Obama Anoints Kaine, Praises (And Snubs?) Dean

Barack Obama continued to put his own stamp on the Democratic Party today by officially announcing his pick of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Howard Dean will step down as chair on January 21 and Kaine will step up.

Both Obama and Kaine had kind words for Dean and his fifty-state strategy. Obama praised Dean as a "visionary and effective leader" and "an outstanding chair." Said Obama: "Having steered the Democratic Party through two successful elections, Howard deserves enormous credit for ushering in a new era in Washington."

"I've got huge shoes to fill," Kaine said. Obama and Kaine both signaled that they'd continue the fifty-state strategy, in some form or another. "We must build a movement for change that can endure beyond a single election," Obama said, "and that will require redoubling our efforts to reach out to Americans throughout our 50 states, north and south, east and west." Added Kaine: "Chairman Dean, with the 50-state strategy here at the DNC, has just done a remarkable job, as the president-elect said, in recognizing that we can't be a regional party or a party of a few states that might get us to 270 electoral votes, but that we've got to be a party that plays everywhere."

Yet Dean wasn't there to enjoy the passing of the torch, traveling instead to American Samoa, the only state/territory he hasn't visited as chair. There's a lot of speculation among reporters about whether Dean's absence should be read as a snub by Obama.

The Associated Press reported that Dean did not attend the event "at the request of Obama advisers." The Politico's Ben Smith says that "Dean loyalists, indeed, blame Rahm [Emanuel] for Dean's absence at today's event, and from Obama's administration." Obama praised Dean for "working with my chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel," to retake the House of Representatives in 2006, when in fact the two spent most of that time fighting. However, the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder reports that "a transition source said that Emanuel played no role in this." My own inquiries to Obama's press office shed no new light.

It would be quite petty, unfortunate and frankly pointless if Obama's advisers told Dean to stay away. I've argued in a series of Nation articles that Dean deserves a lot of credit for creating the political space and laying the groundwork for Obama to run and win, both through his trailblazing presidential campaign and fifty-state strategy as DNC chair. A fitting tribute to Dean would be for Obama and Kaine to continue that strategy.

Stylistically, at least, the DNC under Kaine is headed in a more rhetorically centrist direction. "We share a pragmatic, progressive philosophy...free of the orthodoxies," Obama said of Kaine. Kaine said that Democrats in Virginia were a "party of problem-solvers and unifiers. We're not the ideologues, the obstructionists, the gridlock folks." It was unclear if Kaine was referring to his Republican foes or progressive critics.

As reported, the DNC's new executive director will be Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, a top field operative for Obama who previously ran Iowa for John Edwards and is well-regarded within the party. While Kaine tends to the governor's office until January 2010, Dillon will lead the bulk of the DNC's work.

Comments (16)

1. Posted by comanchenation at 01/08/2009 @ 6:06pm

   Still a bit miffed about Norm not making the party?

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/08/2009 @ 6:38pm

2. I really don't understand this snubbing of Howard Dean. I realize that he and Rahm have had disagreements, and I have sided with Dean in most of those squabbles, as Rahm funded some pro-war Democrats that weren't the best general election candidates and refused to fund others that were better candidates but who did not fill out the AIPAC questionare in the "right" way.

   But that should all be water under the bridge now, and Howard Dean should therefore have a prominent role somewhere in this administration.

   Although Kaine's non-ideological approach may be effective in Virginia, Kaine cannot use this as a model everywhere in the country. Sometimes ideology matters and is crucial for electoral success, and sometimes it is a hindrance, especially in areas that have been traditionally Republican.

   Knowing how to maintain this delicate balance between progressive ideology and post-partisan effectiveness and problem solving is what will make Kaine a successful DNC chair, but if he assumes the entire country is like Virginia, he will undermine much of what Dean has accomplished in his 50-state strategy.

   Howard Dean has been one of the most successful DNC chairs in history, so it is now time to but past squabbles behind us and give Dean his proper due (props).

   Posted by Metteyya at 01/08/2009 @ 6:47pm

3. actually pursue centrist policies that so many Dems campaigned on and then won full control? Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 01/08/2009 @ 7:14pm

   Nope they are just lying to us. They are going to turn the US into a socialism and turn us all gay and ban Christianity and kill any practicing Christians. Ahhh sarcasm.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/08/2009 @ 7:45pm

4. <i>They are going to turn the US into a socialism and turn us all gay and ban Christianity and kill any practicing Christians.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/08/2009 @ 7:45pm </i>

   I knew it! Treacherous liberals!

   Posted by Thrawn at 01/08/2009 @ 9:06pm

5. dean should be number one candidate for surgeon general, not gupta.

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 01/08/2009 @ 9:14pm

6. I knew it! Treacherous liberals! Posted by Thrawn at 01/08/2009 @ 9:06pm

   Seriously. They need to be stopped! They put their dark prince in office who is OBVIOUSLY the Anti-Christ.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/08/2009 @ 9:52pm

7. Dean resurrected the moribund and ineffectual, spineless as an opposition party, Democrats. For this he has received nothing but grief. No good deed goes unpunished. Rahm is a bull in a china shop who would decimate the party if he was in charge. Dean did well to put him in his place and keep him from running the party. I will not give another nickle to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as long as Schumer leads it because it is Schumer who has given us Mukasey in the Justic dept.

   A centric Democratic party is doomed to failure after all of Dean's incredible work will be for naught. The Democrats have a brief day in the sun now thanks to Dean, but that day will not last long. Every tool that Dean used and developed during his campaign was copied and burnished for Barack Obama, from software to methodologies and there has been no recognition of this anywhere.

   The president-elect is not even in office and the likes of Reid, Pelosi, Emmanuel, Burris and Blagojevich have already eviscerated any credibility the party gained through the 2008 elections. Bring on Saturday Night Live, The Dems will continue to provide ample fodder. More than even a Sarah Palin. Obama will lose crediblity as well as he is brought down the democratic clowns in side shows all over the country.

   Posted by ajdjr73 at 01/08/2009 @ 10:34pm

8. Dean resurrected the moribund and ineffectual, spineless as an opposition party, Democrats. For this he has received nothing but grief. No good deed goes unpunished. Rahm is a bull in a china shop who would decimate the party if he was in charge. Dean did well to put him in his place and keep him from running the party. I will not give another nickle to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as long as Schumer leads it because it is Schumer who has given us Mukasey in the Justic dept.

   A centric Democratic party is doomed to failure after all of Dean's incredible work will be for naught. The Democrats have a brief day in the sun now thanks to Dean, but that day will not last long. Every tool that Dean used and developed during his campaign was copied and burnished for Barack Obama, from software to methodologies and there has been no recognition of this anywhere.

   The president-elect is not even in office and the likes of Reid, Pelosi, Emmanuel, Burris and Blagojevich have already eviscerated any credibility the party gained through the 2008 elections. Bring on Saturday Night Live, The Dems will continue to provide ample fodder. More than even a Sarah Palin. Obama will lose crediblity as well as he is brought down by the democratic clowns in side shows all over the country.

   Posted by ajdjr73 at 01/08/2009 @ 10:37pm

9. Good post.

   Posted by arimelber at 01/09/2009 @ 10:53am

10. I don't think PE Obama will lose any credibility just because of a few hiccups along the way! Did anybody really think that everything was just going to run smoothly because I didn't? We all need to take a breath and hold all the criticism until he becomes President officially and see what transpires in the coming months/years. Call me an optimist, but I think he is going to show all the naysayer's out there that we who voted for him made the right choice

    Posted by Caj at 01/09/2009 @ 11:02am

11. I don't think PE Obama will lose any credibility just because of a few hiccups along the way! Did anybody really think that everything was just going to run smoothly because I didn't? We all need to take a breath and hold all the criticism until he becomes President officially and see what transpires in the coming months/years. Call me an optimist, but I think he is going to show all the naysayer's out there that we who voted for him made the right choice

    Posted by Caj at 01/09/2009 @ 11:02am

12. <i>They put their dark prince in office who is OBVIOUSLY the Anti-Christ.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/08/2009 @ 9:52pm </i>

    Haha...not sure if you want to put it quite THAT way...even though I know that you're not being racist at all :D

    Posted by Thrawn at 01/09/2009 @ 12:59pm

13. WOW ajdjr73...absolutely right on post...thanks so much for the intelligent comment!

    Posted by wagonjak at 01/09/2009 @ 1:05pm

14. Why is the stench of Wall street and K street creeping into the Obama Administration? O.K. creeping may be the wrong word, taking over?

    Posted by julien38 at 01/09/2009 @ 4:01pm

15. Good job, Ari. I've enjoyed all your reporting on Dean.

    I thought it odd at the DNC ceremony yesterday that Obama referred to Rahm's joint role with Dean in establishing the 50-state strategy. If memory serves, Dean had a knock-down fight with Rahm and Charles Schumer in 2006 about DNC funding for tv ads for viable congressional candidates (short-term) v. funding for local offices in far-off lands such as North Dakota and Georgia (long-term). We may well have elected a couple more congressmen in 2006, but the groundwork for Obama's primary victories in 2008 would not have been as established. (Note: Rahm could have served as Hillary's chief of staff had she won the nomination and general election; he had no net loss in that fight.)

    It's a shame Obama could not find a place in his administration for a visionary like Howard Dean.

    Posted by tefarni at 01/09/2009 @ 6:34pm

16. I heard PE Obama introduce Kaine on C-Span the other day, and he fully credited Howard Dean with his fifty state strategy and vowed to continue on that path. The reason HD wasn't there (and he would probably tell you this himself) was that it was Kaine's moment, not his. There will be other opportunities to celebrate HD and his invaluable contribution to the dems' recent successes. I do think he would make a superb Surgeon General. Maybe if Sanjay Gupta doesn't work out?

    Posted by Merckx61 at 01/10/2009 @ 10:20am