OPB's Interview with Howard Dean

[Khephra]

Interview with Howard Dean


PORTLAND, OR 2003-08-20 (Oregon Considered) - OPB's Colin Fogarty talks with Democratic presidential candidate and former Vermont governor Howard Dean about his upcoming visit to Oregon.

Colin Fogarty: Tell me about your visit to Oregon on Sunday: why come to Oregon just a few days after President Bush comes here?

Howard Dean: President Bush is going around the country trying to prop up things like the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq. The truth is we got into Iraq under false pretences, essentially, and our situation is rapidly deteriorating. Al Qaida was not in Iraq before President Bush invaded; there was no evidence, despite the claims from the administration that it was so. But now it appears that Al Qaida is in Iraq so essentially the Iraq war has made it more difficult to defend the United States, not less difficult. And I think that is a consequence of an administration that does not think before it acts.

CF: O.K., and so you are following the president around this summer?

HD: We are going to a number of cities the president will be going to and telling the other side of the story which the American people have not yet heard

more...............

http://publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=536265

[CMT]

1. Good interview, thanks for sharing

I like Dean following Bush around--kind of like a truth squad

[Larkspur]

2. Wonder if Bush will send Ashcroft to arrest Dean on stalking charges?

Love Dean and Trippi's strategy -- follow bush to tell the truth after * spews his lies.

Love the response to this question...
CF: Is it a challenge for you to convince Democrats that you're more than just an anti-war or anti-Bush candidate?

HD: Not really. What's happened is that because we've done well, we've started to do very well in the polls and get scrutiny form the media. And when they've come to Vermont and discover I've balanced budgets, that I'm and am strong on social programs but am tough at measuring results, suddenly this McGovern stuff melts away. That was really a concoction of the Republican national committee and the other Washington candidates I'm running against. But I think it's time now for Democrats to stand up and be Democrats again. I think we've exhausted the notion that we're going to move continually to the right and somehow beat the Republicans that way. We can't. We've gotta be in the real center, the center of the country not the center of the electorate.