The real Howard Dean
He is the man most likely to challenge Bush when America goes to the polls, but so far Howard Dean has remained an obscure governor from a remote state. He's probably a typical granola-crunching, latte-sipping liberal, right? Not so, says Jay Parini, who has watched football with him
Monday January 12, 2004
The Guardian
The attention of the world has fastened mightily on Howard Dean, the man most likely to run for president against George Bush in November. I've been watching this drama unfold with fascination from the beginning, when Dean first entered the primary race about a year ago as a long-shot candidate. As an unknown former governor from Vermont, a remote state in rural New England, few observers in the national press took him seriously. Only a few months ago, I heard a television pundit mention his name as if it were some kind of joke. This man is not laughing now.
The primary elections begin in Iowa at the end of this month, and proceed quickly to New Hampshire, spreading around the nation rather quickly after that. By most reckonings, Dean is well positioned to win the nomination. In New Hampshire, the first major primary, the poles uniformly suggest that Dean is running way ahead of his nearest rival, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. If he wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, as he probably will, other primary victories will follow as night follows day. In a few months, everyone who follows American politics will know something about Dean.
What amazes me, however, is how obscure he remains at this point in the electoral process. Purveyors of opinion in the national press continue to brand him as a north-eastern liberal, an anti-war activist who will appeal mainly to white, well-educated, granola-crunching and latte-sipping liberals of the type who supported George McGovern in 1972 [McGovern lost by a huge margin to Nixon in the presidential race]. In recent weeks, the infamous McGovern comparison was raised once again by David Brooks, a regular columnist for the New York Times. It's a ridiculous notion, worth discarding as soon as possible.
I write this as a Vermonter who has known Dean personally (as an acquaintance) for many years. Several of my friends worked with him closely when he was governor, as members of his staff or advisers. Only a few weeks ago I had dinner with him and he brought up the McGovern comparison himself, drawing a chuckle from everywhere in the room. Dean is, let me tell you, no George McGovern. He is actually the furthest thing from a typical north-eastern liberal that can be imagined.
A few years ago, I was invited to speak (on the poetry of Robert Frost, believe it or not) to a convention of Vermont judges. I was, shall we say, the light entertainment before lunch. After lunch, Dean was giving a talk. As I was leaving the meeting, the governor came up to me with a grin. "I've just read your latest book of poems," he said. (A mutual friend had sent him a copy.) "You've obviously been reading Roethke." Of course, I was surprised that Dean had taken the trouble to read my poems; but that he rightly detected I had been reading the poetry of Theodore Roethke seemed, at the time, quite stunning.
It is worth recalling that Dean was elected governor of Vermont five times in a row - a tribute to his appeal in this largely rural state. Indeed, there are many more cows than people in Vermont, which has a population of just over half a million people. Pick-up trucks are the vehicle of choice around here, and deer hunting is immensely popular. Dean is popular with the hunters. Indeed, the National Rifle Association has bestowed upon him its highest rating. Every citizen, in Dean's view, has the right (if not the duty) to blow the back end off a buck or doe. Few liberal politicians in the US, I should note, have ever received such positive attention from the National Rifle Association.
During his years as governor, Dean was mainly known as a fierce budget cutter, a proponent of fiscal responsibility. I remember complaining loudly to friends that he was just a Republican in disguise. He balanced the state's budget year after year, even though Vermont does not require a balanced budget, as do many states. My friends in the environmental movement were often unhappy with Dean's refusals to support their cause if it meant spending money or doing anything that might inhibit the growth of business in our state. Dean's own father was a well-known figure on Wall Street, and he grew up among business people, in New York City and Long Island. He understands them well, and is genuinely in sympathy with their needs: not something one could say of George McGovern or most liberal Democrats.
Dean is, I think, a pragmatist without an obvious ideological bent. Trained as a physician, he studies a given situation, assesses the facts, and makes a diagnosis. As governor, he was remarkably decisive, even combative, willing to make cuts in healthcare and education to balance the budget. On the other hand, he strongly backed the idea of universal healthcare, and made sure that medical assistance for Vermont's children under the age of 18 was guaranteed - a real achievement. Famously, he supported the idea of civil unions for gay couples in Vermont, although he did so rather quietly, signing the act presented to him by the legislature behind closed doors. In a sense, this pragmatic governor simply went along with the majority opinion in Vermont, where a substantial gay population exists.
I woke up most mornings for a decade listening to Dean on the radio. He is a talker, and was quoted most mornings on Vermont Public Radio. He is, as most Americans have now gathered, a blunt fellow, prone to shoot from the lip. He often speaks before he thinks. But the good news is that, given a few moments, he can think.
It was, of course, Dean's unambiguous stand against the Iraq war that lifted him into the status of front-runner in the Democratic primaries. He has been able to focus the anger of his party faithful, who have found Bush's "preemptive" war intolerable. Yet it would be a grave mistake to think of Dean as a left-leaning pacifist of some kind. If anything, he is a warrior by nature. He says he would have invaded Afghanistan and attacked al-Qaida without getting waylaid by war in Iraq. As president, he would probably work closely with the UN, as he understands that this is the best way to cultivate American allies in Europe and elsewhere.
He would - as a pragmatist - work to change the conditions on the ground that have made terrorism a live option for so many desperate people, in the Middle East and elsewhere. On the question of Israel and the Palestinians, he says (and got himself into a great deal of trouble here for saying it) that he would be "even-handed". This would certainly mark a radical shift in American policy, which has lopsidedly supported the Israelis.
Dean is a passionate man by nature. Two years ago, I saw a good deal of him when our sons were playing high-school soccer together. He would hurl himself into the games, cheering on his son and the team. He is, I would guess, a fairly straightforward man: a tough, smart fellow with a lot of genuine compassion: he did, after all, choose medicine as a career, and only became governor when the previous one unexpectedly dropped dead from a heart attack. Dean, who was lieutenant governor then (not a full-time job in Vermont), was in his surgery when the call came. He very reluctantly left his busy medical practice behind to assume office.
An old friend of mine was Dean's lawyer and close personal adviser throughout his time as governor. We were having lunch shortly after Dean announced that he was running for president, and I asked him what he thought. "Howard will win," he said. "He is smarter than everybody else, he works harder than everybody else, and he's luckier than everybody else." My own experience of Dean is very much along these lines. He has a long road ahead of him, but he's well equipped for the journey, and he tends to succeed at whatever he attempts.
· Jay Parini, a poet and novelist, lives in Vermont. He is editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature.
He is the man most likely to challenge Bush when America goes to the polls, but so far Howard Dean has remained an obscure governor from a remote state. He's probably a typical granola-crunching, latte-sipping liberal, right? Not so, says Jay Parini, who has watched football with him
Monday January 12, 2004
The Guardian
The attention of the world has fastened mightily on Howard Dean, the man most likely to run for president against George Bush in November. I've been watching this drama unfold with fascination from the beginning, when Dean first entered the primary race about a year ago as a long-shot candidate. As an unknown former governor from Vermont, a remote state in rural New England, few observers in the national press took him seriously. Only a few months ago, I heard a television pundit mention his name as if it were some kind of joke. This man is not laughing now.
The primary elections begin in Iowa at the end of this month, and proceed quickly to New Hampshire, spreading around the nation rather quickly after that. By most reckonings, Dean is well positioned to win the nomination. In New Hampshire, the first major primary, the poles uniformly suggest that Dean is running way ahead of his nearest rival, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. If he wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, as he probably will, other primary victories will follow as night follows day. In a few months, everyone who follows American politics will know something about Dean.
What amazes me, however, is how obscure he remains at this point in the electoral process. Purveyors of opinion in the national press continue to brand him as a north-eastern liberal, an anti-war activist who will appeal mainly to white, well-educated, granola-crunching and latte-sipping liberals of the type who supported George McGovern in 1972 [McGovern lost by a huge margin to Nixon in the presidential race]. In recent weeks, the infamous McGovern comparison was raised once again by David Brooks, a regular columnist for the New York Times. It's a ridiculous notion, worth discarding as soon as possible.
I write this as a Vermonter who has known Dean personally (as an acquaintance) for many years. Several of my friends worked with him closely when he was governor, as members of his staff or advisers. Only a few weeks ago I had dinner with him and he brought up the McGovern comparison himself, drawing a chuckle from everywhere in the room. Dean is, let me tell you, no George McGovern. He is actually the furthest thing from a typical north-eastern liberal that can be imagined.
A few years ago, I was invited to speak (on the poetry of Robert Frost, believe it or not) to a convention of Vermont judges. I was, shall we say, the light entertainment before lunch. After lunch, Dean was giving a talk. As I was leaving the meeting, the governor came up to me with a grin. "I've just read your latest book of poems," he said. (A mutual friend had sent him a copy.) "You've obviously been reading Roethke." Of course, I was surprised that Dean had taken the trouble to read my poems; but that he rightly detected I had been reading the poetry of Theodore Roethke seemed, at the time, quite stunning.
It is worth recalling that Dean was elected governor of Vermont five times in a row - a tribute to his appeal in this largely rural state. Indeed, there are many more cows than people in Vermont, which has a population of just over half a million people. Pick-up trucks are the vehicle of choice around here, and deer hunting is immensely popular. Dean is popular with the hunters. Indeed, the National Rifle Association has bestowed upon him its highest rating. Every citizen, in Dean's view, has the right (if not the duty) to blow the back end off a buck or doe. Few liberal politicians in the US, I should note, have ever received such positive attention from the National Rifle Association.
During his years as governor, Dean was mainly known as a fierce budget cutter, a proponent of fiscal responsibility. I remember complaining loudly to friends that he was just a Republican in disguise. He balanced the state's budget year after year, even though Vermont does not require a balanced budget, as do many states. My friends in the environmental movement were often unhappy with Dean's refusals to support their cause if it meant spending money or doing anything that might inhibit the growth of business in our state. Dean's own father was a well-known figure on Wall Street, and he grew up among business people, in New York City and Long Island. He understands them well, and is genuinely in sympathy with their needs: not something one could say of George McGovern or most liberal Democrats.
Dean is, I think, a pragmatist without an obvious ideological bent. Trained as a physician, he studies a given situation, assesses the facts, and makes a diagnosis. As governor, he was remarkably decisive, even combative, willing to make cuts in healthcare and education to balance the budget. On the other hand, he strongly backed the idea of universal healthcare, and made sure that medical assistance for Vermont's children under the age of 18 was guaranteed - a real achievement. Famously, he supported the idea of civil unions for gay couples in Vermont, although he did so rather quietly, signing the act presented to him by the legislature behind closed doors. In a sense, this pragmatic governor simply went along with the majority opinion in Vermont, where a substantial gay population exists.
I woke up most mornings for a decade listening to Dean on the radio. He is a talker, and was quoted most mornings on Vermont Public Radio. He is, as most Americans have now gathered, a blunt fellow, prone to shoot from the lip. He often speaks before he thinks. But the good news is that, given a few moments, he can think.
It was, of course, Dean's unambiguous stand against the Iraq war that lifted him into the status of front-runner in the Democratic primaries. He has been able to focus the anger of his party faithful, who have found Bush's "preemptive" war intolerable. Yet it would be a grave mistake to think of Dean as a left-leaning pacifist of some kind. If anything, he is a warrior by nature. He says he would have invaded Afghanistan and attacked al-Qaida without getting waylaid by war in Iraq. As president, he would probably work closely with the UN, as he understands that this is the best way to cultivate American allies in Europe and elsewhere.
He would - as a pragmatist - work to change the conditions on the ground that have made terrorism a live option for so many desperate people, in the Middle East and elsewhere. On the question of Israel and the Palestinians, he says (and got himself into a great deal of trouble here for saying it) that he would be "even-handed". This would certainly mark a radical shift in American policy, which has lopsidedly supported the Israelis.
Dean is a passionate man by nature. Two years ago, I saw a good deal of him when our sons were playing high-school soccer together. He would hurl himself into the games, cheering on his son and the team. He is, I would guess, a fairly straightforward man: a tough, smart fellow with a lot of genuine compassion: he did, after all, choose medicine as a career, and only became governor when the previous one unexpectedly dropped dead from a heart attack. Dean, who was lieutenant governor then (not a full-time job in Vermont), was in his surgery when the call came. He very reluctantly left his busy medical practice behind to assume office.
An old friend of mine was Dean's lawyer and close personal adviser throughout his time as governor. We were having lunch shortly after Dean announced that he was running for president, and I asked him what he thought. "Howard will win," he said. "He is smarter than everybody else, he works harder than everybody else, and he's luckier than everybody else." My own experience of Dean is very much along these lines. He has a long road ahead of him, but he's well equipped for the journey, and he tends to succeed at whatever he attempts.
· Jay Parini, a poet and novelist, lives in Vermont. He is editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature.
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