According to several reports (the AP, C-SPAN, the NY Times), Barack Obama is keeping Howard Dean on as Chairman of the DNC. While many people will have problems with this move, especially as fundraising at the DNC has not been what it should be, I think it's an excellent move, for two reasons.

The first reason is that, as I wrote in February, Obama owes his success in large part to Howard Dean. The movement that lifted Obama to the nomination began five years ago with the Dean campaign. It should not end with this election, and keeping Howard Dean on is both a symbolic and a practical statement to that effect.

The second reason is that Howard Dean's 50-state strategy is working, both short-term and long-term. It not only provided a tremendous boost to the effort that led to Democratic control of both houses of Congress, but it has also engaged and energized many people nationwide who will be the next generation of political leaders in America.

(my great thanks to Bouldin for allowing me the forum from which to tell this tale) [Ed. note MB: You're very welcome. Folks, this is an important race for symbolic reasons alone, and Andrew's a fine man who deserves our support.]

My Dear Friends,

I am running for the office of Town Supervisor in the town of Stephentown, Rensselaer County, NY.

It's all Howard Dean's fault.

Here we are three and a half years later and we are preparing to turn control of ostensibly solid republican Stephentown over to Democrats. Good things start with just those first few steps.

We have a blog web site for the Stephentown Democratic Committee (contributions gratefully accepted).

And I've just created a candidate page over at DFA-Link.