AP Interview: Howard Dean Looks Back

This man is the Real Deal, sorry Kerry supporters.

The following story by the Associated Press just went out over the wire. In an extensive interview the AP's Christopher Graff, Governor Dean offers one of his most in-depth looks back on the campaign.

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. - One of Howard Dean's most poignant memories of his presidential campaign is of a woman in a wheelchair who gave him $50 in quarters at a breakfast meeting in Iowa last summer. The money came from her federal supplemental income check.

"Even now I can hardly tell that story," says Dean, his voice choking in a rare display of emotion.

"She said she had been saving the quarters for two years, when she could, for something that was really important - and this was really important to her."

Dean is in awe of his rise. He is accepting of his fall. He readily concedes he made mistakes. He has difficulty, though, coming to grips with the sacrifices and trust of his legions of devoted supporters.

"I am pretty overwhelmed," he says and pauses as his eyes brim with tears.

"I don't really feel I let them down, I must say, but I am pretty shocked by not just how supportive they were, but what they were willing to do."

It was an amazing ride and Dean is the first to admit it. "Since the campaign ended I have just looked back and scratched my head and said, `What could you have been thinking of? You started out in a room over a chiropractor's office and you thought you were going to be president of the United States?'"

One year after Dean formally launched his bid for the presidency, and four months after he dropped out, he offers a precise diagnosis of how he caught fire.

"There was an enormous vacuum and the Washington guys didn't get it until much later," said Dean, appearing relaxed in a sweater and jeans during an interview over lunch at a South Burlington restaurant.

"Nobody was saying the things that needed to be said. The Democrats were terrified of Bush."

Dean, then an unknown former Vermont governor running as the straight-talking outsider, filled the void with brutal attacks on Bush and on Democrats who Dean felt were all too ready to compromise with the president on his tax cuts, the Iraq war and the No Child Left Behind education legislation.

"People were ready for the message," he said. The young, the disaffected, and the cynical embraced Dean's call for political activism; their activities on his behalf grew rapidly but almost invisibly, coordinated through e-mails and Internet blogs.

More - http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/004616.html#more

Flame if you must... but I do plan on voting for {gag} you know who{/gag}

cause. I don't regret it, I believed in the cause, Dean was just a front man for the cause. A true American, I still wish John would pick him as a VP. I think he could stand up to the evil chenney during a debate.

and if things don't work out this year (God forbid) I will immediately be among the legions of grass root supporters out pushing Dean for 2008.

These are the statements that made my husband and I, and our daughters, staunch supporters. These statements are from his announcement that he would run:

SNIP...""And we in politics have not given our people a reason to vote or a reason to participate. We have slavishly spewed sound bites, copying each other while saying little. We raise millions of dollars and each year make lofty promises, while every year the struggles of ordinary Americans increase and fewer Americans vote."

"The history of our nation is clear: At every turn when there has been an imbalance of power, the truth questioned, or our beliefs and values distorted, the change required to restore our nation has always come from the bottom up from our people...."

This statement stuck with us very strongly, and we don't hear it said anymore:

"Since the time of Thomas Paine and John Adams, our founders implored that we were not to be the new Rome. We are not to conquer and suppress other nations to submit to our will. We were to inspire them."
Howard Dean, 2003

It's a great article, but I'm not sure you really needed to take a shot at Kerry there.