In the wake of Howard Dean's plunge in polls following his third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and animated concession speech afterward, many New Hampshire residents are rethinking their vote in Tuesday's primary. But across the Connecticut River in Dean's home state, Vermonters see a different Dean than the rest of the nation, although opinion is clearly split.
Dean frequently brings up his record as Vermont governor, which included taking the state from deficit into surplus, signing a bill recognizing civil unions, rearranging education funding and extending health insurance to most children in the state. Dean never lost an election in the state and won his last term by a 13-point margin.
With regard to the national media frenzy over Dean's red-faced Iowa speech, Dean himself has admitted that his mouth and heart sometimes outpace his thoughts. Nick Scheu of Woodstock has seen this at work in Vermont before. Scheu said, however, that he doesn't mind Dean's penchant for offering his mind before thinking things through, and that he would vote for Dean if he could.
Scheu explained last week's speech as a case of fatigue.
"He was probably really exhausted," Scheu said. "Here's this guy on the top of the hill and he lost and he let him get away from himself."
Dean's positions and record make it difficult to label the former governor.
On one side, he has been the most vociferous opponent of the Iraq conflict of the mainstream candidates. He signed a civil unions bill into law in Vermont and raised taxes to increase education funding -- positions that support his claim to be from the "Democratic wing of the Democratic party."
But on the other side, he received a glowing rating from the National Rifle Association, an honor usually bestowed upon conservative Republicans.
Some Vermonters see his positions as consistently liberal and honest, while a minority disagree and distrust Dean. Oliver Goodenough, a professor at the University of Vermont, and his wife Alison Clarkson count themselves as strong Dean supporters.
Although they admit that Dean has perhaps swung towards the left with regard to trade policy and other issues, they have always seen Dean as a moderate in some ways and a liberal in others. Goodenough and Clarkson also point to the difference in culture between Vermont, New Hampshire and the rest of the nation.
"I think what plays as moderate in Vermont may seem to the rest of the world more liberal," Clarkson said. "What we view moderate, South Carolina may view as out there."
Hunter Melville, a web publisher from South Woodstock and a self-identified libertarian, said Dean was aided immensely from the state's left-leaning press. He singled out Vermont's Act 60, which rearranged the state property tax/education funding using a complicated formula that amounted to a spike in property taxes in richer parts of the state to pay for poorer districts. Unlike civil unions or Dean's health care resume, the former governor does not promote Act 60 on the stump.
"He is amazingly chameleon-like, able to appear conservative or liberal at will," Melville said. "Once he took his pitch national, he stepped from the darkness to the bright light of free and unbiased review, and he couldn't take it."
John Clar, a lawyer-turned-farmer from Barton, also said he does not trust his former governor, and added that he faulted Dean from the left for not protecting the environment enough.
"Dean tries to paint himself as a different kind of politician, but in truth he's no better than Bush," he said.
