Howard Dean's campaign got a blast of good news, as Iowa Senator and failed 1992 Democratic Presidential candidate Tom Harkin endorsed Dean during a press conference Friday. The announcement was held with Harkin in Des Moines and Dean still in New Hampshire, leading many to believe it may have been hurried in an effort to drown out NBC's recent airing of an interview Dean gave four years ago in which he said that the Iowa caucus was "dominated by special interests."Dean's main political rival in Iowa, Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Missouri), had this to say about Dean's interview:
"Who does he think the special interests are? . . . Is it the farmers? Is it the labor union members? Is it the senior citizens?"
In a word: YES
Unfortunately, what with Dean running in Iowa, he's had to back off of this ultimately truthful statement.
In more campaign news, Dean has taken a literal effort at attracted the NASCAR dad vote -- by actually sponsoring a Busch series (racing's junior circuit) race car. (You're going to have to scroll down about sixteen or seventeen bullet points on this page to view this news item. Sorry.) According to this Fox News report, John Edwards (D - NC) has already employed this tactic during his past Senate campaigns. No word yet as to whether the Dean car will have a Confederate flag painted on the roof.
One last endorsement note (do we spend too much time discussing endorsements as compared to their overall effect on voters?), Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley endorsed Dean back in December. Maybe I'm the only one who missed this, but I thought I'd share it anyway.
Tony
