Posted on 01/22/2004 2:12:44 AM PST by kattracks
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Sen. John Kerry surged to the front of the pack yesterday as one-time front-runner Howard Dean was reduced to being the butt of national jokes.As a sign of Dean's desperation to reboot his candidacy, Dean and his wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean - whose absence from the campaign trail has raised eyebrows - will sit for an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC.
The "Primetime" sitdown, which will run after the candidates' debate tonight, seemed ripped from the Clinton playbook, when Bill and Hillary Clinton did an emotional interview with "60 Minutes" in 1992 when the Gennifer Flowers affair threatened to torpedo his candidacy.
Kerry, who won in Iowa, led in several New Hampshire tracking polls yesterday, including the widely watched American Research Group.
The ARG survey shows that a three-day average of the tracking polls had Kerry pulling within 2 points of Dean. But in the poll's final day of tracking, Kerry had jumped to a 29%-to-24% lead over Dean.
The Boston Herald poll last night gave Kerry an even larger lead, 31% to 21%.
Kerry's campaign took on the trappings of the leader. So many people showed up for a Kerry speech at Daniel Webster College his staff had to turn people away.
The Dean upset in Iowa and his ridicule since has made victory in New Hampshire almost essential to his survival, experts said. "If he doesn't win New Hampshire, it's over," said one longtime Democratic strategist.
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who also beat Dean in Iowa, suggested yesterday that the former Vermont governor would be a drag on the presidential ticket in Southern states.
Dean's camp was tired and testy yesterday, and one staffer got in a scuffle with a reporter after they got tangled up and the aide tripped.
Dean aides remained determined. "There is a long time until Tuesday," one Dean aide said, referring to the primary date.
The Deaniacs' moods were strained by constant replaying of their candidate's manic Iowa speech, a David Letterman Top 10 list of excuses for his Iowa loss (No. 4: "Saddam Hussein endorsement didn't help"), a "Late Night" video of his head exploding and hilarious remixes of his speech playing on the Internet.
Jay Leno quipped, "I'm not an expert in politics, but I think it's a bad sign when your speech ends with your aides shooting you with a tranquilizer gun."
Dean's attempt to regain some presidential aura wasn't helped by TV and radio stations replaying a tape of him silencing a heckler at a Concord, N.H., rally Tuesday by singing the national anthem.
While Dean actually led the crowd in singing, the microphones picked up only Dean's voice, making it appear that he did a really bad solo.
Dean tried to stick yesterday to his retooled, issues-only strategy of supporting "what's right, not what's popular," although he drifted once, seeming to suggest pro-Bush conspiracies in voting machines as he talked about the 2000 presidential election.
He also tried a little humility. "I've learned a lot from this campaign, because this campaign is a two-way campaign . . . where we write out agendas, and then you push back and talk about it," he told supporters. "Where I give speeches, and you critique the speeches, and I look at the critiques and say . . . we'll do it a little differently this time."
Originally published on January 21, 2004
Will Mrs. Doc Dean volunteer to Sawyer that Howard only got 'all wound up' (Yeeeeeeaaahh!) after the caucus because she wasn't on the road with him enough baking his favorite and soothing almond cookies?
LOL! Now that is funny!
The latter part of this paragraph is the only point where I was exposed to the former. What a massive political power the internet has become, as well as a source for endless amusement at the expense of the rats.
One has to wonder what is in store for us come the CFR cutoff. Will someone decide that FR is in violation of CFR? Will Rush and Hannity be gagged and pulled off the airwaves? Doubtful...for now.
"I ham vatching you. Vatching undt vaiting, vaiting undt vatching until you skrew hup, undt Kaput!"
Maybe the killer looks are connected with "Arkancide" or Vince Foster somehow?
He did?????? I missed it.
He made my skin crawl from the first time I saw him; and, I remember being revolted by a profile the WSJ did of hillary! long before he was a candidate.
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