important to note that the same technology that Dean’s campaign used was available to all the campaigns; Dean simply used it to far greater effect, especially among younger voters.

Deaniacs used it to stoke passion and anger as a motivator to contribute, first in money, and second, and far less effectively, in organization. Having 300,000 committed supporters who made individually small but cumulatively large donations sounds impressive. But it was a diffuse group and, when it comes to voting, 300,000 people in a nation of more than 270 million are not all that impressive.

What Dean didn’t say was that he now wanted his supporters to make a choice. Instead, he said he wanted them to continue to vote for “progressive” (Read: Dean) delegates in coming election contests because his name would still be on the ballot.

He did, to his partisan credit, say that he had no interest in a third-party candidacy.

He did say he wants change.

“Change is hard work,” Dean said. “Change does not happen simply because you go to the rally and simply because you make phone calls–and I know how hard everybody here has worked. But change is a process that you can never give up on because change is the state of America and change is the state of humankind.”

There was a lot of truth in that. Change didn’t happen for Dean because the perceived enthusiasm of his supporters in no way matched the participation of those who actually voted. That calls into question not only the depth of the commitment to him but also the breadth.

Both Edwards and Kerry are engaged in a behind-the-scenes dance to win the heart of the flinty physician/politician. Kerry’s campaign said that he and Dean had a “warm” discussion before the candidate debate last Sunday in Milwaukee. Both Kerry and Edwards went out of their way to praise Dean when he announced that he was dropping out.

Dean did not return the favor by praising either one of them.