Dean takes on his image in ad for search engine

As Democrats licked their wounds after President Bush's reelection last week, some turned their thoughts back to Howard Dean, the Democratic firebrand who energized the party with his strident opposition to the war in Iraq and with his Internet-based fund-raising operation.

But as some mused about what might have been with a Dean nomination, the former Vermont governor was serving as pitchman for Yahoo! Local, an Internet search service. Dean is the star of a radio advertisement that parodies his shout-out of the states where he planned to campaign after he lost the Iowa caucuses.

Dean's decision to push a commercial product has raised questions about his political future, even as supporters longed for their candidate last week.

''Dated Dean. Married Kerry. Woke up with Bush," lamented one entry on the website for Dean's Democracy for America, which seeks to elect progressive-leaning candidates and train grass-roots organizers.

Dean, who campaigned for Kerry across the country, has said little about the election returns.

Dean was governor of Vermont for 11 years before running for the presidency. His roller-coaster campaign started with soaring polls, but ended in a crash, as voters opted for the more traditional candidate in Kerry.

In the Yahoo! Local ad, Dean makes light of the tempestuous side of his nature that contributed to the undoing of his campaign, shouting out the names of states in his guttural growl.

''Yahoo! Local has helped me find all sorts of things, like books stores in IOWA! and convention centers in NEBRASKA! and some very interesting diners in ILLINOIS!," Dean says in the advertisement. ''Next week I'm doing a book signing in OHIO! And then we're going to stroll through some museums in CALIFORNIA!"

He concludes, ''I'm just trying to get people more excited about the Democratic process," adding ''My sentiments exactly" as an announcer yodels the name ''Yahoo!"

The ad, which has aired since mid-October, has been a success, Yahoo! Local reports. People around the globe are downloading it; it can be heard on radio stations in 10 cities, including Boston.

Some Dean supporters have cheered the ad, reveling in its irreverent self-mockery.

''Hilarious! And some haters say Dean doesn't have a sense of humor," Elizabeth Holtzman wrote on the Democracy for America website.

Others took a different view.

''Why would Dean want to put himself in William Shatner land?" one blogger wrote, referring to the Star Trek star-turned-adman. ''What will Dean be pitching next? Sedatives? Throat lozenges?"

Dean's spokeswoman, Laura Gross, sought to play down the significance of the advertisement, saying: ''People are looking into this way too much."

Gross said Dean, 55, had no plans to do other ads and has committed to devoting the bulk of his time to Democracy for America.

There is ample precedent for politicians as pitchmen: Bob Dole, Republican presidential nominee in 1996, for Viagra; the late US House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill, for American Express; the 1984 vice presidential nominee, Geraldine Ferraro, for Pepsi; and the former Texas governor, Ann Richards, who teamed with former New York governor Mario M. Cuomo for Doritos, to name a few.

None have won political positions afterward.

Sarah Schweitzer can be reached at schweitzer@globe.com.