More on Dean

1. Can we stop pretending now that the Dean campaign still exists as a political force? The constituency that supported him remains a political force in Democratic politics and all along the granola belt (from Maine to Washington State) of the United States. But the Dean candidacy is done. He let down the team. The team moves on.

2. The denigration and devaluation of what the Dean camapign accomplished (in terms of organization and fund-raising and political networking) is almost as inane as the major media's coverage of the dot.com collapse 3 years ago. The Internet is the future of politics. The fact that Dean blew up had nothing to do with the fact that his campaign used the Internet brilliantly. The Dean campaign blew up because the candidate and his handlers weren't ready for The Show.

3. Reporters are always sorry to see a good source go. Thus all the sympathetic coverage of Joe Trippi's departure from the Dean campaign. Trippi served his candidate well during the entrepreneurial phase (basically, 2003) of the campaign. He was less effective when the campaign became, in essence, a corporate enterprise. The management of the Dean message in the last three weeks leading up to Iowa was disastrous. And it allowed Kerry back in.