Barack Obama is now the head of the Democratic Party, and the chairman of the DNC serves at his discretion. Officially, at least, he has decided to let Howard Dean stay on as chairman. Here is a statement from the Obama campaign:
“Senator Obama appreciates the hard work that Chairman Dean has done to grow our party at the grassroots level and looks forward to working with him as the chairman of the Democratic Party as we go forward.”
Dr. Dean is reviled by many Floridians because of the hamfisted way the DNC handled the Republicans’ manipulation of the primary date earlier this year. Greg Sargant at Talking Points Memo suggests that Obama is retaining Dean because “Dean has a power base built up among state party chairs across the country who love his 50-state strategy of investing in them.”
But when a presumptive nominee is not happy with a DNC chair’s performance, the nominee will retain the chairman while sending in a loyalist to run things. Sargent notes that Obama has “installed his man Paul Tewes to serve as his eyes and ears at the organization, a sign that Obama is moving quickly to re-shape the party in his own image. Obama’s party, it turns out, will include Dean at the top of the DNC.”
Or so it seems.
