One somewhat overlooked thing (I tend to overlook it!) is that during those dark post-11/04 days, crazy bloggers lobbied hard to get Howard Dean his job at the DNC. I don't really know if he's been "good" at his job especially as his job the past 4 years as been largely undefined, or at least largely defined by him. It's sort of like judging a contest with no specific rules. More than that, there really isn't all that much hard reporting about what really goes on in the national parties, aside from sniping from people with agendas. But certainly his attitude and perspective towards things jive with a lefty bloggy perspective on things and it's hard to imagine that it would have been better if, say, Obama was inheriting a McAuliffe or similar led DNC. I don't just mean because McAuliffe was a Clinton supporter. One imagines the styles and perspectives are a better fit.
Still, as I wrote, it's really hard to know much about this stuff even though I know people who work inside the DNC and who are nice enough to tell me what they can sometimes.
