Howard Dean: Not a Fierce Liberal Force?

Howard Dean: Not a Fierce
Liberal Force?

Heres one sign the media are beginning to take Howard Deans presidential campaign seriously. The liberal label has been dropped from coverage, and in some stories, denied. In this weeks Newsweek, Howard Fineman never described Dean as liberal, but did find him on target: As an early foe of war in Iraq, he made acerbic comments that now look prescient. Here are some other examples of the trend:

Time. The July 14 Time chronicled How Dean Is Winning the Web, but never called Howard Dean liberal. They did note that the primary he dominated at left-leaning MoveOn.org may be questioned because the runner-up was the very liberal Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

Reporter Chris Taylor wrote: Once viewed as a no-hoper for the nomination, notable only for his vehement opposition to the war in Iraq, Dean is increasingly forcing his partys other candidates to adjust their strategies as they figure out how to slow his momentum. Deans supporters arent ideological, just a seam of online middle-class resentment... made up of passionate and often disgruntled believers.

CNN. On Inside Politics, anchor Judy Woodruff sought out Peter Freyne of the Vermont alternative paper Seven Days to tackle the notion that Deans too liberal. Freyne claimed: His entire time in Vermont politics...there was never a sentence in any newspaper in the state of Vermont that contained the word liberal and Howard Dean. (See box.)

Washington Post. A July 6 front-page profile by Evelyn Nieves was headlined Short-Fused Populist, Breathing Fire at Bush. The word liberal did not appear until three-fourths the way into the story, and then only in a quote of denial: His being called a liberal is one of the great white lies of the campaign, said Tom Salmon, a fellow Democrat and governor of Vermont for two terms during the Nixon-Ford era. He's a rock-solid fiscal conservative.

Nieves allowed Dean to deny the tag: 'I think it's pathetic that I'm considered the left-wing liberal, Dean said. It shows just how far to the right this country has lurched. Nieves noted: Over and over on the campaign trail, he tells audiences that he is a fiscal conservative who believes balanced budgets serve the cause of social justice.

Boston Globe. On June 23, the Globe also dwelt in denial. Reporter Sarah Schweitzer wrote Dean's record isn't radically left-leaning because he advocates a balanced federal budget and received top ratings from the National Rifle Association and supports the death penalty in some cases.

Centrist? Others have dubiously claimed Dean was a moderate governor. On the June 23 CBS Early Show, co-host Hannah Storm said to Dean: You have opposed the war on Iraq. You oppose the Presidents tax-cut package, and yet you are a centrist governor. So where does your constituency fall on the political spectrum? On ABCs This Week July 6, reporter Michel Martin replied to Paul Gigots insistence that Dean was driving the other contenders left by claiming: The irony being, of course, that he wasnt a terribly liberal governor. He was in fact, a moderate.

Some have touched on Deans hard-left appeal. On the June 22 NBC Nightly News, anchor Dawn Fratangelo even called it a very liberal campaign. The next night, ABCs Dan Harris noted that moderates argue Dean is bad for the party and will force the other Democratic candidates to move to the left. But these labels and themes are becoming the exception, and not the rule. Tim Graham