Second Thoughts on Dean

For a very long time, I have been hard on Dean. I have always viewed Dean as a danger to the Democrats and a potential disaster for our party and the country. Recently, my views on Dean have begun to soften. I still think he would be a terrible nominee and a poor president compared with some of the other men running, but now that the chances of him actually being selected by the Democrats has decreased significantly, I am beginning to notice the good things Dean has done. It is like Atrios wrote:

Dean went out in front and made it "okay" to actually say nasty things about Dear Leader, something the rest of them were scared to do. I figured Dean would continue to force the other candidates to actually come up with a message and distinguish themselves from the Republicans...

Dean himself himself has made a similar point and I believe that he is right. Not only did he make the primary more exciting, mainstream harsh criticism of the President and his terrible record (I mean, POLITICAL HATE SPEECH and IRRATIONAL BUSH HATRED), Dean also provided a foil for the other candidates and acted as a kind of heat shield. If he doesn't get the nomination and another Democrat goes on to defeat George W. Bush, Dean will have been like a well placed kamakazee which throws the enemy into dissarray and makes a stunning counteroffensive possible. If this turns out to be the case, Governor Dean ought to be remembered as a good Democrat and a deserves the praise of everyone concerned with progress.