Howard Dean's campaign was different. It revolved around supporters and empowered them.

[madfloridian]

According to Joe Trippi's post at MyDD recently, that is called being a transformational leader.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/12/26/92522/032

I had an epithany one day in the middle of the Dean campaign about what made us so different...Its incredibly simple and defines what I now believe is the essential ingredient in any campaign or candidacy that hopes to be transformational.

All modern campaigns and transactional campaogns are built around a candidate who proclaims to the nation "Look at me -- aren't I amazing?".

The Dean campaign (and any transformational campaign successful or not), was built around a candidate who proclaimed "Look at you -- aren't you amazing?"

This strikes me as essential. More than ideology, or any other factor -- true transformational leadership can only come from a candidate who fundmentally gets that it isn't about him/her -- its about us.

He refers to a definition by a fellow named Burns.

James MacGregor Burns wrote "A transformational leader stands on the shoulders of his followers, expressing coherently those ideas which lie inchoate in the hearts of the followers -- and in the process makes his followers into new leaders.

I looked up more about this guy. I hate labels, and I am not much into defining leadership styles. We had to do enough of that in our forums and classes we took for teacher recertification. Labels mean little. But he did have a paragraph or two I found interesting. More on transformational leadership.

http://ctb.ku.edu:80/tools/en/sub_section_main_1122.htm

Transformational leadership looks at leadership differently. It sees a true leader as one who can distill the values and hopes and needs of followers into a vision, and then encourage and empower followers to pursue that vision. A transactional leader thinks of improvement or development as doing the same thing better: an organization that reaches more people, a company that makes more money. A transformational leader thinks about changing the world, even if only on a small scale.

Howard Dean did that during his campaign. Trippi and I agree on that much. But Trippi stopped with this statement in his post.

Al Gore is doing this right now around the issue of Global Warming. Dean did it in 2004 for President. Who in 2008?

True, but I will go further and say that Howard Dean is doing that in the role of DNC chairman. :)

As Burns was quoted in the article...

The conception behind transformational leadership is thus providing and working toward a vision, but also has elements of empowerment, of taking care of people, and even of task orientation. The job of the transformational leader is not simply to provide inspiration and then disappear. It is to be there, day after day, convincing people that the vision is reachable, renewing their commitment, priming their enthusiasm. Transformational leaders work harder than anyone else, and, in the words of a spiritual, "keep their eyes on the prize".

[madfloridian]

1. I should add that DFA is set up on the same principles.

The principle of sort of letting go of some of the power. Hard to do sometimes.

[NoPasaran]

2. I remember reading an article

Back in late 2003 or early 2004 when the Dean juggernaut seemed unstoppable that quoted some young person who had traveled to Burlington to work on the campaign. "Howard Dean is the messenger, but we are the message."

For me, that statement pretty much sums up what the last few years have been about. Whether the Old Guard likes it or not a bunch of ordinary citizens are determined to have a political party that actually represents us and our interests. And while three or four years ago we didn't have much going for us besides our enthusiasm, we've learned a lot of things since. The fight to have a voice in the party---to deliver that message---isn't over, but I think every day we grow stronger.