The Note

W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 7&#151;<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):

—9:00 am: Sen. John Kerry appears live on New Hampshire Public Radio's "The Exchange," Concord, N.H.•9:45 am: Gov. Howard Dean attends a "Caucus for Change" pancake breakfast, Muscatine, Iowa—9:45 am: Off-camera press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan —11:00 am: Sen. John Edwards speaks about his plan to limit lobbyist influence, Des Moines, Iowa—11:00 am: Treasury Secretary John Snow delivers economic address, DC—12:00 pm: President Bush attends a Republican National Committee Luncheon, Washington, D.C.—12:00 pm: Sen. Kerry speaks about his Worker's Bill of Rights plan, Bedford, N.H.—12:00 pm: Gen. Wesley Clark hosts a "Conversations with Clark" at Peterborough Town House, Peterborough, N.H.—12:00 pm: Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun attends a candidate forum at the New England Community Action Association, Nashua, N.H.—12:30 pm: On-camera press briefing with Press Secretary McClellan—1:00 pm: New York Gov. George Pataki delivers the State of the State address, Albany, N.Y.—2:00 pm: Rep. Dennis Kucinich visits with the New Hampshire Community Action Association, Nashua, N.H.—2:30 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a town hall meeting at Timberland Company, Stratham, N.H.—2:45 pm: President Bush proposes new immigration rules, The White House—2:45 pm: Sen. Joe Lieberman delivers a major speech about the political center, Nashua, N.H.—3:00 pm: Rep. Richard Gephardt rallies with steelworkers, Georgetown, S.C.—3:00 pm: Rev. Al Sharpton meets with Dr. Mera White and GeB HeTep (per Jas), Washington, D.C.—3:15 pm: Rep. Kucinich visits a retirement center, Windham, N.H.—4:00 pm: Sen. Edwards hosts an open forum at Spartanburg Technical College, Spartanburg, S.C.—5:00 pm: Rep. Gephardt meets with local Democrats, Myrtle Beach, S.C.—5:00 pm: Rep. Kucinich attends New England College's Convention 2004, Manchester, N.H.—6:15 pm: Rep. Kucinich meets with New Hampshire Democratic Party leaders, Manchester, N.H.—7:00 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a chili feed, Merrimack, N.H.—7:00 pm: Gen. Clark hosts a "Conversations with Clark" at Fuller Elementary School, Keene, N.H.—7:00 pm: Sen. Lieberman attends a house party, Windham, N.H.—7:00 pm: Sen. Edwards meets with voters at Workman's Restaurant, Greenwood, S.C.—7:30 pm: Rep. Gephardt attends a "Countdown to Victory" with Woodbury County Democrats, Sergeant Bluff, Iowa—8:30 pm: Sen. Lieberman hosts a town hall meeting at Marion Gerrish Community Center, Derry, N.H

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NEWS SUMMARY

Your bullet points in this news cycle's efforts by the media-politico complex to take out Howard Dean — or, at least, to make this thing a race:

(Any similarities between abcnews.com's The Note and the deanforamerica blog are purely coincidental … ..)

Item 1: The Boston Globe 's puckish Scott Lehigh breathlessly writes this must-read lead: "A sense of skittishness about Howard Dean is beginning to stir in New Hampshire. Whether that doubt freshens to a gaffe-driven gust or is merely an evanescent breeze of unease remains to be seen, but creeping disquiet about Dean came up often in conversations with more than three-dozen voters on Friday and Monday." LINK

"Indeed, those misgivings were a regular reason voters who had been leaning toward Dean cited for coming to campaign events to evaluate US Senator John Kerry and retired General Wesley Clark."

"Some thought Dean has proved too prone to shoot from the lip. Others worry he has too short a fuse. A few specimens of that rarest of political species — strategic Democrats — have become convinced he just couldn't beat George W. Bush."

Now, to be sure, at this point Lehigh literally goes into a "to be sure" paragraph — making it clear that Dean's core supporters (40%?) aren't budging. Lehigh suggests that there now seems to be room for one of the other candidates to gather up undecideds and finish a strong enough second to claim the mantle of "Dean Alternative."

Item 2: There's a USA Today Gallup poll — screaming across the front page --that shows Wes Clark moving up within the margin of error of Dean nationally, giving The General's vast PR army a chance to reinforce a point as powerful as it may be prescient-- that Clark (with money in the bank and Katrina Swett in cold storage) is the most likely Dean Alternative.

And Dean's fav/unfav in that poll is going to freak out unalligned members of Congress.

Item 3: There are two new anti-Dean ads unfurling today.

One — airing in Iowa at what is claimed to be more than a token buy level — by the Club for Growth, displaying its Schumerian flair for PR.

Details on that spot are below, but the script belongs right here in the summary — and is sure to catch Gail Collins' eye.

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times write-up:

"The ad features a husband and wife and opens with an announcer asking, 'What do you think about Howard Dean's proposal to raise your taxes by $1,900 a year?'"

"The husband replies, 'Well, I think Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times -reading … '"

"The wife jumps in: 'Body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont where it belongs."

And a major candidate in the South Carolina Republican senatorial primary — Charlie Condon — is unveiling a spot today going after Dean on foreign policy.

Item 4: The Boston Globe has another enterprise piece on Dean's record that says "(a)s governor of Vermont, Howard Dean came under scrutiny for his administration's alleged failure to ensure that government contracts were doled out to the lowest bidders, with a 1993 auditor's report finding that no-contract bidding was widespread throughout state government." LINK

Item 5: The Globe also has a piece suggesting Dean's bandied-about tax cut pitch is most likely to be"a targeted income-tax reduction for families with children," rather than a payroll tax cut. But this one is Item 5 because you will laugh at the typical Burlington chaos and, uhm, free-wheeling processes that yield Dean campaign policy. LINK

Item 6: The New York Times ' Rachel Swarns, with a little back-up help from Ms. Wilgoren, writes of Joe Trippi's Tuesday bellow that Camps Kerry and Gephardt are teaming up to make "off the hook" a negative term once again.

Writes Swarns, "A senior adviser to Howard Dean accused two rival campaigns on Tuesday of harassing Dr. Dean's supporters here with a relentless flurry of telephone calls intended to disrupt his organizing strategy for the upcoming Iowa caucuses." Do Note David Wade's channeling of Chris Lehane and Erik Smith's use of the phrase "paranoid delusion."

(We leave it to sophisticated readers less polite than we are — and more inclined to have Trippi hurl profanity at them in the lobby of the Fort Des Moines than we are — to figure out why this story is Item 6.)

Item 7: Cub reporter Dave Broder, on the ground now for days and days in Iowa, says Dean is on parallel paths that could lead to "nomination or detonation," forcing Joe Lockhart to decide if he wants to swallow his '90s training and agree with Broder or not. LINKItem 8: The New York Times editorial board believes that whatever the public response to all the Dean-as-governor investigations, "Dr. Dean has certainly made things worse with his own actions" by choosing to seal his records as governor "longer than usual." LINKOther politica to focus on?

A. Yes, yes, yes — if Phil Gramm or Tom DeLay said what Senator Clinton said about Ghandi, the PC liberal media would swirl up and put a Lott of pressure on them to leave public life. We hereby agree that there is a double standard, and we wish there weren't. LINKAnd we hope that that satisfies Trent Duffy, Ron Bonjean, Terry Holt, and Mindy Tucker. But we don't think it will.

B. The most powerful person in politics, Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, helps the Los Angeles Times write-up this significant point:

"(A) study found that despite Dean's significant fundraising advantage among Democrats, he wasoutspent on TV advertising by three of his party rivals as 2003 ended

and the New Year began." LINK

"From Dec. 29 to Jan. 4, Dean spent about $480,000 for ads on broadcast channels in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Iowa. Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts spent $516,000 on TV advertising during the week; retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, $612,000; and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, $662,000. The figures do not include ads on cable television and in small broadcast markets. The figures, compiled for The Times by the Campaign Media Analysis Group, suggest that in the closing stretch of the campaigns in early-voting states, Dean's top rivals for the nomination are in position to compete on television with the front-runner."

"Their financial viability is something of a surprise, given the $40 million Dean raised in 2003, a one-year record for Democrats. Among the other major candidates, only Kerry collected more than $20 million."

C. ABC News Kerry campaign reporter Ed O'Keefe takes us behind the scenes of Kerry's seeming surge in Iowa, concluding that it reflects targeted appeals to women and Democrats, concentrated voter identification by Whouleyian/Norrisian forces, a tighter stump speech, and targeted labor support.

Even more, concludes O'Keefe, who has observed the Senator nearly every day for months, Kerry seems more comfortable and more driven — and that comes off to voters who see him. See all of O'Keefe's reporting in the Kerry campaign section, below.

D. A chance encounter between Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton, per ABC News's Beth Lloyd, who covers Sharpton: "When the Rev. Sharpton took the pulpit on Sunday at Savannah Grove Baptist Church in Effingham, S.C., he had no idea that Rev. Jackson was going to show up. About 15 minutes into Sharpton's fiery sermon, Jesse Jackson walked in the door. Reverend Jackson also had no clue that Sharpton would be there. Imagine their surprise."

"Sharpton told ABC News that the two men hadn't talked in months, so one could sense a bit of tension in the air. Sharpton said Reverend Jackson sat quietly down on stage behind the pulpit and listened to the sermon. Afterwards, according to Sharpton, Reverend Jackson took the pulpit for ten minutes and urged the congregation to get out the vote. The two men cordially shook hands afterwards but had no time for conversation. '"I was running late to the next church.'"

Sharpton said the media in South Carolina falsely reported that the two men were campaigning together — to his admitted amusement. "I bet the Dean folks were going crazy."

That last line, we'd Note, is a reference to the conclusion about many Democrats that a Jackson endorsement of Dean is inevitable, and coming soon.

E. Tonight "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" continues its special series "Who is … " with a personal look at General Wesley Clark. The piece, reported by Peter Jennings, includes the following exchange:

Peter Jennings:: Do you remember as a child when you first thought about the Army?

Gen. Clark: Somehow I had a nickel. And I don't know how I got, it was my first money. So I walked a mile to a variety store, and the only thing I bought with the nickel was a toy soldier. And he was like a plastic, rubber soldier like they had in 1950, he was a machine gunner. He was laying down like this, prone position, with a machine gun. And I walked home with that in my fist. And I had that little machine gunner for years. That's the first time I ever thought about the army.