"-- Howard Dean went from being the hot new face of 2003 to the laughingstock of 2004. Now he is poised for a Democratic Party takeover in 2005." Lead paragraph in CNN article on Dean's new position heading the Democratic Party.

I find this especially insulting, since CNN was among those media outlets (print & broadcast) which first pushed helped push Dean into the spotlight and then turned on him. I'm not saying that the Dean campaign was without fault and that Howard's sometimes over emotional speeches didn't help perpetuate the impression of 'out of control', but the sad thing is that his message was lost (and generally ignored) once the media elite decided that they wanted a more centrist candidate.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Dean can actually bring some needed changes to the party and push aside those in the Dem leadership who basically want to keep the party GOP-Lite.