Dean expected to end campaign today

[NHPolitico]

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Howard Dean is planning a news conference for early this afternoon during which it is expected he will announce the future of his presidential campaign.

Aides close to the former Vermont governor say he will drop his bid for president.

Dean arrived early this morning in Burlington after a disappointing 3rd-place finish in Wisconsin.

At one time, Dean said he would drop out of the race if he lost in Wisconsin.

Sen. John Kerry came in first and John Edwards was close behind in second.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Howard Dean will end his campaign for the presidential nomination and oversee a new effort to keep his issues alive and his supporters organized on behalf of Democratic causes, two party officials said Wednesday.

Dean was to announce his plans at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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BURLINGTON, Vt. (Reuters) - Howard Dean returned home to Burlington, Vermont, early on Wednesday carrying a decision to quit his presidential campaign but remain in the race for the nomination, the Los Angeles Times reported in Wednesday's editions.
"Though Dean is not going to formally drop out of the race, he is going to stop campaigning," a Dean aide told the newspaper.

"The move would allow his supporters to continue to vote for him in the upcoming primaries and have a say at the Democratic National Convention in July," The Times reported.

The decision was to be announced here on Wednesday; however, Dean had begun talking in the past tense about his bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.

The former Vermont governor suffered an apparent knockout on Tuesday in the Wisconsin primary -- his 17th defeat without a victory in the Democratic nominating process. Still, he came out swinging, telling backers at a rally in Madison, "We are not done yet."

While Dean's presidential campaign may soon end, he said the movement he began with his Internet-based organization and anti-war, anti-Washington message would push on.

"We will change the Democratic Party; we will change America; we will change the White House," Dean said in Wisconsin to applause from a flag-waving crowd of several hundred.

Democratic front-runner John Kerry won the Wisconsin contest, with Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina finishing a close second. Dean was a distant third.

Dean has said Edwards would be a stronger candidate against Republican President Bush than Kerry, whom he has denounced as beholden to special interests.

Dean appeared to acknowledge his White House race was over when he thanked the painters union on Tuesday for having "stuck with us right to the end."

Dean helped reshape the 2004 White House race by tapping in early to voters' concerns about the war in Iraq, health care and the soaring federal deficit -- energizing Democrats and sharpening criticism of Bush.

With his Internet-based organization, Dean also smashed fund-raising records and connected with legions of new political activists.

But while he soared to the top in the polls last year, he never saw his following translate into victories from voters this year.

[NHPolitico]

It's about time. Dean has been behaving like the political version of The Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail...LOL

Of course, in all honesty, the Democratic Party owes him an awful lot. He kept the faithful interested when it looked hopeless for their party, and he provided Kerry with the rhetoric that made him the frontrunner.

To non-Democrats, Howard Dean sounded like an escaped mental patient, but apparently it is exactly that type of rhetoric which the Democratic Party base wanted to hear after four years of Bush. Kerry and Edwards took his message, toned down the anger without toning down the vitriol, and they became the frontrunners.

That's a great film, and I agree the similarities are quite striking...

We can all unite in a bipartisan way in support of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.