How people cope when they are faced with having to give up their political goals says a lot about their nature and character. It must be hard to judge how long to keep going and allow people to keep the good will and warm fuzzy feelings that might still be there.
Howard Dean said something we have failed to remember in his interview with
Harry Smith on CBS Friday. He said:
DEAN: “Well, you know, I’m not going to get into who said what on the telephone calls. But I think that it's important that we understand this is not, again, about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It's about a change for our country. it's about $3.50 gas prices, it’s about staying in Iraq for 100 years”
It reminded me of a conversation Dean had with Al Gore before he dropped out of the race in 2004. On the night Dean was struggling about dropping out of the race, he and Gore talked on the phone. Here is what is in Dean's book, You Have the Power, about that conversation.
"So Gore didn't tell me to quit. He stayed up with me that night patiently, empathetically listened.
"Think long term", he said. "Keep your eye on where you really want to end up."
"This isn't about whether Howard Dean ends up being president of the United States. It is about the future of the country."
Dean continued:
"Al Gore had the presidency in his grasp. He was the one person who had the right to tell me whatever the hell he wanted. And only he could have been so right.
The Dean for America Campaign was about much much more than electing me to the White House. It was about reempowering people and giving them hope, and providing them with the tools to rebuild America in their own image."
A month later he formed DFA, to help provide tools for to just that, and he has tried to do so at the DNC. He did not look back, he moved ahead.
There's a danger in this campaign that will go on beyond the election. It is the obvious fact that some very important people have put themselves on the line for one campaign. They are people I have respected, appreciated, and whose books I have purchased because of that respect.
I see the danger in two blogs that have been completely become pro one campaign. There is no deviance, no discussion, just anger and divisiveness. Larry Johnson's No Quarter stunned me when I visited there today. Talk Left..is that Armando's blog...not sure..is against any of us in the wing of the party that speaks well of Obama or Dean.
Joe Wilson has surprised me as well with his no holds barred support of one campaign, and his vitriol against the other.
I am most disillusioned with Paul Krugman. I have been saving his columns to a zip drive folder for years. Now he has changed. It is too apparent that right now what he says is geared toward candidate support and not facts like his words were before.
There is a fine line to walk in a campaign. Keeping honor and dignity, keeping respect. Moving on to another role for the party if needed. Insiders can't always tell you, but others see it changing.
Dean made it clear in his interviews Friday that no one should be asked to leave the race. He said no one had that right to tell that to a candidate.
It must be hard to know when it is time. Some are able to exit more graciously than others, to move on to other goals.
