Gov. Dean on Meet the Press

Yesterday Gov. Howard Dean appeared on NBC News' "Meet the Press". His performance was nothing short of brilliant, answering each question thrown to him by host Tim Russert with clarity and ease. At 6:00AM EST, on his MSNBC radio and TV talk show, in New York City, the very conservative Don Imus said the following about Gov. Dean's 2/1/04 appearance on "Meet the Press".

"Howard Dean pitched a perfect game!"

"Russert never laid a hand on him."

"He was fabulous!"

"He had an answer for everything, and a good answer!" "He was great."

Don Imus is well known for almost never saying anything good about anyone in fact just the opposite. And demben at Daily Kos said about the interview:

Anyone that says this isn't the man to lead this country after watching this certainly doesn't live in the same country that I do. I certainly hope plenty of Feb 3 voters were watching.

Here are some excerpts from Meet the Press:

MR. RUSSERT:  But, Governor, if your mission is to beat George Bush...

DR. DEAN:  Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...and you haven't won any primaries and John Kerry emerges as the presumptive nominee, would you continue on a scorched-earth policy?

DR. DEAN:  No, there's not going to be a scorched-earth policy, but this race is about delegates.  As we sit here right now, I have more delegates than John Kerry does.  So the real test is what happens in January--or excuse me, in July at the convention, who has the most delegates.  I hope to have the most delegates.  And we're going to continue to work and work and work and work. And every time I get discouraged about it, I go out and talk to all the people who are really supporting us and they want change in this country and I want change in this country.

I did not start this because I had this burning desire that I have to be president or my life is ruined.  I started this because this country is in big trouble because of what George Bush has done to us, $1/2 trillion deficits, all our taxpayers' money ending up in the hands of people like Ken Lay at Enron or the insurance companies and the HMOs.  More than half of the money from the Medicare prescription drug bill is ending up in the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies.  That's not what this country's about.

Whatever happened to ordinary Americans?  That is what this campaign is about is what's going to happen to ordinary Americans and I'm going to change this country should I become president of the United States so that ordinary people can have their voice back.

MR. RUSSERT:  After the Iowa caucuses, Democrats were very civil and nice to each other.  Yesterday, you really unloaded on John Kerry.  Let's let the viewers...

DR. DEAN:  Sure.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...listen to what you said and then hear John Kerry's response:

(Videotape, January 30, 2004):

DR. DEAN:  It turns out we've got more than one Republican in the Democratic race.  I've already said that I thought Wes Clark was a Republican and now apparently John Kerry has the same financing habits.

SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA):  Governor Dean has in the course of this campaign made a number of comments that he's had to apologize to other candidates for. And I would respectfully suggest that that may be just one more of them.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Will you apologize for, in effect, calling John Kerry a Republican?

DR. DEAN:  The only time I've ever apologized to any candidate was when I said something about John Edwards that wasn't true.  I said that John Edwards had changed his position on the war in front of the California convention last April.  That wasn't true.  Of course, I'm no going to apologize.  John Kerry gets his money the same way George Bush does.

I was so angry when I read that article after John Kerry had the nerve--you know, here's what's happening in this campaign.  Look, we came out with a very strong message.  We shot to the top.  All the other candidates took up our message.  I thinks that's fine.  Imitations is the sincerest form of flattery and it's actually great for the Democratic Party that we're starting to get some backbone again.

Then I come to find out that John Kerry has been running around Iowa and New Hampshire and telling all these Americans that he's going to get the special interests, and who was on the take with the special interests?  Not only just got him some special interest money--look, we all have special interest money. I'm sure if you went through my campaign, you'd find--there's people in special interests, lobbyists, who have given me money and so forth.  The senator with the most special interest money over the last 15 years is John Kerry who's just been running around telling all Americans how he's going to get the special interests and don't let the door hit you on the way out.  That is exactly what's wrong with American politics and that's why 50 percent of the people in this country don't vote.

For a full transcript of Gov. Dean's appearance on "Meet the Press", click here. If you're on a Windows machine, you can watch the video here.