Tartarin, have you read this? What do you think? Thank you...
Kerry and Dean Set on a Collision Course:
Pointed Toward Same Democratic Destination,
They're Also Vying for Same Voters
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 13, 2003; Page A04
HOPKINTON, N.H. -- They have circled one another warily for months, a study in political contrasts. One is the tall, cool Bostonian who exudes stature and experience in the world; the other the short, intense Vermont transplant who projects energy, passion and a determination to upend the politics of his own party.
Now Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and former Vermont governor Howard Dean are on a collision course in their bids for the Democratic presidential nomination. They skirmished briefly in the spring over patriotism, courage and the qualities required of a commander in chief in an age of terrorism. With Dean's sudden emergence, a decisive clash appears inevitable, one that will have a significant impact on the outcome of the Democratic race.
Along with Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), Kerry and Dean make up the top tier of the Democratic field of nine candidates, but by dint of geography and demography, the two New Englanders often find themselves fishing in the same pond, fighting over the same voters: white, liberal, moderately affluent, well-educated, mostly antiwar, vehemently anti-President Bush.
These prospective Democratic voters find themselves in a head-vs.-heart debate over whether to support Kerry or Dean. In Kerry, they see someone with the credentials to be president, but they worry about his passion and ability to excite an electorate. In Dean, they see the opposite, a blunt and inspirational politician willing to challenge Bush, but they wonder whether someone with his experience and views can win.
Tony Keefer is one of those conflicted voters. He slapped a "Dean for President" sign on his bicycle the other day and rode it in the Independence Day parade in Ashland, N.H. When more than 200 people gathered for a Dean appearance here in Hopkinton on a lovely New England evening on Thursday, Keefer was among them.
But he said he wasn't ready to make a commitment. "I'm for someone I'm convinced can beat Bush, and I'm not there yet with Dean, nor with Kerry," he said.
"Experience is very important," Keefer added. "Dean has used, quite ineffectively in my opinion, that he wants to make the U.S. Vermont, to do things for the U.S. that he did for Vermont. I find it very specious. Kerry on the other hand has not come across with a dynamic enough approach to turn the heads of people like myself, who were [Sen. John] McCain voters. . . . The guy who can get it can really give Bush a run for the money."
Neither Dean nor Kerry likes to admit how much each stands in the other's path to the nomination, although the regular potshots between their staffs prove that reality. Dean said there are no hard feelings between the men, although their earlier engagement suggested there is hostility coupled with annoyance.
"There's certainly no animosity -- certainly on my side," Dean said last week between fundraising calls at his Burlington, Vt., office.
Kerry, asked about Dean during an interview at The Washington Post on Thursday, refused to be drawn into a discussion about how the Dean insurgency has affected his own candidacy.
Here in New Hampshire, for now at least, the race is a two-man, neighbor-to-neighbor contest, with all the other candidates hoping to profit from the fallout of the expected Dean-Kerry showdown in the fall. In Iowa, Dean and Kerry, looking for an advantage that could help them in New Hampshire, are pressing Gephardt, the favorite there and a candidate appealing directly to the party's blue-collar constituency.
But as they campaigned through New Hampshire last week, it was clear how much they are paying attention to one another.
When Kerry, who last fall voted to give Bush the power to go to war in Iraq, suddenly scheduled a news conference Thursday morning to denounce the administration's postwar policy there, Dean, who opposed the war, laid on a news conference of his own to challenge the administration over misleading the public on the war.
As Dean tried to tone down some of the anger that has marked his rise in the Democratic race, Kerry repeatedly told audiences how angry he was: with Bush's foreign policy, tax cuts and energy policy. And as Dean has begun to mobilize an Internet-organized cadre of supporters and donors around the country, Kerry promised audiences to do the same.
Standing in the American Legion hall in Nashua, N.H., on Wednesday night, Kerry declared, "I'm going to build the greatest grass-roots effort we've ever had in this country in years, and we are going to go out and take back our own democracy."
Dean argues that only he can create that grass-roots following and that he has the only strategy to defeat Bush. "I'm the only one who can bring in legions of disaffected voters. None of the other Democrats can," Dean said in an interview. He said of his opponents: "Their strategy is: 'Let's go to the middle, and the base will follow.' My strategy is: 'Let's get the base energized, and then the independents will follow.' . . . I don't believe Bush can be beaten by doing what we did in 2000."
Whether he can attract independents or moderates is a principal challenge for Dean, given the angry, antiwar rhetoric that has fueled his support. The former governor says that he is not as liberal as he has been portrayed, given his pro-gun and pro-balanced budget views, but other Democrats question whether he can easily move himself toward the center without demoralizing the supporters who have signed on to his campaign.
It doesn't take long to see how much the two candidates are competing with one another for votes. Go to a Dean rally or a Kerry rally, and those in attendance almost universally say the choice is between the two, with occasional interest in one of the others in the Democratic field. "That's all I hear my friends talking about," said Sally Helms, a New Hampshire Democrat who attended a Kerry house party in Concord, N.H., last Tuesday.
Among others there were Paul Hodes, a Concord lawyer, and his wife, Peggo Hartsmann Hodes, a voice teacher in Concord. "I really appreciate that Howard Dean is pushing the envelope and he's pushing the Democratic Party hard," Paul Hodes said. But after supporting Bill Bradley in 2000, he said, "I can't afford to be led only by my heart. I've got to be practical."
He is supporting Kerry. His wife said she sees admirable qualities in Kerry, but she was actively against going to war in Iraq and grilled Kerry about his vote. After he finished, she said she leaned toward Dean because she wanted his ideas to have an impact on the Democratic Party. "In New Hampshire," she said, "you can have an impact on the dialogue. I can support an underdog candidate."
Marian Welton of Nashua came to hear Kerry on Wednesday night, another undecided Democrat looking mostly at Dean and Kerry. She said at this point Kerry looks more like a winner, but that Dean's candor reminded her of Arizona's McCain (R), who won the GOP primary here four years ago, and she regarded that as a plus.
How will she make up her mind in the Kerry-Dean sweepstakes? "When one or the other shows more promise in being able to beat Bush," she replied.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48741-2003Jul12.html?referrer=emailarticle
