"THOUGH YOU DIE, LA RESISTANCE LIVES ON"

Apparently the plan, which will be announced in a press conference at 10 AM Pacific, is to stop campaigning but leave his name on the ballot.

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.

(snip)

Dean's decision comes after he insisted for days that he would not drop out if he lost in Wisconsin. But his top advisors agreed that it would be futile for him to stay in the race after suffering a slew of defeats.

The mood was already nostalgic among members of Dean's staff, who greeted him when he arrived in Burlington early today with chants of "Dean! Dean! Dean" and calls of "Welcome home!" They embraced the former governor, who appeared relaxed and at peace with his decision.

"You guys are the best," he said.

As he stood on the airport tarmac in the frosty early morning air, Dean did not let on that he had made the decision to withdraw, at one point joking that he was going to campaign next in Hawaii.

Hehe.

He was also vague Tuesday night when he thanked a few hundred supporters assembled in a hotel ballroom in Madison, Wis.

But he struck a reflective tone in a 20-minute speech to supporters, reminding them of what they have accomplished.

"I know that some of you are disappointed because we didn't do as well as we had hoped we would do in Wisconsin, but I also want you to think for a moment about how far we have come," Dean said.

"The truth is, change is tough," he added. "You have already started to change the Democratic Party, and we will not stop."

(snip, probably something about the Iowa speech)

Instead, the candidate delivered what aides and others agreed was one of his finest speeches — combining fond reminiscences of his two years on the campaign trail with a determined call for the Democratic Party not to abandon the issues he brought to the fore.

"We together have only begun our work," he said, gazing out at the crowd. "People have said that we have begun to transform the Democratic Party…. But the transformation that we have wrought is a transformation of convenience and not of conviction, and we have to fight and fight and fight."

Back before Iowa, when Dean was trouncing everybody in the national polls, people were wondering how solid his 40% support really was. With this announcement, we'll get to see how solid his 10-15% support really is.

You get the feeling from this decision that Howard Dean envisions himself as king-maker in the party, that those 10-15% supporters, and those delegates of his could eventually tip the scales between Kerry and Edwards.

My guess is, however, that Dean's totals in future primaries will not reach double digits, and probably wont top 5-6%. And the reason is: It's not just Dean the person/candidate that voters fell for so early in the campaign, myself included. It's also what he represented in the campaign: Stronger opposition to the extreme policies and fiscal/foreign bungling of the Bush administration, and a much stronger Democratic Party backbone. Those two effects have played out to grand effect, and once that was completed (early this year), energized voters in the Democratic base found that it was "safe" to vote for Kerry/Edwards/etc again. Dean has made the candidacy of John Kerry immeasurably stronger, and in doing so, given the current security climate, ceded much of his chance at the nomination to the Senator from Massachusetts.

In short, Dean's re-energization of Kerry gave Dean's soft supporters a reason to support Kerry. With Dean's de facto dropout, will he give his soft supporters reason as well?

(or will he endorse Edwards, throwing a wrench in the whole situation, and possibly changing the complexion of the remaining primary campaign?)

POSTSCRIPT: Of course, this means that Dean is technically keeping his promise to not drop out after Wisconsin.