Howard Dean's presidential bid was notable for many things,
including the mixed reaction it drew from political scientists. Many
scholars found Dean's ultimate failure predictable. Longstanding
political science wisdom suggests several explanations for Dean's
defeat: the central issue of electability, which seemed to weigh heavily
against his campaign; the fact that primary voters are more moderate than
party activists; the well-documented difficulty of regaining lost
momentum. Less systematic factors—such as numerous verbal gaffes and
one infamous scream—surely contributed as well.Matthew Hindman is an assistant professor of political science
at Arizona State University ([email protected]). This research was
supported by the National Center for Digital Government, with funding from
the National Science Foundation under grant no. 0131923. The author thanks
Jennifer Hochschild, Larry Bartels, Chris Karpowitz, Gabriel Lenz, David
Lazer, Alan Abramowitz, James McCann, and the three anonymous reviewers
for their contributions.