Dean Getting Second Look From N.H. Voters
Dean Getting Second Look From N.H. Voters
By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer
LONDONDERRY, N.H. - Larry O'Sullivan said Howard Dean "looked like a yahoo" bellowing in defeat from Iowa. Patricia Fields thinks he was "a bit wild." And Kim Lindley-Soucy said he was "overly excitable."
So why did these New Hampshire Democrats stand shoulder-to-shoulder Friday to listen to the embattled presidential candidate's new stump speech? They were giving the former Vermont governor a second look.
Dean's presidential aspirations, teetering on the edge of a political abyss, depend on voters such as Fields, Lindley-Soucy and O'Sullivan finding virtue in his faults — and giving him what O'Sullivan called "one more once-over."
It is too early to know whether Dean has turned his campaign around, and all the traditional measures — polls, endorsements, conventional wisdom and a simple lack of time before Tuesday's primary — lean against him. But interviews with nearly two dozen undecided voters Friday suggest that Dean's political makeover could at least stop his precipitous slide.
That would not be good for Sen. John Edwards (D - North Carolina) , Wesley Clark (D- Arkansas) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (L - Israel) — all struggling to pass Dean and Sen. John Kerry (D - Skull & Bones), whose lead in state polls has widened since the campaign left Iowa.
"When we saw him up their shouting and yelling, it put a lot of us on the fence. There's not a lot of difference between these guys so it doesn't take a lot to move us from one to another," said Ed Hennessy, 58, a retired union worker in Nashua, N.H., who deserted Dean last week.
"But I'm back in his camp. It was just a slip of the tongue, and nobody's perfect," Hennessy said. "I've got to give him credit for speaking from his heart."
Hennessy could have been reading Dean's script. Devised in the desperate hours after Iowa's upset, Dean's new stump speech is one part confessional ("I'm not a perfect man"), one part explanation ("I am passionate, but we can't beat Bush without some intensity"), and a heavy dose of New England populism ("I speak from my heart, not my head").
Woven throughout Dean's new script is criticism of his opponents. He claims he is the political outsider to their Beltway-insider resumes.
"Listen, to what they say. 'You can have middle-class tax cuts. You can have health care for every American,'" Dean told the crowd here. "You believe that?" In Nashua, N.H., he said voters want "a candidate who will tell the truth."
The five-term Vermont governor, no stranger to Washington institutions such as the Democratic Governors Association, said America needs change. "We're not going to do this by nominating a Washington insider," said Dean, former chairman of the DGA.
More than 250 people sat in folding chairs and watched Dean stroll the stage. Many said they weren't considering voting for him a week ago, either because they were never interested or — a sentiment heard most often — they were turned off by his defeat and post-election performance.
O'Sullivan, 50, a salesman from Londonderry, said Dean had not been on his short list.
"But here I am because of the impression he gave in the debate, despite the fact that he looked like a yahoo a couple days before in Iowa. I think he made up for it," O'Sullivan said.
He had watched Thursday night's debate, where Dean previewed his new strategy. Many voters stayed tuned afterward for an ABC interview with Dean and his wife, Judy.
"I think we've turned the corner and we're going to come back up, and the question is can we close the gap between now and Tuesday," Dean said, though it's too early for polls to reflect opinions after the debate.
Up to 20 percent of voters are undecided, surveys show, and many with favorite candidates are still open to changing their minds. Dean advisers say they hope they can stop his slide then claim a comeback — if not outright victory — much as Bill Clinton (news - web sites) did in 1992 when Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas beat him by 8 percentage points amid an extramarital affair scandal.
Lindley-Soucy, cradling her baby at a Dean event, was not a supporter, certainly not immediately after Iowa. Suddenly, she's curious.
"He comes across as honest, even when it hurts," she said.
Fields, 66, a mental health counselor from Londonderry, said the media has made too much of the speech, a sentiment echoed by others.
"I think he was too tame to tell you the truth. I hope he doesn't back down," she said.
Gloria Kelley, 53, a union worker who attended one of his events, said she still has her doubts about Dean.
"He was over the top, wasn't he? It makes you wonder about his judgment," she said. Then a smile crept across her face, and she said, "I think I'll give him a second look, if the media doesn't mind."
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EDITORS: Ron Fournier has covered politics for The Associated Press since 1993.
The Phony Dean 'Meltdown'
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9815/view/print
The Phony Dean 'Meltdown'
New York-based Russ Baker is an award-winning journalist who covers politics and media.
The so-called Dean "meltdown," the claims that his campaign is finished, and his forced contrition are all symptoms of how debased the political dialogue has become.
It's true that Dean yelled at his Monday night rally in Iowa. And so what? Basically, at a pep rally, he yelled like a football coach. This is described as being "unpresidential." But says who? Besides, what's the definition of 'presidential?' Isn't giving insulting nicknames to world leaders unpresidential? Isn't sending hundreds of American soldiers to die for uncertain and misrepresented ends in Iraq unpresidential—or worth considering as such? Isn't having an incredibly poor grasp of essential world facts and an aversion to detail and active decision making unpresidential?
As far as I can tell, the worst Howard Dean has done is to try to be himself. (And, when criticized for that, to show some willingness to alter his demeanor.) But neither of those is good enough for a media that smells a good story—allegedly about personality, much more interesting than issues.
We saw and see nearly every news outlet playing the footage of the rally again and again. We see headlines in the less-cautious papers about Dean "imploding," and gleeful spin from Republican strategists that Dean is "finished."
From Slate magazine ("Mean Dean Loses Steam") to The New York Post ("Dean's Ballot-Box Conspiracy Theory"), it's all about painting him as unseemly, unstable and irrationally angry, rather than focusing on his ideas. And yet, carefully scrutinized, virtually everything the man has said accords with the beliefs and understanding of a significant portion of the American populace, and, significantly, of what has been reported in the media.
But once something like this "meltdown" story gets started, the media go into a kind of inexorable black hole, and the pull is so great it becomes hard for thinking journalists and editors to resist. And not just journalists. It takes extraordinary mettle for anyone in the limelight to resist this. Once the howl of the pack gets loud enough, questioning the seriousness of Dean's so-called 'problems' becomes tantamount to downplaying allegations against Michael Jackson.
Sometimes it's hard to remember, but presidents aren't primarily dinner party hosts or recruiting posters for perfection. They're supposed to be smart people who can make intelligent choices, mostly in private, that serve our interests. And they're supposed to be human.
Ed Muskie probably wouldn't have been a bad president, nor would George Romney or John McCain, all of whom got slammed for showing quintessentially human traits on the campaign trail. Muskie didn't like his wife being attacked; Romney admitted to having been "brainwashed" on Vietnam (obviously less so than those fellow GOPsters who couldn't admit their mistakes), and McCain was charmingly blunt if occasionally brutish. As each could attest, candor isn't a priority in this society. People want to hear what makes them feel good and safe and strong, no matter the reality.
As for Dean, one doesn't need to take sides to see that the treatment of this man is unbecoming of the media. It's also going to be seen in retrospect as colossally one-sided, not in any way balanced by comparable scrutiny or criticism of his rivals.
If anything, this affair is a kind of test. Dean seems too tough a customer to back out after such a setback. And the fact remains that he essentially still holds exactly the same constituency he did before. If his supporters keep their eye on the ball, if Dean refuses to be distracted or rattled, and if the media somehow manage to restrain their headlong rush into tabloid-land, this country may yet have a meaningful conversation on what really matters.
Helpful hints for Howard Dean
http://www.xoverboard.com/2004_01.html#000402
Helpful hints for Howard Dean
The silliness of Howard Dean’s post-Iowa antics have officially gone from a funny late-night joke to a sole excuse for media pundits to claim that "Dean’s campaign is done." "Would you want to see that man with is finger on the nuclear button?" asked Pat Buchanan, Joe Scarborough, etc.
So, since such a gaffe is a clear indicator that Dean is truly unfit to be the leader of the free world, here’s a helpful list of things Dean can do to remove the image that he is a bumbling, inexperienced, lackluster example of leadership:- * Announce proudly that no president has ever done as much as him for human rights.
* Dress up in a crotch-accentuating flight suit and land a jet on an aircraft carrier.
* Brag repeatedly about a sub-standard college grade point average.
* Get arrested for public rowdiness at a football game.
* Attempt to recite a cliché adage at a press conference and promptly forget how it goes in the middle of saying it.
* Mount, and promptly fall off, an unpowered Segway scooter.
* Drop his dog in front of cameras.
* Consistently mispronounce the word "nuclear."
* Condescendingly mock the upcoming execution of a death row inmate.
* Trade away Sammy Sosa.
* Choke on pretzel bits to the point of losing balance and bruising his head.
* Attend a public event in which Stevie Wonder is performing and wave to him from the balcony.
Hopefully, Dr. Dean can get a few of these confidence-gaining moves in before the New Hampshire primary. After all, image is everything.
