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Howard Dean: "We Democrats need to be a lot more like Tom DeLay."

Are Republicans (and even some Democrats) underestimating Howard Dean?

Eric Pfieffer, in his National Review blog "Beltway Buzz," argues just that:

"When I was covering the Democratic National Convention in Boston this summer, I had the chance to see Dean speak. The event was a lavish party thrown for members of the California delegation. Nancy Pelosi was first to speak. After Pelosi encouraged her constituents to party and enjoy the moment, Dean took the stage on a more forceful note. He began reading a laundry list of grievances against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Upon reaching the end of the list, Dean said something surprising. Instead of delivering a sermon on liberal virtues, Dean uttered the following statement, 'We Democrats need to be a lot more like Tom DeLay.' Needless to say, the crowd did not respond enthusiastically to Dean's battle cry. But it's a strategy that if sincerely practiced should put dismissive Dean critics on notice."

If Dean's comment about emulating Tom DeLay is any indication, perhaps he knows what he is doing.

Still, count WILLisms.com among the skeptics of Dean.

He may have been reelected governor several times, but it was only from Vermont, not exactly a representative slice of America.

Although the Pfieffer piece makes a solid point about low expectations for Dean, and about a sympathetic press potentially reviving his reputation, Howard Dean was still not the right man at the right time for the DNC. Afterall, raising money is not everything. Dean, no matter how much money he can raise, will remain a burden on Democrats running in Republican-dominated regions of the country.

UPDATE: James Taranto, in Best of the Web, notes:

"What's missing? Any sort of positive agenda, any indication that the Democrats stand for anything other than nostalgia for Vietnam and the Depression. Seventy years ago, when the New Deal actually was new, it was the Democrats who were 'radicals' and the Republicans who 'defended their principles aggressively' against them. That didn't work out so well for the GOP. Nowadays the Democrats have nothing to offer but the Same Old Deal."

Posted by Will Franklin · 15 February 2005 04:03 PM

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