Dean really came over great on "K Street."
September 15, 2003
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
The Ex-extemporaneous Howard Dean
By JODI WILGOREN - NEW YORK TIMES
ES MOINES, Sept. 14 — The pins have already started to penetrate.
Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, laughed off criticism by his competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination this week by saying that he felt like a pincushion. Then he quietly began making tiny alterations to his standard stump speech, measuring facts and assertions twice before speaking.
President Bush's tax cuts, denounced by Dr. Dean for months as "$3 trillion" or, sometimes, "$3 trillion, including interest," became a $2.4 trillion cut, plus $600 billion in interest, during a rally on Friday in Plymouth, N.H. The 91 percent of new mothers in Vermont who used to get home visits within two or three weeks now get visits "mostly in their homes, some in doctors' offices," within three or four. And when Dr. Dean told supporters at the Bektash Temple in Concord, N.H., on Friday that his campaign had 150,000 donors and the next-best number was 20,000, he slipped in a "that I know of," just in case.
The changes, perceptible perhaps only to the aides and reporters who trail him, show a subtle but significant shift for a candidate who sells himself as unscripted. After a week of accusations that he chooses terms carelessly or says different things at different times, Dr. Dean is now balancing his shoot-from-the-hip instinct with his place in a national spotlight where enemies and observers, armed with Internet research tools and digital video recorders, parse every word.
"If I can use precise language," he explained Friday, "I now do if I can."
Ouch, Another Pinprick . . .
Or, if he remembers to.
One of the sharpest pins yet came on Friday from Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, who compared Dr. Dean to Newt Gingrich, the architect of the Republican revolution in 1994, for assailing Medicare and Social Security in the 1990's. At a news briefing at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, Dr. Dean called the comparison "a sad end" for Mr. Gephardt.
End of what? His campaign? His career?
But a statement issued at the same time from Dr. Dean's headquarters in Burlington, Vt., used the phrase "sad day" instead. An aide explained, "That's what he was supposed to say."
Supposed to? Turns out he had been prepped in a five-minute huddle with aides. He managed to hit the "politics of the past" line but muffed the "sad day" bit.
"I didn't know I said `end,' "Dr. Dean said. "From a Freudian point of view, you could have a lot of fun."
. . . But Only Wimps Flinch
Fun it may not be, but Dr. Dean said the attacks made him stronger, recalling a conversation he had with Gary Hart, who became a presidential also-ran in 1984 and 1988, about how wimps did not make it to the White House.
"It's not a bad process, to be honest with you," he explained over club sandwiches and a spinach-strawberry salad on Saturday at a supporter's home. "If I'm going to go up against George Bush, I'm going to get much more from Karl Rove than I get from these guys."
The attacks this week came from his rivals Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (who said Dr. Dean's comments on the Middle East abandoned 50 years of American foreign policy traditions toward Israel); Senator John Edwards of North Carolina (who took issue with his claim to be the only white politician talking to white audiences about race); and the Rev. Al Sharpton (who called on him to oppose Internet voting in Michigan because many African-Americans are on the short end of the digital divide). Even the Republican governor of New Hampshire chimed in, saying a Dean presidency would be bad for the local economy.
There were no apologies. Instead, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos for the ABC News program "This Week," Dr. Dean bickered over Mr. Stephanopolous's phrasing about his early support of Nafta, which he now says needs major reform.
"You were a strong supporter of Nafta," Mr. Stephanopoulos said.
Dr. Dean retorted: "Where do you get that idea that I'm a strong supporter of Nafta? I didn't do anything about it. I didn't vote on it. I didn't march down the street supporting it. I wrote a letter supporting it."
At lunch on Saturday, he quibbled with another reporter, saying he was just a "supporter" of the trade bill, no adjectives necessary. But Dr. Dean was one of several governors scheduled to attend a White House signing ceremony on the trade bill in 1993 (he said he cannot remember if he made it), and in 1995, on the very same ABC News program, Dr. Dean said, "I was a very strong supporter of Nafta," according to a transcript.
Asked whether he would be "better off" if he did not make absolute statements like the one on race, Dr. Dean said he would be "less controversial" but also "less appealing."
He repeated his complaint that Mr. Gephardt's comparison of him to Mr. Gingrich amounted to old-style Washington politics. Then, regarding the criticism of his statement about the Mideast — which has been joined by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts — he compared two of his opponents to their mutual nemesis, President Bush.
"I think what Kerry and Lieberman are doing is exactly what the president does," he said. "They divide by fear."
A Cacophony of Hoofbeats
Some have compared Dr. Dean to Seabiscuit, the thoroughbred who came from nowhere to become the most popular and successful horse to race in the 1930's. But now he is sounding a bit like War Admiral, the Triple Crown winner who for months shunned Seabiscuit's offer for a match race.
Mr. Kerry, the candidate formerly known as the front-runner in the presidential primary race, today challenged Dr. Dean to a head-to-head debate, saying that the stages crowded with nine candidates did not give him ample opportunity to highlight their differences. Joe Trippi, Dr. Dean's campaign manager, demurred.
"There's seven other guys in this race," Mr. Trippi said. "The guy has something to say, he's got plenty of debates to say it. Lieberman hasn't had any problem doing so." |
