Dean started the ruckus by displaying an arrogant attitude at the CNN sponsored "debate"
Dubbed "America Rocks the Vote" and moderated by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, the forum was designed with a town-hall format. Candidates answered live questions from the audience.
In contrast to the many lighter moments and laugh lines, the candidates tackled more substantive questions, too.
A heated exchange between the candidates erupted when Cooper asked former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to clarify his recent remark that he wanted to be the candidate for "guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks."
"Martin Luther King said that it was his dream that the sons of slaveholders and the sons of slaves sit down around a table and make common good," Dean said.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said, "First of all, Martin Luther King said, 'Come to the table of brotherhood.' You can't bring a Confederate flag to the table of brotherhood."
Sharpton went on to address Dean: "You are not a bigot, but you appear to be too arrogant to say, 'I'm wrong,' and go on."
Dean did not back down: "We're not going to win this country, and even worse, Democrats, if we don't have a big tent."
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina later said, "Unless I missed something, Governor Dean still has not said he was wrong. Were you wrong, Howard?"
"No, I wasn't, John Edwards, because people who vote who fly the Confederate flag, I think they are wrong because I think the Confederate flag is a racist symbol," Dean said.
"But I think there are lot of poor people who fly that flag because the Republicans have been dividing us by race since 1968 with their Southern race strategy."
Of the nine candidates, only Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri did not participate, choosing instead to campaign in Iowa, the first caucus state.
Those who were there left the usual topics of war in Iraq and the economy mostly to the side and addressed a host of issues important to younger voters.
For example, the candidates were asked if they had ever used marijuana.
Edwards, Dean and Kerry said they had used the illegal drug in the past. Sharpton, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio said they had not, Kucinich adding that using the drug should be decriminalized. Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois declined to answer.
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