I heard the Howard Dean interview on NPR's "All Things Considered" (it will replay in about 5 minutes if you can tune in; audio isn't available yet online but when it is it will be
here).
Three things from the interview:
First, Robert Siegel pulled no punches in the interview; he started with Iraq and kept at it and at it until I thought there was nothing left to ask about on Iraq. Dean's Iraq strategy is to pull out 100k of our guards and one division, replacing them with a multinational (preferably muslim) force. To convince muslim countries to do that, he said, he would open up bidding on contracts to all nations and send Bill Clinton to work on the I/P situation. Siegel asked if Dean and Clinton had talked about this, and, in a very cagey way, Dean said he and Clinton had been in discussions. Also, Siegel seemed surprised that Dean knew what he wanted, rather than just knowing what he'd ask his advisors. Dean said he already had consulted his advisors, that he had a strong team in place, and could deal with Iraq in a positive and constructive way.
Also, Dean pretty much came out and said that the reason we're so alone in our foreign policy is that Bush is a jerk to the world.
Finally, Dean telegraphed his election strategy--for the House! He said that his plan was to take back the House and maybe the Senate (we usually look at it the other way around!) by targetting 20 or so close districts with all the Deanista (my word, not his) energy and money. This is his plan now--a full year out from the election, and he's doing as much or more work planning a congressional strategy than the DCCC.
Immediately following the Dean interview, there was a report on the Iowa caucuses, following around a 21-year-old Gephardt volunteer. She listed her top choices in the race as Gephardt, Clark, and Edwards, and the reason she gave was that those three came from difficult situations, and made themselves. There was no privilege, she said, that Daddy bought for them. This may well have been a slam at born-on-third-base-and-thought-he-hit-a-triple Bush, but to me it sounded like the new anti-Dean slam (notice that Dean, who, policy-wise, is not far off from those three she named, was not on her list). Don't vote for Dean--he's just another rich kid. Yikes!