This is going to be short and sweet. I love Howard Dean. His 50-State Strategy was pure genius and is the reason why the Dems are the majority party today. He is the reason why I donated to the DNC over the past 2 years. So I understand how people feel when they hear that Dean's strategy may be stopped and instead the DNC returned to the Terry McAuliffe insiders.
However, to explode in outrage over anonymous sources saying the 50-State Strategy is dead is just nonsense. First off, they are anonymous sources for a reason. Only last week, an anonymous source was quoted as saying Kaine's DNC would be "the 50-state strategy on steroids." When there is a conflict between two sources like this, the best bet is go to the horse's mouth himself, Tim Kaine. And this is what he said today according to The Hill: http://briefingroom.thehill.com/...
"The 50-state strategy is now and forever what Democrats do," Kaine told Democrats, who were assembled for their winter meeting. The 50-state strategy was a political gameplan developed by Kaine's successor Howard Dean that sought to expand the electoral map by pursuing campaigns in each state.
Also Kaine said...
"The results speak for themselves. I'll oversimplify: everybody matters. Every state, every region, every community matters," Kaine said, before cautioning: "We'll do some new things, because we can never rest on what worked yesterday."
And...
Kaine set expectations in the speech by repeatedly referencing the electoral successes enjoyed by the DNC under Dean, though he promised to continue the efforts credited with helping Democrats reclaim the presidency and both houses of Congress. Kaine said following Dean made him "nervous."
These are the words from the new chair of the DNC, Tim Kaine. Not some "source" trying to stir up trouble. And Rahm Emanuel doesn't have a grudge against Dean and isn't trying to destroy the man from the inside of the White House.
While Kaine will obviously tweak the strategy, and the direction of the DNC will change a bit with a Dem in the White House, know this:
Howard Dean's 50-state strategy is alive and well.
Newsie8200's diary speaks about some of this here: http://www.dailykos.com/...