There are so many breathless references to Dean these days, I missed when he became the infallible pope of the left as opposed to just another politician looking for media attention.
First, everyone must acknowledge that Dean's 2004 presidential campaign supported basically the conceptual framework as the Senate bill except it made no attempt at cost control and made no attempt to pay for itself. (I'm saying he's a massive hypocrite. Not surprising since he's a politician but still...)
Second, whatever nice things he did as a DNC head, he is a horrible candidate. He is prone to saying stupid things on TV and his campaign was terribly managed. I was at his rallies, I was a supporter. He went down in epic flames. Yell or no yell, he had run out of money and momentum.
First, read the wikipedia description of his 2004 platform:
Dean, a a former medical doctor, called for a comprehensive call for Universal Health Care for the United States. He proposed an annual $88 billion on health care programs in the United States as well as wanting tax credits to help workers of moderate income buy "affordable" coverage similar to that offered to federal employees, with extra insurance subsidies for companies employing less than 50 people. Dean also proposed spending nearly $1 trillion over 10 years on health insurance. Dean also stressed the need for the expansion of state health care programs for children throughout his campaign.
No public option in there. No Medicare buy-in. Oh yeah, Edwards at the same time was running with a Medicare buy-in so someone thought it was possible.
But aside from that... The guy's a politican. Stop saying "Dr." Dean. Do we call Tom Coburn, Dr. Coburn and consider him infallible? When the AMA came out against the public option earlier in the year, did we say oh, my mistake, doctors know everything?
The guy is a politican. He wants space on the op-ed page. He wants time on the morning shows. He wants time on the cable shows. He wants to remain relevant. That's what politicans want.
He's basically like Joe Lieberman but without a vote.
Yeah and he's not advocating killing the bill for all the uninsured who will die over the next 10 to 15 years until we have sufficient majorities to try this again, he's advocating killing the bill because it gets the Dkos excited and gets him on cable.