The Revolution No One Showed Up For: Not too long ago (end of January), I mentioned that while Dean had the big 'mo (apparently) and the big mo-ney (certainly), even with his "new look" approach of grabbing the broad, if shallow pool of voters (small contributions, but many of them), if he keeps finishing in second or third, then all that and $3.50 gets you a grande mocha at Starbucks. Well, gosh darnit, I was right.

Dean really didn't change anything other than showing that it was possible to raise money (if not votes) through micro-level maneuverings. The point is that his campaign revealed that nothing replaces veteran leadership at the national AND state level, with attention paid to the early three or four caucuses to get a front-runner position established. This is old hack. Dean thought, like Eno says, that it was "simple" to run a national campaign from the get-go. I blame his campaign guys for that, but oh well, he hired them.

Funny, if he had ramrodded Iowa with all the free publicity he was getting, boy, it would have been hard for even Kerry to have been heard at that point. Unfortunately, Dean left a vacuum which Kerry was all too happy to fill.