Howard Dean is perfectly positioned to primary Obama in 2012.

[tpsbmam]

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/19581

By: fflambeau Thursday December 17, 2009 8:49 pm

Rahm-Obama may have done Howard Dean a huge favor when they froze the good doctor out of the Obama administration. Recall that there was talk of Dean as being head of Health & Human Services or even Surgeon General but this was vetoed by Rahm and Obama. Obama didn’t extend his "team of rivals" concept to one of his biggest rivals and that might turn out to be a historic blunder by Team Obama. Because now, Howard Dean is perfectly positioned to primary Obama in 2012. So what was an initial disappointment to the progressive base might turn out to be a blessing.

Dean can publicly criticize the Obama administration as he did recently when he said the health care bill being advanced in the Senate is not worth voting for. He’s not tied in any way to this administration which is looking more and more like the S.S. Titanic-Obama.

That’s why the Obama administration and its various spin-meisters immediately struck back hard at Howard Dean after his comments on the senate bill. Note that press secretary Gibbs and others in the administration even went so far as to invoke the Dean-is-crazy theme that the mainstream media made up after the so-called "Dean Scream." Dean’s having a "temper tantrum" they have complained (this is discussed below in the paragraph on Jane Hamsher’s diary) in language that calls up the images that were played on in 2004 of an unstable Dean.

Notice too that the Obama administration has been far more critical of Howard Dean, an acknowledged champion of real health care reform, than it has been of Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson and Max Baucus–old-line politicians who have never really favored health care reform from the beginning and have been bought off by big Pharma and insurance companies.

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If the progressives and liberals bolt from Obama as they surely will if Dean challenges Obama, that leaves Obama with the Blue Dogs in the Democratic primaries in 2012. The progressives and liberals control the path to the Democratic party nomination, that’s why Obama garbed himself in progressive clothing in 2008 but his stealth candidacy has now exposed him for what he is: a DLCer. Obama doesn’t have the warmth of Dean or Clinton to overcome his DLC positions and win the nomination.

More at link.

(Sorry if this is a dup -- a search didn't bring it up.)