Analysts Question Dean's New Discussion of God
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106752,00.html
Friday, December 26, 2003
WASHINGTON — Presidential candidate Howard Dean has run for the Democratic nomination as one of the most aggressively secular candidates in recent presidential campaign history.
He has said almost nothing about his personal faith or how the role of religion or faith affects his perspectives of national issues. But that's about to change.
Dean, a member of the congregationist church whose wife and children are Jewish, now says he will talk more about Jesus Christ when he campaigns, but only in the south.
"Christ was someone who sought out people who were disenfranchised, people who were left behind," Dean told the Boston Globe in Christmas Day editions. "He fought against self-righteousness of people who had everything ... He was a person who set an extraordinary example that has lasted 2,000 years, which is pretty inspiring when you think about it."
Whereas some candidates, like Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, regularly discuss faith on the campaign trail, Dean has stayed away from it. Instead, he has said that Democrats cannot win the 2004 election if they fight in some parts of America on the Republicans' issue set. Specifically, he said that Democrats running for the presidency couldn't win in the south if they talked openly about three key issues.
"I'm tired of coming to the south and fighting elections on guns, God and gays. We're going to fight this election on our turf, which is going to be jobs, education and health care," he told a South Carolina rally in early December.
Democratic rivals not only disagree with Dean's attitude about how to win in the south, they also are critical of what they call Dean's contradictions about the role of religion in his life and in the campaign.
"Howard Dean can never get it straight," said Steve Murphy, campaign manager for Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt. "I mean, first, he said that, you know, that southerners shouldn't vote on guns, God and gays, and now he says he's going to use religion more. First, he said, you know, that he was going to be the candidate of people with confederate flag decals, and then he apologized for that. You never know what Howard Dean is going to say. If you don't like it, just wait a little while, he'll change it."
Religious faith has become one of the strongest indicators available of partisan political attitudes. According to a poll released last month from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 63 percent of voters who regularly attend religious services support Republicans, while 62 percent of voters who very rarely or never attend religious services support Democrats.
"The United States is, by far, of all the western democracies, the most religious country, in the sense of the number of people who answer polls with a belief in God and the number of people who attend church services," said former chairman of the Republican National Committee Mark Braden.
"If you look at the single biggest indicator of whether you voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in the last two elections or a Republican presidential candidate, it's regular church attendance. So there is a divide between the parties," he added.
Dean used to belong to the Episcopal Church, but left the faith in the early 1980s in a dispute over a bike path. Dean wanted the bike path built in Burlington, Vt., but the church he attended did not. Dean decided the conflict was too large to overcome.
Even recently, Dean's brushes with religion have been fraught with peril. Earlier this week, Dean earned the ire of Rev. Arthur Hilson of New Hope Baptist Church in Portsmouth, N.H. New Hope has been frequented by many political candidates, but Hilson took aim at Dean for visiting the church recently, but not coming to listen to the concerns of the congregation. Instead, he said, Dean dropped by the church to have a photo taken with the reverend and his wife for a feature in Newsweek Magazine. The article was about Dean seeking the southern African-American vote.
Dean's new religious dialogue may be targeted toward South Carolina, home of the first southern primary on Feb. 3. Among Democrats in South Carolina, African-Americans are expected to play a critical role in the primary. They are also among the most religious of Democrats, and according to the Pew Center, black Baptist and Protestant churchgoers represent the largest segment of the population that frequently attends services, but votes nearly 100 percent with Democrats.
"One important constituency for Democratic candidates are African American churches," said Democratic strategist and Fox News analyst Mary Ann Marsh. "African-American churches in South Carolina, African-American votes are crucial in that primary, and that's the difference between winning and losing."
Whatever Dean's strategy, analysts say his discussion of religion and faith must pass an authenticity test -- one they say Dean's discourse on religion has yet to do.
"It's not unusual for politicians to look at religious belief as a way to reach out to the electorate. But frankly, it only works if you're sincere, so the question of whether it will work for him or not is whether he is sincere," Braden said.
"If this is just a southern strategy ... it's a risky one. If it looks like it's contrived and calculating, it could backfire," Marsh said. "He has to be convincing. It has to look real and genuine and that remains to be seen."
Fox News' Major Garrett and Sharon Kehnemui contributed to this report.
I think Dean is flip-flopping more than a fish on the pier. And he's the darling of the bash Bush crowd!!!
And it gets better!
Dean Not Ready to Pronounce Bin Laden Guilty
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106758,00.html
Friday, December 26, 2003
CONCORD, N.H. — Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean says it's premature to recommend what penalty Usama bin Laden should face before he's been legally determined to be guilty of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Asked whether bin Laden should be tried in the United States and put to death, Dean told The Concord Monitor, "I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Usama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials."
In an interview with the New Hampshire newspaper for Friday editions, Dean added: "I'm sure that is the correct sentiment of most Americans, but I do think if you're running for president, or if you are president, it's best to say that the full range of penalties should be available. But it's not so great to prejudge the judicial system."
Calling Iraq "probably the best place" for Saddam Hussein to be tried, Dean said he is willing "to be flexible about that because I don't think it's essential to the security interests of the United States."
Dean said he plans to keep reminding Democrats that he, unlike his major rivals for the nomination, opposed the Iraq war, in spite of polls showing the vast majority of the American public supporting the invasion at the time.
Asked how he would persuade people who were not opposed to the war to vote for him instead of President Bush (search), Dean responded, "By going after him on terrorism, where he's really weak."
Dean questioned whether the Bush administration's use of force against Iraq had anything to do with Libya's announcement that it will scrap its programs for weapons of mass destruction