Is Dean Surrendering?

Howie Dean decided yesterday to replace his campaign manager, Joe Trippi. Today it comes out that he is all but surrendering next Tuesday in an effort to focus on other, more delegate important state, like Michigan, Washington, and Wisconsin.

I'm sorry, but if your campaign is on the ropes, you do not voluntarily give up any states. Especially when it is absolutely critical for you to build some kind of momentum. How many more losing efforts, or non-efforts, can Dean really stand? Not too many I'm guessing.

The really ironic thing is that Joe Trippi was dismissed, if the rumors are to be believed, for suggesting just this strategy. So in comes Al Gore's former campaign manager and shakes things up to the point where they follow the exact same plan. The more things change....

I think that this plan is the death-knell for the Dean campaign. He'll certainly stick around for a while and will make some waves. He may even help to dictate some of the positions taken in the Democratic platform for November. But this all but assures that he will not be the first name on the ticket.

Pulling ads in the seven caucus states this week may have been a good rational decision. Unfortunately, not everything surrounding a Presidential campaign is rational. Emotion plays a big part. Momentum and excitement are important, not quite as much as actual positions, but certainly no campaign is going to succeed without them. By pulling ads, Dean is ceding momentum and a large degree of the excitement that had surrounded his campaign. At this point, after the Iowa and New Hampshire debacles, I don't think that his campaign can stand another such blow.