Signifigance to the Dean endorsement....?

[theapportioner]

Smart call, Kev.
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (news - web sites) may abandon his bid for the White House this week and convert his once high-flying presidential campaign into a grassroots political organization, according to aides.

Polls show Dean, a former front-runner, trailing badly in a presidential primary to be held in the midwestern state of Wisconsin Tuesday, and the doctor-turned-politician is said to be considering ending his quest for the White House, or revamping his organization to become a grass roots, issue-driven political group.

The former Vermont governor lost his once-commanding lead in the Democratic nominating contests to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who has won 14 of the 16 primaries and caucuses held across the country, including weekend caucuses in Washington D.C. and Nevada, while Dean has won none.

Dean built a passionate base of believers, many of them newcomers to electoral politics, and it remains unclear whether those followers would support any other Democratic candidate in the November general election, which pundits predict will be a close, hard-fought battle.

Dean said Sunday he would do everything in his power to help the eventual Democratic nominee topple incumbent Republican President George W. Bush.

But despite the assertion by aides that he plans to pull out, Dean insisted Sunday he will continue to fight to win the party's nod, even if he falls to defeat in Wisconsin.

"We're not dropping out after Tuesday. Period," Dean told US television.

In the latest blow to his moribund campaign, a senior Dean advisor said late Sunday that he would defect to the Kerry camp if Dean does not win Wisconsin.

Dean raised 41 million dollars through an innovative Internet-based fundraising campaign, a strategy that won him wide support until he lost the race's first two tests, in Iowa and New Hampshire.

After the primary election in Wisconsin, the Democratic presidential nomination contest moves on to the crush of "Super Tuesday" states holding primaries on March 2.