Along with McJoan and Jonathan Singer, who will have more complete transcripts later on, I just had a twenty-minute interview with Howard Dean. Three important notes:
At the rally beforehand, there were chants of "four more years." When asked if he would run for another term, he said that he wasn't thinking about it. In fact, he said that since Barack Obama would be the next President, and since the President traditionally chooses the next DNC chair, he did not anticipate being around for four more years. In short, he was happy with his term, and wasn't running again.
When asked about the ads criticizing him and Speaker Pelosi for Clinton supposedly not being on the ballot at the convention, he scoffed. Clinton will be on the ballot at the convention, and will be speaking there. Dean indicated that the rules were so clear on this matter, that the groups running these ads and spreading these rumors must be associated with the other internet rumors going around, such as Obama being a Muslim. He also speculated that McCain supporters might be behind these rumors.
Dean said that his main goal as chair has been to build a permanent political operation for Democrats in all fifty states, and that this goal is on the brink of being accomplished. He also said that he thinks there is no going back from the fifty-state strategy, and that this sort of broadly based political operation is here to stay for Democrats even after he is no longer chair. He was clearly very proud of this accomplishment. I was clearly in love with him.
Jonathan and McJoan will have the complete audio up later today at Daily Kos and MyDD.
This conference is crazy. Mark Begich, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Alaska, is doing fundraising call time next to me right now. It is fascinating to be able to hear it in person. There is no way I could ever run for office if I had to do that.
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