sob sob.

dean is dropping out of the presidential campaign today (right now, actually). i'm ok, but i'm disappointed in the way LOTS of people handled this campaign. there's the irresponsible media coverage, the democratic establishment's obvious terror at the prospect of a dean candidacy..and, yes, some of the dean people. not all of them, and certainly not the ones who took a bus all the way to freakin' iowa, like my housemate, and not the ones who came to meetup and meant it -- but the ones who overestimated our popularity, and the ones whose support turned out to be soft and faddish. the weird polling numbers and dean's sudden decline put me in mind of junior high clique wars and left me Really Really Pissed at the soft dean people, who i would venture to guess are mostly members of my generation.

so this is depressing. but i think it's also the beginning of something. dean writes in his blog entry, and i agree, that his campaign changed the way(s) in which americans participate, and will continue to participate, in politics, and changed them for the better.

memories of the primaries always fade. i'm looking forward to working my ass off for the democratic nominee, whoever that is, and turning the party's undivided attention to the fight against george bush. but there had fucking well better be some acknowledgement of dean's contributions from the party and the other candidates, and there had fucking well better be some strong support of the party and the other candidates from dean supporters.

because as depressing as it is to lose dean's authenticity and anti-war conviction, it's going to be an awful lot worse if we let bush win this thing.