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Friday, January 09, 2004

Howard Dean hates Iowa! 


Yesterday, between naps and controlling myself from throwing up, I was thinking of writing a post that I think Howard Dean might be in trouble, which obviously never materialized. I thought that with his recent plan for a middle class tax cut, contradicting his insistence on repealing all of Bush's cuts, and his comment at a debate that went something like, "we don't need no stinkin' permission from the UN!", Dean might be turning back to the center too quickly. Unbeknowst to me, at about the same time NBC reported that it had uncovered some tapes of Dean from four years ago saying some unpleasant things about Iowa, and Al Gore:

Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean told a Canadian public affairs program four years ago the Iowa caucuses were "dominated by the special interests" and a waste of time, according to tapes aired by NBC News on Thursday.

***

He also said former Vice President Al Gore, who endorsed him last month and will campaign for him in Iowa on Friday, was not quick on his feet.

"If you look at the caucus system, they are dominated by the special interests, in both sides, in both parties," Dean said on the Canadian television show "The Editors."

"The special interests don't represent the centrist tendencies of the American people, they represent the extremes."

Talking about the time-consuming process of attending a caucus with neighbors as opposed to casting a ballot in a primary, he said, "I can't stand there and listen to everyone else's opinion for eight hours about how to fix the world."

***

He said in a January 1998 show, according to MSNBC, that Gore "has a lot of attributes, but ... there are some things that I am concerned about. One of them is being quick on your feet. He is not."

***

In December 2000, shortly after Bush's election, Dean speculated on Bush's future political vulnerabilities.

"So I think that all of us who are salivating and saying, 'Ah hah,' this is going to be a one-term presidency,' I think that is going to be a mistake," he said.
I guess Roger L. Simon was prescient in predicting a Clark nomination.
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