Dean Drops In on Classes in Wisconsin

The questions were thoughtful and wide-ranging, touching on everything from the candidate’s views on foreign policy to his background in politics.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean answered all of them, and the several dozen 12- and 13-year-olds assembled in their middle school library on Tuesday afternoon seemed impressed.

But the few adults in the room appeared puzzled by the Democratic candidate’s hour-long visit to Longfellow Middle School in La Crosse, where he popped into a few classrooms to offer guest lectures on water quality, the Gulf Stream and Revolutionary War history.

He greeted few people old enough to vote in next Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary.

“I think he did great with the kids, but it’s unfortunate that he couldn’t meet more of the public,” said Joan Calloway, a retired fourth-grade teacher. “The voters weren’t here to hear him.”

As his Democratic rivals campaigned for last-minute votes in Tennessee and Virginia, Dean was ensconced in this snow-blown state, a place he has said is crucial to revive his moribund candidacy.

Underscoring the surreal straits the onetime front-runner now finds himself in, Dean spent most of Tuesday speaking to children -- creating good images for the local news, perhaps, but providing him little opportunity to sway actual voters.

He started his day at a middle school in Superior, at the northern edge of the state, where the 100 or so adults in the room were outnumbered by rows of sleepy students who fidgeted quietly in their seats as he spoke.

After the stop at the middle school in La Crosse, Dean spoke to children at a youth center in a predominantly Latino neighborhood of Milwaukee, where he referred only obliquely to the importance Wisconsin’s primary holds for him.

“There’s a big election next Tuesday, a week from today,” he said.

“And if I win it, I’ve got a good chance of being president. If I don’t win, then maybe I won’t be president. We’ll find out.”

The few times he spoke in front of adults, Dean urged them to rally around his candidacy, telling Wisconsin residents that they have an opportunity to alter the presidential contest.

“It’s a big deal, the Wisconsin primary,” he told several hundred supporters in the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center in Milwaukee on Tuesday evening.

“Is Wisconsin going to be a rubber stamp for the media and the pollsters?” he asked.

“No!” shouted the crowd.

Dean did not mention his recent decision to stay in the race if he loses in Wisconsin, a reversal from his previous stance that he must win the Feb. 17 primary to remain competitive.

But he alluded to his determination, telling the audience in Milwaukee, “We will continue to fight for a better America, and to fight and to fight and we will never ever, ever quit, ever.”

The candidate spent most of the day talking about other topics.

During a tour of Longfellow Middle School in La Crosse, Dean, a physician, stopped in a science class where students were studying fluid samples under a microscope and elicited peals of laughter from the room when he explained that urine has less bacteria than river water.

In a nearby geography class, he quizzed the students about how the Gulf Stream affects temperatures.

And in a history class, he delivered an impromptu lecture about Thomas Chittenden, the first governor of Vermont.

Later, at the Latino Community Center in south Milwaukee, Dean fielded questions from a group of children, including 9-year-old Marlena Vargas, who asked if he would return there if he was elected president. Dean quickly assented.

“Today is the first day I have heard of him, but I think he’s a really nice man,” she said later.