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July 29, 2004

I saw Howard Dean. Twice.

I try to stay active in politics, and while I don't make it a big topic of this weblog (because it is so easy to devolve into a low-quality format of, "Here's a link to a column linked by a bunch of other weblogs that backs up what I believe! Heh. Indeed."), it has been very exciting to have the Democratic National Convention in town. Last year, I was a very active volunteer for the Howard Dean campaign and spent a lot of time trudging through the snow in New Hampshire canvassing for his candidacy. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to get a chance to see him, again.

Wednesday, he was speaking at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge as part of the Take Back America Conference, and I stood in line out in the sun hoping to get in. Having come only about 90 minutes ahead of time, and there being only about 350 seats available that weren't already reserved for reporters, and about 1000 other people weren't able to get in, including me. Howard Dean saw that there were all these people trying to get in to see him, so he came outside and spoke to the crowd from the back patio with some impromptu remarks. It's is really the mark of a great guy that he was willing to come out and make an unscheduled address to a group of interested onlookers. Robert Reich took out some time to speak to the locked-out crowd, as well.

The next day, there was a lunch event for former Dean campaign volunteers, which is where the pictures from yesterday's post came from. I saw a lot of old friends, and Howard Dean came to address us all. A big point he made in both speeches was to encourage us to run for office ourselves, to stay involved in campaigns we believed in, and to remind us that he and his supporters can make a difference in influencing the larger Democratic Party and what kind of candidates end up winning office.

There are two big observations I want to make here. First, having seen Dean speak to us twice and having caught his convention speech, he sees that his time in the sun is over. His convention speech was toned down and sounded like a eulogy to his candidacy than anything else, particularly to those of us who were hoping that his speech would be something akin to the bring-down-the-house speech delivered by Ronald Reagan at the 1976 Republican Convention which nominated his rival Gerald Ford. When Howard Dean remarks about the future, he talks about us, his supporters, and the future of a revitalized Democratic party. However, you can tell that he sees this as a future that does not include him as a central figure.

In all of this, however, I've been excited and almost star-struck by getting to see him, speak with him, and get my picture taken with him. A friend of mine called me a "political groupie," which, I suppose is an occupational hazard. In fact, what's striking is how it is so easy to get caught up in the parties with good food, the famous people you've only previously seen on television, and the media coverage that you hope you'll be included in. It's fine for me to get caught up in it. After all, I can afford to be shallow... I'm not a journalist or a politician or a policymaker who has to get anything accomplished at the convention. However, via Kevin Drum, we see an article from The New Republic taking reporters to task for thinking that their job is to hang around with important people, find swank parties, and generally get awestruck by the personalities they encounter, rather than uncover information that would actually make readers more informed (i.e., their jobs). I have seen how easy that is. The excitement at seeing a political celebrity can cause those endorphines to get released, giving my brain a good feeling as though I have done something useful, and then that allows me to calm down and go on about life without actually having done anything or learned anything, if I'm not careful.

UPDATED: More pictures after the jump.



"Beantown is Deantown" was a slogan we saw a lot of in Boston during the Dean campaign.






Howard Dean addresses the crowd at Hurricane O'Reilly's.

Posted by Dean at July 29, 2004 11:09 AM

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