The End?

I hate to be a predictor of doom, but I don't think there's a whole lot of hope for my pal Howard Dean.

Last night, I got home and turned on my beloved enemies, CNN and MSNBC. I was only going to check in once in a while and I planned to do other things resembling productivity around the house last night. But, I got sucked in. I watched from about 6p.m. until 9p.m. and it was so depressing. Edward's win in South Carolina was exciting, as was his brief and exuberant speech early in the night. (Although, I couldn't help but notice all the areas where he copied Howard Dean) Kerry's wins were just boring. His interviews were boring. His face is boring, although the Botox has helped a bit. I am not excited by Kerry.

The only thing I find exciting about Kerry's recent success is that polls (oh, how I hate them) are showing him ahead of George W. Now that is definitely something I can get behind, even if it's not whole-hearted.

The truth is, I really really like Howard Dean. I am still holding out hope. But it's rapidly shrinking. I still have all the faith in the world that he'd be an amazing president. But it just doesn't look like the Democrats are going to nominate him. Last night, after the New Mexico results were finally in, I unceremoniously removed my Dean sign from the front window of my house. Then I took the bumper sticker out of my car window and took the button off my bag. Of course, I saved it all so that if he does miraculously get the nomination I can put the m up again. But I'm not betting on it.

I got to almost meet Howard Dean on Friday night. He was in town for a rally and Neil was interviewing him. I got a press pass and masqueraded as media so I could be in the room with him for the interview. The main impression I had was that he looked and sounded exhausted. He also seemed kind... in the way you can sense kindness in a person just by being in their presence. He was not, however, at the top of his game. The Univision station wanted to interview him in Spanish, but he told them he'd need to read his script to speak in Spanish. Neil asked him a question about union endorsements and Dean couldn't remember the name of AFSCME. It was as if he had been going for too long. The campaign had literally worn him down. He was pumped at the rally. He said the same stuff, but his enthusiasm was palpable and the crowd loved him. But as Neil removed the microphone from Dean's tie and I turned to walk out of the room, I felt deflated like the candidate. Hundreds of thousands of us have been with Howard Dean thinking we couldn't loose. Hopefully, all the voters that Dean brought into the political process won't become disenchanted and disengage. We need them to beat Bush. I'll do anything to help in that effort.