We all agree that 2006 must be a transition year in Iraq. While we may have different ideas about tactics and timing, it's clear we must change course. The vision of strategic redeployment set forward by Brian Katulis and former Reagan Defense Department official Lawrence Korb offers a likely roadmap to success that we can coalesce around.

Katulis and Korb outline their Iraq redeployment strategy in this article.  Their strategy shares some similarities with what Feingold talked about today in terms of transitioning from a goal-less fight in Iraq to fighting Al Queda in a global war, and shares some similarities with Murtha's resolution.

According to another article, total spending by "yes" and "no" campaigns is estimated at $220 million.  Unions in California spent $100 million to defeat these initiatives.

I'm not sure if these numbers include the costs to each of the California counties for holding the special election.

Imagine something positive that could have been accomplished in California with $300 million . . .

Here's one key item for Dean's to do list:

Every precinct in the country should have a Democratic precinct leader, and maybe elected precinct leaders. I also think the Party needs to develop a more effective structure for local gatherings (e.g., Meetups, grassroots house parties, precinct meetings) that allows for 2-way communication and strong GOTV.

I set up an ePatriots page for contributions from my local Meetup to the DNC on 2/13/05.  But, I noticed that the Verisign contract expired on 1/12/05, which would mean that contributions made to the DNC starting 1/13/05 are not secure.  How do you suppose that happened?

And, what can we do to get the DNC to renew the contract with Verisign right away? UPDATE: This seems most likely to be a cosmetic problem rather than a practical one. If you look at the www.democrats.org SSL server certificate (usually by clicking on the lock icon in the bottom right or left corner of the browser), they're current using a new certificate valid 01/12/05 to 01/12/07. (more below in the comments)

But, when you add the endorsement of ASDC to his large list of other endorsements, including Harold Ickes, John Murtha, David Wilhelm, the head of the DNC's Black Caucus, the head of the DNC's Women's Caucus, the whole Florida delegation, etc., is there any possibility that another candidate could win?

If Dean doesn't get 50% of the votes in the first round, I think he could lose it because people tend to love him or hate him, from what I can tell, and those who don't vote for him in round one are likely to all go with one other person in round two.  But, is there a chance of him not getting 50% in round one at this point?

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    Would you be interested in trying to help kickstart the following idea to get Dean elected as Party Chair?  My mom, Celeste, and I came up with this two nights ago and are trying to get the word out. I thought you may be interested in trying to get a grass roots movement going and would consider sending it out to your email lists. Basically the idea is to pledge to the DNC a check for $20.06 towards 2006 if they elect Howard Dean as our Chair.

Regardless of this past election, Howard Dean is the best thing to happen to our Party in years and deserves a chance to bring us back to being Democrats, the party that puts People First.  Please read the following letter (below the fold) and feel free to forward it or extrapolate it if you agree with its premise.

Having made hiring decisions and thought about management issues, I think it's best to hire someone with successful management experience relevant to the job position.  So, here's my assessment of Dean's management skills (based on various reports from insiders and outsiders) and what might be ideal management skills for the DNC Chair position.

Today's NYT Magazine article by Matt Bai "Who Lost Ohio?" suggests some lessons learned by Dean grassroots organizers could have been crucial, but the Kerry campaign turned a deaf ear.  The article also confirms a fear I wrote about on Kos in late February that relying on 527s could be dangerous.