Dems Abandon 50 State Strategy

There are many Democratic leaders in D.C. who are infamously known for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They believe in a strong (meaning themselves) centralized apparatus that directs everything from Washington because they think they know best. Meanwhile, the state and local leaderships are diminished and so is their expertise of the area. This type of strategy has doomed the party for decades, that is, until the emergence of Howard Dean and the fifty-state strategy.

Governor Dean knew that decentralization was the key and reached out to every corner of the country, regardless of how many more Republicans there were. He was all about party building and because of his (and many others) hard work it came true. We now have large majorities in Congress and a Democratic President in the White House. So why is it that D.C. Dems believe they have to replace a plan that is far from broken?

From OpenLeft:

In short, the DNC will be moving away from the long-term, decentralized, fifty-state strategy of Howard Dean's tenure, and toward serving as a short-term, centralized re-election effort for President Obama in 2012. It will continue the move away from paid media ushered in by Howard Dean, maintain or increase the amount of resource expenditures in most states, and the number of states it targets will be a broader effort than the narrow focus we saw in 2001-2004 (but more narrow than 2005-2008). However, it will return to the traditional role of the DNC as a supplement for the sitting President's re-election campaign, rather than as the long-term, localized institution building operation that is was from 2005-2008.
The fifty-state strategy of 2005-2008 is going to be replaced with the "re-elect President Obama" strategy of 2009-2012.

Not too smart DNC.

The re-election of Barack Obama is incredibly important in a few years time, but the over-riding goal should be to elect more Democrats, and to let those of us in different spots of the party tent see who wins primary contests. Staying away from states like Utah and Idaho is just plain stupid when you are working for the future of the party. Why would anyone want to stop increasing the gains we've made in such a short time?