Meanwhile, the substance of what Dean had to say today probably surprised those who've spent a lot of time lately watching and listening to him speak in Iowa and New Hampshire or before Democratic interest groups. You might have seen Dean at the recent NARAL event, where he brought the audience to its feet by delivering a full-throated defense of partial-birth abortion while other Democrats stepped politely around the subject. You might have caught his recent speech on union issues in Altoona, Iowa, delivered Oprah-style before members of the Iowa Federation of Labor, where he wowed the crowd with an unapologetic condemnation of free trade deals that lack tough labor and environmental standards. And you might have been present for Dean's knock-out performance at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting, where liberal delegates became all weepy and verklempt when the former Vermont governor belted out what has become his signature line: "I am Howard Dean. And I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." At the very least, you've probably heard that Howard Dean is one of the most antiwar candidates in the race.
All of this has placed Dean on the left edge of the Democratic presidential field. But often it's more reliable to listen to Dean's positions than the fiery rhetoric that surrounds them. Once you do that, as today's interview reminds us, it's easy to see understand how Dean was positioning himself as the Clinton-like moderate of the race before his antiwar speeches started to generate so much enthusiasm among activists in the early nominating states.
Did you know, for instance, that Dean favors a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, the early-'90s fixation of Ross Perot and the Contract with America? I didn't. In addition to flirting with raising the retirement age for Social Security, Dean also wants to do something along the lines of what Clinton proposed in the late '90s for the program: allowing the government to invest funds from Social Security in private equities.