As Clark gains in N.H., Dean's remarks show he's taken notice
BERLIN, N.H. -- Howard Dean appears to be hearing footsteps in New Hampshire.
The Democratic presidential candidate, who for months has enjoyed a lead in the kickoff primary voting state, acknowledged this week that retired Army General Wesley K. Clark of Arkansas is gaining ground on him here. And with a series of unsolicited references to Clark during question-and-answer sessions with voters and reporters, he made it clear he has Clark on his mind.
While Dean's standard stump speech criticizes Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut for voting in favor of using military force in Iraq, on Friday he added another name to his litany: Clark. While the general was not in Congress when the vote was held in the fall of 2002, Dean chastised the former TV military analyst before an audience at Rochester Community Center for "advising" support for the resolution.
Later, when a voter at the forum asked him about attack fliers being distributed by his campaign, Dean, without prompting, started talking about Clark. "I disagreed with Wes Clark and John Kerry and Joe Lieberman and so forth on the war," he said. "We're going to have a debate about the differences."
And at a news conference at day's end, Dean once again invoked Clark as he was asked about polls showing a tightening race. The questioner did not mention the fact that Clark had overtaken Kerry for second place in the most recent survey by the American Research Group Inc. of Manchester.
"We don't think our support is eroding," Dean said at Concord High School. "We think General Clark does have a little momentum here. And you have to understand that he has not been, for the most part, in the fray of all the attacks that have gone on. But we don't find that our . . . core support is eroding. We remain optimistic, but we know we have to work very hard and we will."
Political analysts cast Clark as a troublesome competitor for Dean because he not only rivals his credentials as a Washington outsider, but he is native to the South, the region where the nomination battle may be settled.
While Dean took the lead in New Hampshire last summer in part due to his frequent visits to the state, he has since spent much more time campaigning in Iowa and across the country in other early voting states. Clark, by contrast, made the strategic decision to skip the Iowa caucuses and instead campaign heavily in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and other Southern states that will be voting on Feb. 3 and Feb. 10.
The Dean camp is hoping the tidal wave of media coverage that will accompany the caucus leaders from Iowa to New Hampshire, which votes eight days later, will swamp Clark and dilute any gains he has made in their absence.
Dean also counts on a hometown advantage: his familiarity as a fellow New Englander.
Yesterday, speaking to an early-morning crowd of about 300 gathered at Berlin Junior High School in the ice-covered North Country, the former Vermont governor spoke of balancing the need to support the area's paper mills with the desire to preserve the environment.
"It's tough in the North Country," Dean said. "It's tough in the Northeast Kingdom, which is our equivalent of the North Country of New Hampshire . . . we want jobs, but we don't want to change too much because we don't want to lose all the incredible things we have. We live here because we can hunt and fish, because we make our living off the land, and it's beautiful, and we don't have to wait in traffic jams for two hours to get to work every day."
Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. 