January 21, 2004

MUSKIE MOMENT:

Dean's Iowa speech lives despite candidate's efforts to move on (Will Lester, January 21, 2004, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

In the three days leading up to the Iowa caucuses, Dean's favorable rating among New Hampshire voters dropped from 59 percent to 39 percent in a sample of 302 voters Tuesday night, according to Dick Bennett of the American Research Group of Manchester, N.H. The size of a one-night sample is small enough that such results have to be viewed with caution, however.

Bennett said his phone operators heard from voters who said they were surprised by Dean's speech. "That thing has legs," he said.

"I think it crystallized a lot of the concerns voters in Iowa had as well as voters in New Hampshire had about Dean's potential temperament as a president," added Andrew Smith, a political scientist and pollster at the University of New Hampshire. "My sense is that this will go down with Edmund Muskie supposedly crying in front of the (Manchester) Union Leader (in 1972) and Bob Dole telling George Bush to 'stop lying about my record.' (in 1988)."


The Dean campaign now claims he was "brainwashed"...

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 21, 2004 9:15 PM
Comments

He was just channelling John Belushi.

Posted by: jim hamlen at January 21, 2004 9:42 PM

"Move On" nice pun.

Posted by: AWW at January 21, 2004 11:19 PM

Democrats might want to be grateful that Dean has placed on his own shoulders the exorcism of their party's demons.

The right stuff....

Afer which he can take himself out to pasture in the high places of NH.

(Whether the party is cured will be determined if not even NH proves to be a cliffhanger.)

Posted by: Barry Meislin at January 22, 2004 3:07 AM

Vermont, that is.

Posted by: Barry Meislin at January 22, 2004 3:27 AM

Dean's Denial by David Tell, Weekly Standard--

"Late yesterday afternoon, while speaking to a rally crowd in Concord, Dean happened to notice a man mockingly -- but quietly -- holding a Confederate flag. Whereupon the governor stopped himself mid-sentence, announced his view that the flagholder ought by rights to be removed from the scene, and then stood there glowering, while the TV cameras whirred, as security guards literally dragged the poor guy away. "

Remember this when Left-wing Demos start whining about the "stifling of dissent in John Ashcroft's Amerikkka", or about heavy-handed Secret Service security. Will we see this video anywhere, or has it already gone down the Memory Hole?

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at January 22, 2004 9:36 AM

I think it is way too early to count mad how out. It sure is fun watching him right now, but it isn't over for him.

Posted by: pchuck at January 22, 2004 10:49 AM

Plus you have to consider the early primaries' reputation for confounding expectations of the media ... and for ballooning the hopes of the candidates. When's the last time the Democratic winner of Iowa won the nomination (other than sittng Presidents?) In 1988 (or '84?) it was Tom Harkin, in 1992 it was the immortal Paul Tsongas - I don't think anyone expected either to become President. Dean's money will buy him time, and Kerry's victory will bring him attention so he can say something stupid, letting Dean back into the race, and so on. These guys have to start showing some real ideas for the Democratic race to become more than a sideshow ... and I doubt it will happen anytime soon.

Posted by: John Barrett at January 22, 2004 12:51 PM

It was fascinating to see the legs grow here in Manhattan.

The day after, the Post and the Daily News had Dean foaming at the mouth. The Times said nothing at all about it.

It took three days for the Times to decide that the texture of the speech had some significance.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at January 24, 2004 2:05 PM
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