Dean’s New Focus: Damage Control

A subdued Howard Dean began a do-or-die campaign across this winter-frozen state Tuesday, trying to repair the damage from a third-place Iowa caucus finish and an overheated concession speech that was ridiculed nationwide -- by political pundits to voters alike.

The former Vermont governor looked serious and contained as he took the stage for a noontime rally, abandoning his frenzied tone after placing a discouraging third in the first contest of the 2004 presidential campaign.

Even as he was dogged by several protesters waving Confederate flags, Dean retreated from his attacks on his fellow Democrats, saying he wanted to focus on his own experience as governor and on the failings of the Bush administration.

“The campaign has changed a lot, and other Democrats are standing up, speaking their piece, criticizing the president,” Dean told several hundred enthusiastic supporters in a downtown ballroom.

“And that’s a good thing, and I welcome that. So today, I’m going to give a different kind of speech. Those of you who came here intending to be lifted to your feet by a lot of red-meat rhetoric are going to be a little disappointed.”

Instead of leading a rally, Dean delivered a beefed-up version of his stump speech, which he billed as an alternative to Bush’s Tuesday night State of the Union address. He focused on the president’s domestic agenda, lambasting Bush for the ballooning federal deficit, the loss of jobs and the growing number of Americans without health insurance.

Dean’s tenor was a marked departure from his high-octane performance in Des Moines on Monday night and at a pre-dawn airport rally in Portsmouth.

At both events, Dean leapt onto the stage, tore off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. His face beet-red, he punched his fists in the air and spoke in a near-guttoral roar. The frenetic response to his poor showing struck many as inappropriate.

On Monday night, comedian Jay Leno lampooned Dean’s antics. “I’m not an expert in politics,” he said. “But I think it’s a bad sign when your speech ends with your aides shooting you with a tranquilizer gun.”

Even some of Dean’s supporters balked at the tone of the Monday night speech.

“I hate to say it, but the Gov looked downright scary tonight,” one wrote on Dean’s official Web log Tuesday morning.

Bow resident Debbie Kinson, who came to Manchester on Tuesday to cheer Dean on, said she still believed that he would win, but added that she hoped he scaled back his defiance and adopted a more optimistic tenor.

“He probably needs to tone it down a little bit,” said Kinson, 44, a fine-arts student. “You don’t want to give the Republicans something to use.”

By Tuesday afternoon, Dean’s suit jacket was back on and his tone was controlled.

Dean said he and his advisors had not had a chance to assess what went wrong in Iowa. “We spent a long time as the supposed frontrunner, and we paid the price that frontrunners pay, and now we have to regroup,” he said. He expressed confidence that his campaign would be better-received in New Hampshire, which neighbors his home state.

Dean, who is accustomed to overflowing crowds, got a moderate turnout at a rally in Concord late Tuesday, which was interrupted several times by protesters. Four hecklers -- later identified as Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. supporters -- disrupted the candidate in three separate incidents, screaming and shouting as the candidate spoke.

At one point, two young women yanked out a Confederate flag just as Dean was criticizing Bush’s stance on affirmative action. As they screamed unintelligibly, the crowd began to murmur anxiously.

But Dean seized the moment, launching into a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Hundreds of supporters chimed in, waving American flags. The candidate, his hoarse voice breaking, waved a flag and kept the crowd in song until the women were escorted out of the room.