My Dinner With Howard Dean II

A couple years ago we reported on a relatively small dinner gathering we'd had with then new DNC chair Howard Dean.

Last night our host reprised the event, so we had an opportunity to hear from Governor Dean at a particularly important point in the Democratic Party political process. (Unfortunately for both the Governor and his audience--about 50 good Democrats--Pope Benedict was nearby, such that helicopters were buzzing overhead, making it more difficult to hear.)

It was an interesting discussion, with a lot of questions. Here's the highlights:

First off, Governor Dean was quite firm in his conviction that the Democratic nominee should be known by no later than July 1. He pledged to put pressure on the remaining uncommitted superdelegates to publicly state a position shortly after the last primary contest ends on June 3. [Note: Dean himself is a superdelegate. He and a small number of other DNC officials are prohibited by party rules--and good sense--from stating their preferences before the primaries are all done. Accordingly, he will announce his position in early June.]

Dean also noted that there are certain advantages to having an extended Democratic nominating process. Clearly, the biggest of those is the huge number of new voter registrants in states with upcoming primaries (and to a lesser degree in caucus states). We've seen suggestions of upwards of more than a hundred thousand new registrants in both Pennsylvania and North Carolina, so that's nothing to sneeze at. The DNC puts all those new voters directly into it's computer databases.

The Governor was also quite clear that the Florida and Michigan delegations will be seated at the convention. While he couldn't give any details--noting they still need to be worked out--he said it was obvious for a number of good reasons that those delegations should be seated. At the same time, he said Florida and Michigan did break the rules and that there have to be consequences for that, so they will be penalized in some form.

Dean noted that the role of the DNC in the ongoing process is that of a "referee," with him feeling that in such an extended, and at times bitter, contest it was extremely important that everyone view the process as a fair one. He believes that if the nominee is known by the end of June, the party will have time to heal itself by the late August convention, as assessment we share here at the Curmudgeon.

In discussions not directly related to the presidential nominating contest, Dean talked about the DNC's sophisticated computer tracking systems, based largely on credit card data that's available for purchase from private vendors and that let's the DNC use the same micro-targeting strategies as the GOP has been using for a number of years.

He also spoke at some length on the issue of health care reform, an issue that Dean, as an M.D., holds near and dear to his heart and also happens to be knowledgeable of. He allowed, however, that health care reform is something that needs to occur in increments (start by extending Medicaid to everyone under age 25; then extend Medicare to everyone over 55; then fill in the rest; and private insurance should have an important role). Dr. Dean also said he would advise the next president to largely leave it to Congress to put together the details.

After the dinner, the Curmudgeon spent a few minutes talking to Governor Dean one-on-one about Virginia and the prospects for the Commonwealth to go Blue in the November presidential election. Not surprisingly, Dean was upbeat about the possibility, noting the likelihood of picking up Sen. John Warner's open seat along with Rep. Tom Davis's open seat along the way.

He turned the question around on the Curmudgeon and asked what we thought, including which presidential candidate we thought would be better for capturing Virginia (and noting that he would offer no comment one way or the other on that issue). We said that while we wouldn't bet the ranch on Virginia going blue in November, we thought the prospect was good for the following reasons:

--Mark Warner will bring out Northern Virginia Democrats

--the race for Tom Davis's open seat will energize Fairfax Democrats

--the state's demographics have continued to shift in a favorable direction

--McCain is not popular amongst the downstate's more conservative Republicans

On the other hand, McCain will have some appeal to the state's middle of the road independent voters.

As to which candidate would do better in Virginia, we said all you have to do is look at our primary returns, where Obama trounced Hillary. In our view, one reason Obama does well with Democrats in red states is that they want to see their states go blue, and they see Obama as offering a much better opportunity to expand the party's base in such states--including Virginia--than Hillary.

Dean capped his talk off with a rousing call to take back our country from the right wing ideologues who have done so much damage to our nation in the past eight years. Not surprisingly, it earned him a standing ovation from the assembled group.