So I still think Howard Dean is absolutely wonderful. We went to a meet-up for Dean yesterday at Toldeo Lounge in Adam's Morgan (we might be on C-Span tonight because there were camera crews there). Holding political meetings at bars is a great way to 1) guarantee people show up (who doesn't love happy hour?) and 2) make sure people have a good time while being political. My mother use to tell me that I should be a democrat because they have better parties, and so far I would have to agree.

So at the Dean Meet-up yesterday, they handed out paper and pens and addresses and we all wrote letters to people in Iowa telling them to vote for Dean. I wrote to a man named Ronald in Indianaola, Iowa. I just copied the form letter they gave us, but we figure it didn't take any extra effort for the campaign people to have us write the letters and they are less likely to get thrown away than random form letters. I told Mr. Ronald that he can write back to ask me questions about Dean and even gave him my e-mail address.

I truly believe that Dean is already making a huge difference because he is completely changing the way campaigns are run. The whole meet-up thing is proof of that. But he has also inspired grassroots campaigns. I wrote a paper for my Japanese class and gave a presentation on how similar all of the Democratic Candidates are. Dean is really the first candidate in a long time that, without being crazy like so many candidates, has said something different, has caused a stir. I realize that a lot of political anaylsts think that he has peaked too soon and will burn out before the primary, but I disagree. I really think that because he has inspired people to get up and do something (like write letters to people in Iowa, or donate $25 online) they are going to stay involved. I get numerous e-mails from the Dean campaign every day. There is no possible way I could forget about him. He has also managed to inspire a lot of students though. I find it amusing that so many of my friends (with different views on many issues) still like Dean. Gina is a die-hard Dean fan (ask her about when she got to meet him in Vermont). I guess Dean just inspires something patriotic in me. It vaguely reminds me of how I feel when I watch the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I love that movie, but I feel a lot of politicians today perhaps don't remember what our country is supposed to be about (Mr. Ashcroft for one). They aren't as idealistic as their predecessors. Dean seems to bring a lot of that idealism back into politics, which is perhaps why is he doing so well.