Nation-Building >> Vermont Democrat pulls no punches | return to front page

By Larissa Mulkern

PORTSMOUTH - Turnout was unexpectedly robust at an early morning reception on Friday for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean; an estimated 150 people stood elbow to elbow in the lobby at Harbour Place punctuating points of the candidate’s speech with thunderous applause.

"This is unbelievable; this is 7:30 in the morning, never mind Good Friday morning - on any morning - I really appreciate you coming," Dean told the crowd. Later at an editorial board meeting with the Portsmouth Herald, he said he was "shocked" at the turnout. He’s been so busy pressing the flesh on the campaign trail, he said, that his hand is partly bandaged.

The five-term former governor of Vermont campaigned in the Seacoast on Friday at stops in Portsmouth, at the University of New Hampshire, and in Exeter at the RiverWoods elderly housing community. To date, his campaign has raised $2.9 million and operates with 14,000 supporters networked on www.meetup.com. The first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary, scheduled for Jan. 27, 2004, is less than a year away.

Dean wasted no time in getting at the issues that separate him most from Republican President George Bush: foreign policy and the economy.

"Most of you know I’ve been very outspoken in support of our troops but very outspoken against the president’s foreign policy," he said.

"The reason I’m running for president is frankly this country is in really serious trouble. There are two things you can’t get wrong if you’re the president ... for the sake of the future of the country. One is foreign policy and another is economic policy.

"The president has done a remarkable job with the economy ... he’s managed to turn the largest surplus in the history of the country into the largest deficit in only two years. We’ve lost 2 million jobs, 141,000 in the month of March; we are not better off than we were four years ago, and we need a change," he said. He joked that instead of waging war against Saddam Hussein, Bush should have sent his economic advisers to ruin the country.