Dean Shows Voters a More Mellow Side

Trying to relaunch his once high-flying presidential candidacy, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean made a personal appeal to voters in this snow-swept state Thursday, acknowledging his flaws and conducting a rare joint interview with his wife on national television.

The prime-time sit-down with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, along with his self-deprecating tone on the stump and a surprise guest appearance delivering the Top Ten list on “Late Night with David Letterman,” were designed to give a more lighthearted and intimate portrait of Dean as he tries to contain the fallout from a frenzied speech he delivered on caucus night in Iowa.

The interview on “Primetime Thursday,” featuring Dean and his wife, Judy, immediately invited comparisons to the joint interview Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton gave on “60 Minutes” to address allegations before the 1992 New Hampshire primary about his infidelity.

The Deans’ interview was even more notable because, until recently, Judy Dean has shunned the public appearances often expected of a presidential candidate’s spouse -- a decision the former governor said he supported. But on Thursday, he acknowledged that her presence was important as he tries to revive his flagging campaign.

“There is another side of me that people haven’t seen, and I think that Judy and I doing a news show with Diane Sawyer will help let people understand more about who I am,” he told reporters in Claremont, his voice hoarse as he battled a cold.

But with just a few precious days left before Tuesday’s primary, it remains to be seen if Dean can regain his momentum, especially as Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry continues to capitalize on a surprise first-place finish in Iowa.

On Thursday, Dean looked drained. He coughed repeatedly through two town hall meetings, nursing his gravelly voice with a mug of hot water. The former governor dropped the most exuberant applause lines from his stump speech, appearing constrained and cautious.

“We’re just doing the best we can,” he told reporters when asked to assess his campaign, adding that it’s been “a hard process.”

His campaign hoped to reverse that with the 20-minute television interview, filmed at an inn in Norwich, Vt. As the couple -- he in a blue sweater, she in a red one -- sat side by side on a couch, they discussed topics from their first encounter to Dean’s exuberant performance in Des Moines after placing a disappointing third in the Iowa caucuses.

The former governor acknowledged that the Monday night speech, which has been televised repeatedly, was not “presidential.”

“But there’s nothing I can do about it,” he told Sawyer. “I did it. I own it. And now we’ve got to get back to running for president.”

For her part, Judy Dean said she thought her husband looked “kind of silly,” quickly adding that it was “OK.”

In her first televised interview, the candidate’s wife revealed that she rarely watches television. She acknowledged that voters may be taken aback by her uncoiffed appearance but said she is not concerned about the scrutiny.

“I don’t really care too much what I wear, and I’m sure it would be criticized and my hair and everything else ... it just doesn’t bother me that much,” she said.

“I believe in Howard so much, and it’s so much more important what he could do for the country.”

With much of the interview focused on their relationship, it served to showcase Dean’s obvious affection for his wife of 23 years. As she spoke, he caressed her back and squeezed her shoulder. When he was talking, she clasped his hand and nodded along, often smiling broadly.

“She’s a real life partner, not just, you know, somebody I fell in love with,” he said. “She is a friend and I respect her, and that is enormous for me.

“Plus, she’s a lot smarter than I am,” he said.

Both spoke extensively of Judy Dean’s decision not to join her husband regularly on the campaign trail. A doctor and mother of two, she has said she wants to continue her medical practice and be at home for their 17-year-old son.

Dean has said that he does not want to use his wife as a “prop” on the campaign, and insisted Thursday that their joint interview was merely an effort to let voters know more about him.

“Do you feel like a prop, dear?” he asked.

“No,” she responded with a smile.

Dean said he would not ask her to campaign regularly.

“My marriage and my family is the most important thing to me. It’s more important than being president,” he said. “How many people in a job they love, with a 17-year-old senior in high school, are going to relish leaving their house, leaving their job and going out running around the campaign trail and being poked at by everybody?”

Overall, it was a day of rare openness for a candidate who is guarded about his personal life.

During a morning stop at a bakery in Hanover, Dean mused about his son’s hockey game victory the night before, a break from his usual refusal to talk about his children. In Lebanon, he joked about his raspy speech, saying, “I’ve still not recovered my voice from my screeching in Iowa.”

Later, he asked voters to accept his weaknesses.

“I’ve got plenty of warts. I say things that get me in trouble. I wear suits that are cheap,” he told several people in the Lebanon Opera House.

“But I say what I think, and I believe what I say.... In other words, I lead with my heart and not my head.”

The shift in Dean’s tone comes as his advisors and friends have urged the former governor to display a more personal side to offset the image of his high-octane, red-faced performance Monday night.

“All he needs to do, and you can see him starting to do it, is give a sense of emotional comfort to people, that he is steady, that he listens, and he’s kind,” said Peter Welch, president pro tem of the Vermont Senate. Several of Dean’s former colleagues joined him on the campaign trail to testify to his mild temperament and credentials.

“Those are qualities that you have to have to be an executive, and they are certainly qualities he had in abundance as governor,” Welch said.

On Thursday, Dean’s campaign began running a new television commercial in New Hampshire showcasing Dean’s recent visit with former President Carter, and heralding him as a leader who stands up for unpopular causes.

On a lighter note, Dean taped a spot for Letterman’s late-night show, reciting the Top Ten “Ways, I, Howard Dean, can turn things around.”

No. 1: “Oh, I don’t know -- maybe fewer crazy, red-faced rants,” Dean said.

Dean admitted to reporters that he needs a boost.

“I need people’s help,” he said. “I am appealing to New Hampshirites’ votes. Iowa did not go well for us. I wish it had gone better, but New Hampshire has a history of turning that around.”

Supporters in his audiences offered Dean encouragement throughout the day. In Lebanon, a man urged him to speak from his diaphragm during the debate Thursday night and drink hot fluids to save his voice.

“Thank you for being the authentic person that you really are,” a woman told him in Claremont. “I know this has been an incredibly difficult road ... to have people telling you that you should be behaving differently. Don’t listen to them, Howard.”

A few minutes later, Plainfield resident Doug Cogan stood up and assured Dean that New Hampshire voters are with him.

“We know you as a person and the straight talk and the straight shooting that you do that connects with people like us here,” he said. “What I see when I look at you, I see hope, I see vision, I see passion -- and I thank you for really bringing that out.”