Dean backers weigh Iowa's message
CONCORD, N.H. -- His crowds still chant his name with reverential glee, telling him, "We believe in you, Howard!" On the Internet, Howard Dean remains the subject of hero worship, with supporters befuddled over negative reaction to his post-caucus yell and rapturous about his refusal in last week's candidate forum to soften his opposition to the war in Iraq or President Bush's tax cuts.
Marsha Turner, 60, a retired teacher in Concord, said she understands the hype. She was drawn for a time, like so many others, to Dean's freshness, his verve. She considered casting her vote for him in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary, but now supports Senator John F. Kerry and is willing to do verbal battle with her friends on his behalf.
After a week in which bad news for the Dean camp blanketed airwaves in New Hampshire -- most notably replays of the yell Dean let loose in front of supporters in West Des Moines after learning of his disappointing third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses -- voters here said they were less disturbed by Dean's post-caucus performance than they were that the heartland's rejection of him might mean that voters in the general election would do the same. "You have to think of who can get the job done," Turner implored of Cheryl Bourassa, 44, a former colleague who wore a Dean button on her jacket yesterday at a packed Kerry event here.
"The man is boring!" Bourassa retorted about Kerry. "If it comes down to it in the long run, I'll give Kerry money, I'll put out lawn signs. But he doesn't inspire me."
"It's not about who can inspire, it's not about glitz," Turner said. "It's about who can get the job done." With only two days before voting gets underway in New Hampshire, daily tracking polls indicate that an increasing number of residents are giving the nod to the Massachusetts senator for his political experience and military record. Conversations with voters suggest that many worry the country is not ready for Dean's nontraditional style, which has inspired devotion on the Web but less support on the street.
"I like Dean," said Kelly Knapp, 45, a musician and special-education aide from Londonderry. "I think he's exciting and open-minded. He'll go for what's taboo, which I think is great. I'm just not sure the American public is ready.
"It's like reality is setting in," added Knapp, who plans to vote for Kerry, the candidate she favored initially.
Dean, the former Vermont governor who attracted legions to his cause and raised millions of dollars with his novel Internet-based strategy, struggled last week to project a sense of gravitas to convince voters that he is a presidential figure rather than a fad.
He nixed his signature "you have the power" shouts from his stump speech and focused his message on the budgets he balanced and the health care he ensured for children in Vermont. He donned a sweater and appeared with his wife, Judy Dean, on prime-time television, where she said he rarely shows anger at home and he explained that he is not a rock star. (Yesterday, the campaign began distributing 50,000 taped copies of the Thursday night broadcast.)
From Claremont to Concord, Dean seemed to offer contrition for the Iowa yell, which he conceded had not reflected the most presidential of miens. His campaign made available longtime supporters, such as Vermont Senate president Peter Welch, to talk up the "conversational style" Dean favored in Vermont. Dean himself doled out smatterings of humility, telling voters he is not perfect.
"I have plenty of warts. I say things that get me into trouble, but I say what I believe," Dean said in Lebanon last week when asked how he would quell the growing criticisms of his temperament and demeanor. "I lead with my heart and not my head and that's the only chance we have against George Bush."
But the effort seemed to do little to stanch the outflow of support, with Dean's events drawing smaller crowds, some endorsers keeping a distance -- most notably former vice president Al Gore -- and daily tracking polls offering little good news for Dean. A new Boston Globe/ WBZ-TV two-day tracking poll conducted Friday night and yesterday indicated that Kerry was increasing his lead, with 38 percent, over Dean, who had 15 percent. The poll also indicated that Dean's approval rating continues to slip among New Hampshire voters surveyed, with 48 percent saying they had a favorable opinion of him and 32 percent saying they viewed him negatively.
The Dean camp is reeling from the candidate's precipitous drop but counting on his reemergence as a scrappy underdog -- the position he enjoyed until late fall, when high-profile endorsements and a massive influx of money to his campaign spurred his anointment as front-runner -- to carry him in New Hampshire, which has a history of choosing mavericks, such as Senator John S. McCain, who won the Republican primary in the state in 2000.
They are also counting on what they say will be home turf advantage because Dean hails from next-door Vermont, although Kerry and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman also have New England roots.
Dean dismissed any suggestion that his support might have plateaued, saying last week, "No, I think that's unlikely."
On www.blogforamerica.com, Dean's official Web log, he remains an abiding inspiration. "Thank you Howard Dean, for already making a change in our lives. Go Dean!!!! Go us!!! We truly do have the power!!!" wrote a blogger with the name GoingNova last week.
But even there, criticism is growing, with pleas for changes to Dean's ads, his suits, his speeches. Other writers offer no advice, but make less-than-sanguine predictions.
"As a presidential candidate, he is a work in progress, at best," a blogger wrote. "He has been angry, indignant, childlike in his insistence on screaming that the emperor has no clothes; so unbending in his political argument that often even people who agree with him can't stand the sound of his voice. This may not be what you want to see in a presidential candidate. But it is exactly what I see when I look in the mirror.
"Dean has spoken for me. Whether I ever get to vote for him or not, Dean has captured the real frustration in me, and I suspect millions of people, as citizens of a country gone nuts." 