HOWARD'S END: According to the AP, Howard Dean will drop out of the presidential race, after spending nearly a half year as the frontrunner yet failing to win a single Democratic primary. Somewhere in Burlington, Zephyr Teachout is weeping.
I was, of course, never a Dean supporter, though I do certainly admire the way he was able to galvanize the Democratic base in a way that few others have managed to in the last decade or two. Granted, this didn't translate into actual, you know, votes, but I am intrigued by Dean's plan to keep his organization together and turn it into a sort of all-purpose pro-Democratic interest group. No reason Blog For America can't continue indefinitely.
If you'd told me three months ago that Howard Dean would leave the race the day after Alex Rodriguez was introduced at Yankee Stadium while gays rushed to get legally married in San Francisco, I'd have laughed in your face, certainly. But still, today is the saddest day for America's hippies since the death of Jerry Garcia.