The Dream Continues

As baseball season begins and this blog begins to refocus on the Cubs, you'll notice (in addition to the True-A-Day story) that I've removed the Howard Dean links, as well as the links to his blogs.

You know, I really did think we could have had something special and different with Dean as president. Here is someone, whether you agreed with him or not, who actually believed in something, and not what his handlers or focus groups told him to believe in. A man with a wife who actually had a career that she wasn't willing to just give up to have the amorphous title of "First Lady".

What the national media did to Gov. Dean with the now-infamous "I Have A Scream" speech was reprehensible. All he was doing was whooping up his supporters. So he screamed. He wasn't angry, he was excited. Our current president wouldn't recognize that kind of excitement if it hit him over the head.

So Howard Dean returns to private life, though he says he'll remain politically active, I can't see him winning an office again, unless it's governor of Vermont, where he remains popular.

I am reminded of the words of Sen. Edward Kennedy, speaking at the 1980 Democratic Convention, his last run for president, when he said:

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

Indeed. Let us hope the energy of the Deaniacs infuses public life for years to come.