Dean Faults Kerry, Kerry Focuses on Bush

By Dan Gorenstein on Monday, January 26, 2004.

In the final hours of campaigning, Howard Dean and John Kerry are looking for every vote they can get.

The former Vermont Governor is trying to distinguish himself from Kerry- the presumptive front runner.

For his part, the Massachusetts Senator is ignoring his rivals and has his sights locked on President Bush.

Each candidate made their case fully aware that many voters remain undecided.

New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein has more.

This morning in Nashua, Howard Dean painted himself as a political outsider, someone willing to ignore polls and take unpopular stands.

All week long, candidates gingerly characterized their opponents, careful not to go too negative.

But today, Dean took off the kid gloves, and took a shot at front-runner John Kerry for supporting the most recent war in Iraq.

TAPE
Where was John Kerry when George Bush was giving out all this misinformation about Saddam had something to do with al-Queda, he was voting in favor of the war, and it turns out, all the reasons the president was giving us were not true. Foreign policy expertise depends on patience and judgement, I question Senator Kerry?s judgment....

The critique is arguably the sharpest public comment Dean has uttered since Iowa.

Like a number of people in Nashua, Maureen Fowler went to the Dean event this morning undecided.

She was inclined to vote for him, but was just concerned about his electability.

After the speech, she says she?s convinced.

TAPE
It wasn?t what he said, it?s how he said everything. He is confiedent, and we need a change, and I think he is definitely different, and I think he can do it, b/c he?s committed.

Unlike Dean, this afternoon in Keene, Kerry didn?t see a need to contrast his record with Democrats.

The Massachusetts Senator compared himself to the incumbent Republican, President George Bush.

TAPE
The single most important ingredient of success in this war on terror is going to be global cooperation. The very thing this administration is worst at. This president has run the most inept, reckless, arrogant and ideological foreign policy in our nation?s history.

Kerry listed his accomplishments from his days as a Viet-Nam protester to his support for the Clean Air and Clean Water Act in the mid-1990?s.

The candidate impressed Keene resident Tim Murphy.

TAPE
:31 I think what Sen. Kerry had to say today about the environmental issues and the relationship between those issues globalization and international relations, well, that impressed me.

But even so, he?s not sold on Kerry yet.

Dean and North Carolina Senator John Edwards might still get his vote.

He says he?s going to do some serious thinking tonight.

Given the number of undecided voters, Murphy will probably not be alone.

For NHPR News, I?m DG.