OUTSPOKEN<font size=4>
Candidate: Howard Dean
Category: Intellectual Honesty
Grade: A <font size=3>
by Jason Zengerle
The New Republic
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Sometimes it seems like Howard Dean just can't help himself.<font size=3> Yesterday, his campaign manager Joe Trippi was working hard to bat down a statement by Wesley Clark that the former Vermont governor had offered the general the vice presidential nomination back in September. Not only did Dean not offer Clark the number two spot on the ticket, Trippi said, the Dean campaign wasn't even thinking about potential veeps. "Look, we haven't won Iowa or New Hampshire, a vote hasn't been cast," Trippi said. "So to be talking to anybody about being vice president doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense now."
But then it was the candidate's turn to make sense of the situation. Appearing at a town hall meeting in Litchfield, New Hampshire, <font size=4>Dean fielded a question about what kind of qualities he was looking for in a running mate.<font size=3> At first, Dean did the politic thing and demurred. "We have done absolutely no work on a running mate," he said. "It would be presumptuous to do any kind of work or reaching out or any of that kind of stuff." But, rather than leaving it at that, Dean just couldn't resist stating the obvious--but impolitic--truth. In looking for a running mate--something he supposedly isn't yet doing--<font size=4>Dean pledged, "I'm going to pick somebody with defense and foreign policy experience. ... The fact is, it's a resumé problem."
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Was Dean wise to admit this? Probably not. First, he doesn't want to seem so confident in his front-runner status that he's already looking down the road to the general election fight. And second, as the likely nominee, he doesn't want to publicly admit his weakness on defense and foreign policy issues--a weakness that will undoubtedly serve as one of the chief arguments against voting for Dean.
But give Dean credit where credit is due. He obviously is confident enough in his front-runner status that he's already mulling veep possibilities. And he's obviously smart enough about his own weaknesses that, in picking a veep, he's going to find someone with requisite foreign policy and defense credentials. And, evidently, he's not afraid to admit as much.
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