With Hillary and Obama deadlocked, many are forecasting a brokered convention, meaning the convention will be more than a 72-hour infomercial to sleep through (don't wake me until the Black Eyed Peas are on!). At the convention, party leaders and delegates will decide who wins. One would think that Hillary, being a Clinton and the establishment candidate, would have the upper hand in such a situation. However, it is important to note who the actual leader of the Democratic Party is. Is it Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? John Kerry, Al Gore, Bill Clinton? Nope.You might be surprised to hear that the Chairman of the DNC, leading the party and running the convention, is Dr. Howard Dean, former presidential candidate and famous screamer. After almost winning the nomination with huge grassroots support in 2004, party insiders knew they had to do something with this outspoken, anti-establishment firebrand. So much like when Teddy Roosevelt was given the Vice Presidency, Howard Dean was a given a quiet desk job where he could stay out of trouble and learn to keep his voice down (and that way, everyone felt safer).
Interesting fact: Howard Dean does not get along with a certain faction of the Democratic Party. They even sent their go-to-guy James Carville to try to unseat him in 2006 (somehow after taking back the House AND Senate in one year, it was hard to make a case that the Democrats had bad leadership—for once!). Yes, we are talking about Bill Clinton and Friends. Like Roosevelt, Dean may see an attempt to brush him under the rug backfire (Brush is actually his middle name). With some behind the scenes maneuvering, Dean may in fact be partly responsible for a brokered convention picking Obama over Clinton. All Obama has to do is turn off Dean’s mic and it’ll be clear sailing from there.
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