The 2004 presidential campaign of Howard Dean, 79th Governor of Vermont, began when he formed an exploratory committee to evaluate a presidential election campaign on May 31, 2002. Dean then formally announced his intention to compete in the 2004 Democratic primaries to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for President on June 23, 2003. Dean dropped out of the race in February 2004 after a poor showing in the Wisconsin primary which was further impacted by his I Have A Scream speech.
Announcement
Dean officially announced his candidacy on June 23, 2003, at a rally in his home state of Vermont, overlooking the Church Street Marketplace, in the heart of Burlington (Vermont's largest city). During his announcement speech, Dean stressed the importance of universal health care, and fiscal responsibility.
Fundraising In the "Invisible Primary" of raising campaign funds, Howard Dean led the Democratic pack in the early stages of the 2004 campaign. Among the candidates, he ranked first in total raised ($25.4 million as of September 30, 2003) and first in cash-on-hand ($12.4 million). However, even this performance paled next to that of George W. Bush, who by that date had raised $84.6 million for the Republican primary campaign, in which he had no strong challenger. Prior to the 2004 primary season, the Democratic record for most money raised in one quarter by a primary candidate was held by Bill Clinton in 1995, raising $10.3 million during a campaign in which he had no primary opponent. In the third quarter of 2003, the Dean campaign raised $14.8 million, shattering Clinton's record. All told, Dean's campaign raised around $50 million.
While presidential campaigns have traditionally obtained finance by tapping wealthy, established political donors, Dean's funds came largely in small donations over the Internet; the average overall donation was just under $80. This method of fundraising offered several important advantages over traditional fundraising, in addition to the inherent media interest in what was then a novelty. First, raising money on the Internet was relatively inexpensive, compared to conventional methods such as events, telemarketing, and direct mail campaigns. Secondly, as donors on average contributed far less than the legal limit ($2,000 per person), the campaign could continue to re-solicit them throughout the election season.
Dean's director of grassroots fundraising, Larry Biddle, came up with the idea of the popular fundraising "bat", an image of a cartoon baseball player and bat which appeared on the site every time the campaign launched a fundraising challenge. The bat encouraged Web site visitors to contribute money immediately through their credit cards. This would lead to the bat filling up like a thermometer with the red color indicating the total funds. The site often took suggestions from the netroots on their blog. One of these suggestions led to one of the campaign's biggest accomplishments– an image of Dean eating a turkey sandwich encouraged supporters to donate $250,000 in three days to match a big-donor dinner by Vice President Dick Cheney. The online contributions from that day matched what Cheney made from his fundraiser.
In November 2003, after a much-publicized online vote among his followers, Dean became the first Democrat to forgo federal matching funds (and the spending limits that go with them) since the system was established in 1974. (John Kerry later followed his lead.) In addition to state-by-state spending limits for the primaries, the system limits a candidate to spending only $44.6 million until the Democratic National Convention in July, which sum would almost certainly run out soon after the early primary season. (George W. Bush declined federal matching funds in 2000 and did so again for the 2004 campaign.)
In a sign that the Dean campaign was starting to think beyond the primaries, they began in late 2003 to speak of a "$100 revolution" in which two million Americans would give $100 in order to compete with Bush.
Political commentators have stated that the fundraising of Barack Obama, with its emphasis on small donors and the internet, refined and built upon the model that Dean's campaign pioneered.
Positions
Health care A former medical doctor, Dean called for comprehensive universal health care in the US. He proposed an annual $88 billion on health care programs in the nation as well as wanting tax credits to help workers of moderate income buy "affordable" coverage similar to that offered to federal employees, with extra insurance subsidies for companies employing less than 50 people. He also proposed spending nearly $1 trillion over 10 years on health insurance. He even stressed the need for expanding state health care programs for children throughout his campaign.
Education Dean opposed using taxpayer-financed vouchers for tuition at parochial or other private schools, and promised to rework federal annual testing in grades 3 through 8 while allowing for more state and local control. He also guaranteed that people would not have to pay more than 10% of their income toward loans after post-secondary graduation as he would provide $10,000 a year in federal aid for university or high-skills learning.
Economy and taxes Dean proposed a radically different tax plan than President Bush's which would repeal all of the Bush tax cuts and replace them with tax cuts on the middle class. Throughout his campaign, he stressed the need for lowering taxes on the middle class while raising them on the upper class. He also promised to renegotiate components of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other free trade agreements with foreign powers, and to "put the U.S. on a path to a balanced budget". However, he never specifically stated any deficit reduction proposals other than repealing the Bush tax cuts.
Foreign policy With the guidance of his chief foreign policy advisor, Danny Sebright, Dean made the war in Iraq a pillar of his campaign.Kornblut, Anne E. "Foreign policy adviser puts aside early disagreement with Dean over Iraq" The Boston Globe 2 November 2003. He proposed to transfer sovereignty to "credible and legitimate" Iraqi leaders and "encourage the United Nations to take responsibility for this political transition." He also expressed strong support for the War in Afghanistan, saying "One priority should be strengthening our bonds with other countries, especially our historical allies in a world growing ever more interdependent."
Dean also supported opening talks with North Korea, tripling American financing to $30 billion over 10 years to combat unconventional weapons around the world, and approving the use of force to halt genocide.
Endorsements
Dean quickly rose above his outsider image, "topping all his rivals in every measure of a successful candidate – money, organization, momentum, polls, and endorsements". He received a particularly powerful boost when two of the country's largest labor unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), simultaneously endorsed him in November 2003.
On December 9, 2003, former Vice President Al Gore endorsed Dean for the nomination. Speaking in Harlem, the Democratic Party's previous nominee said, "I'm very proud and honored to endorse Howard Dean to be the next president of the United States of America ... In a field of great candidates, one candidate clearly now stands out, and so I'm asking all of you to join in this grassroots movement to elect Howard Dean." Gore's endorsement was highly coveted, and CNN reported that it "could cement Dean's status as the leading Democratic candidate heading into the kickoff contests now just weeks away in Iowa and New Hampshire."
Less than a month later, Bill Bradley – a popular former U.S. Senator from New Jersey and Gore's challenger in the 2000 primaries – also endorsed Dean. Within days he was joined by Iowa's junior U.S. Senator, Tom Harkin. A previous presidential candidate himself, Harkin enthusiastically promoted Dean as "the Harry Truman of our time ... the kind of plainspoken Democrat we need". Coming just ten days before the Iowa caucuses on January 19, Harkin's support was considered "a key boost to the embattled front-runner".
Another high-profile endorsement followed five days after Harkin's. Former U.S. Senator and ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, whose own presidential candidacy had been endorsed by the National Organization for Women, shut down her struggling campaign and gave her support to Dean.
Results Dean finished third or lower in most nominating contests throughout the primary season. The exceptions were New Hampshire, Michigan, Washington, Maine and Vermont.
Iowa and the "Dean scream"
Polling throughout the primary campaign consistently showed Dean either in first place, or second behind Dick Gephardt. However, last minute surges by rivals John Kerry and John Edwards as well as negative campaigning between the Dean and Gephardt campaigns resulted in an 11th hour slump for both campaigns. In a poll released by the Des Moines Register just before Caucus Day, Dean registered in third place with 20%, behind Kerry with 26%, and Edwards with 23%, but ahead of Dick Gephardt with 18%. Throughout Caucus night, Dean was in a fight with Gephardt for third place in Iowa behind Kerry and Edwards. With 100% of precincts reporting, Kerry received 38%, Edwards received 32%, and Dean came in third with 18% while Gephardt finished in fourth with just 11% of caucus support. Dean's public address that night was widely rebroadcast and portrayed as a media gaffe that ended his campaign.
Dean, who had been suffering with a severe bout of the flu for several days, attended a post-caucus rally for his volunteers at the Val-Air Ballroom in West Des Moines, Iowa and delivered his concession speech, aimed at cheering up those in attendance. Dean was shouting over the cheers of his enthusiastic audience, but the crowd noise was being filtered out by his unidirectional microphone, leaving only his full-throated exhortations audible to the television viewers. To those at home, he seemed to raise his voice out of sheer emotion.
According to a Newsday editorial written by Verne Gay, some members of the television audience criticized the speech as loud, peculiar, and unpresidential.Verne Gay, Seattle Times, "Dean's theatrics draw mixed reviews", January 21, 2004. Retrieved November 27, 2006. In particular, this quote from the speech was aired repeatedly in the days following the caucus:
Senator Harkin was on stage with Dean, holding his suit jacket. This final "Yeah!" with its unusual tone that Dean later said was due to the cracking of his hoarse voice, has become known in American political jargon as the "Dean Scream" or the "I Have A Scream" speech. Comedians and late-night comedy show hosts such as Dave Chappelle and Conan O'Brien satirized, mocked, and popularized the sound bite, beginning a media onslaught that many believe contributed immensely to his poor showing in the subsequent races.