As the Mouth Yaps

It isn't just Obama who has a lot hanging on this election; the Mouth's reputation is truly on the line now that he has rigged it in favor of his choice.

Having just barely regained some footing after two disastrous weeks in which he took a beach holiday while enduring a barrage of Republican attacks and saw his lead over John McCain vaporise, Obama arrives in Denver with his future on the line.

But another prominent figure has a lot at stake, too. For Howard Dean, the Democratic party chairman who will oversee the proceedings in the Rocky mountain city, it's not so much about his own future, but his party's future and his legacy as a political leader.

In his three and a half years on the job, Dean has dramatically departed from the traditional role of a US party chairman. Despite the lofty title, historically the chairman has been a glorified bursar. Their job has been to raise money, placate the donors and otherwise keep a low profile.

The Mouth was promoted by the nutroots to take over the DNC after his campaign took a dive thanks to his own self-destructiveness. When Obama loses big, and he WILL, the Mouth will go South and we will never hear from him again.

Who'd have thought many of us would be nostalgic for Terry McAuliffe's disastrous reign?