It's Not About Me

Howard Dean made some remarks to the Dem Convention Rules and Bylaws committee regarding the ongoing battle for the Dem nomination, and one line in particular caught my eye:

"We are going to nominate either the first woman or the first African-American to our party,” he says.

He thanks all the candidates, "especially Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama."

“These two candidates have helped transform our party”, he continues. “And have shown that Democrats can win everywhere."

"When we decided on a 50-state strategy I'm not sure we decided that all 50-states would have a hard-fought primary," he says.

He then delivers a long anecdote about a conversation with Al Gore he had in 2004 when he had dropped out of the presidential race and was angry at the party.

“Finally, Al said to me, you know its not about you its about your country,” Dean says. at the time, no one could have said that to me – not even my wife – except for Al Gore.”

This would be the same Al Gore who so desperately wanted to win in 2000 that he put the country through weeks of legal turmoil and even tried to disallow the votes of overseas military personnel. That fight wasn't about "the country", it was about Al Gore. Period. He should listen to his own preaching.