The Note

ByABC News
December 4, 2003, 9:44 AM

W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 3&#151;<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):

9:00 am: Gen. Wesley Clark discusses childhood education, Rochester Child Center, Rochester, N.H. 10:30 am: RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie addresses Plymouth High School students and speaks to the media, Plymouth, N.H.10:40 am: President Bush signs the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, D.C.12:30 pm: Chairman Gillespie speaks at a luncheon for the Vesta Roy Excellence in Public Service Series, Concord, N.H.12:30 pm: Sen. John Edwards meets with Shelby County Democratic activists, Harlan, Iowa 12:30 pm: Sen. Joe Lieberman unveils a family-related policy proposal, Manchester, N.H. 12:30 pm: Rep. Dennis Kucinich attends a luncheon with supporters, Houston 1:00 pm: Gen. Clark meets with supporters, Portland, Maine 1:30 pm: Chairman Gillespie holds a press conference about the New Hampshire primary, Concord, N.H. 1:45 pm: Sen. Edwards meets with Audobon County Democratic activists, Audobon, Iowa 2:00 pm: Sen. John Kerry speaks and takes questions at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York City2:10 pm: President Bush signs the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, White House3:00 pm: Sen. Edwards meets with Cass County Democratic activists, Atlantic, Iowa 3:15 pm: Sen. Lieberman attends town hall meeting, New England College, Henniker, N.H. 3:30 pm: Rep. Kucinich speaks to college journalists, Houston 4:30 pm: Sen. Edwards meets with Adair County Democratic activists, Greenfield, Iowa 4:45 pm: Rep. Kucinich attends a rally and speaks to the press, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Houston5:30 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a fundraiser at Jean-Luc, New York City5:45 pm: Sen. Edwards meets with Guthrie County Democratic activists, Guthrie Center, Iowa 6:00 pm: Sen. Lieberman attends town hall meeting, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. 6:00 pm: Rep. Kucinich attends reception and speaks to the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, Houston6:15 pm: Gen. Clark attends a house party, Exeter, N.H. 6:30 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a fundraiser at a private residence, New York, N.Y. 7:00 pm: Chairman Gillespie gives a speech titled "A Preview to the 2004 Elections," St. Anselm's College Institute of Politics, Goffstown, N.H.7:30 pm: Gen. Clark speaks with members of the community at Philips Exeter Academy, N.H. 8:00 pm: Sen. Edwards speaks as part of Iowa State University's Presidential Caucus Lecture Series, Ames, Iowa 8:00 pm: Rep. Kucinich dines with supporters, Mykonos Restaurant, Houston9:00 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a fundraiser at a private residence with Al Franken and Rep. Harold Ford, Jr., New York City

NEWS SUMMARY

As President Bush gets ready to sign Medicare reform into law on Monday, anticipates Friday's employment figures, faces another EPA flap over mercury rules, and grapples with the jaws of steel, the Democrats who want his job and the political press continue to tangle with Howard Brush Dean.

From Walter Shapiro to Rush Limbaugh to John Harris' brother-in-law to the Boston Globe to Zach Jones from fundraising, to sealed records, to candidate-on-candidate contact it's another day dominated by The Former Governor of a Small, Rural State.

Just today, Joe Lieberman has a new plan for paid family leave; John Edwards is trying to limit the role of special interests; John Kerry goes into the world's stuffiest room to lay out (again) his foreign policy vision; Wes Clark does early childhood development; Dick Gephardt basks in the glory of a major boffo "Tonight Show" appearance during which he looked relaxed and presidential; and more.

But scan the papers and the strategies, and (trot out that Baltimorean Classic yet again), it's Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean.

And leading up to this Tuesday's Dust-up in Durham the year's final debate among the Democratic presidential candidates, at 7 pm ET in Durham, N.H. and featured on that night's Nightline on ABC and airing live on WMUR in the Granite State and on C-SPAN the questions about what can stop Dean's momentum remain as big and bold and unanswerable as they have always been.

While Ron Fournier offers his must-read take on the Feb. 3 contests, LINK, let's face it: New Hampshire will do much more than any other state to determine the nominee because of the political press' obsession with process and winnowing and tradition.

The Note has long opposed the determinative "X-must-exceed-expectations in a particular state" standard, or asking candidates who don't do well in New Hampshire only different variations of the same one question ("When are you getting out of the race?").

But having a waged a two-year campaign to get Ron Faucheux, Charlie Cook, Larry Sabato, David Yepsen, and every academic and political consultant under the sun to stop perpetuating this culture that deprives later-voting states from having a say in the determination of the major party nominees, we give up.

We vowed that if we couldn't win this fight by December 1 of 2003, we would surrender so this is our white flag.

So while "stopping" Howard Dean in Iowa is important to keeping him from the nomination, stopping him in New Hampshire is vital.

(And, yes, Burlington, we realize you will raise $100,000 on the web on that last sentence alone there's nothing we can do about that.)

As Walter Shapiro brilliantly points out today in a USA Today total must-read, the "Dean conundrum" has him as "a front-runner with many vulnerabilities but no obvious Achilles heel." LINK

Nothing (nothing beyond sluggish fundraising ) has so annoyed the other Democratic campaigns than the seeming free ride Dean has gotten on a range of issues large and small.

Part of this has been based on the failure of the press corps to hold Dean to a standard befitting the front runner (or, in fact, befitting any serious candidate).

Part of it is the rejection by Dean's core supporters of the normal rules of the fallout from political gaffes and inconsistency. And that is the part that most scares Dean's opponents, because while the first part will likely change by January, the second might NEVER change.

In fact, the January attacks might counter-intuitively make Dean stronger, as his supporters rally against the Establishment and the media with hard work and donations.

(Yes, another $100,000.)

Just consider the last 24 hours:

A. Dean's stammering, inconsistent, error-filled performance in Iowa regarding what he will do (and has done) about his sealed records barely made it to even cable TV, although the newspaper accounts even from the ultra-fair Dan Balz are dripping with skepticism. LINK And the Wilmington Star hits him for it too. LINK

B. Michael O'Hanlon's must-read Wall Street Journal op-ed on Dean's Iraq position is spot on regarding Dean's pre-war rhetoric both inconsistent and flawed although his characterization of Dean's views on the $87 billion is a bit off base.

C. Mark Jurkowitz's inside-the-Hardball-production Boston Globe piece is awesome for its media tick tock (Who knew Phil Griffin was the second coming of Don Hewitt?), but it also lays bare some of Dean's more absurd answers from Monday's show. LINK

D. As Rush Limbaugh and at least one Democratic campaign have pointed out, Dean's present-tense usage of "Soviet Union" in that Hardball appearance would not have been tolerated by the media if George Bush or John Kerry had done it.

E. Variety looks at Dean's somewhat wild statements about media ownership from the same appearance.

F. The Boston Globe 's Scott Lehigh has a must-read column on Dean's absolute hypocrisy, dissembling, and hedging regarding not adhering voluntarily to the state spending caps:

" what we have here is Dean using the reaction to his own decision to justify a possible further violation of the spirit of fair primary play .If the Vermonter does spend more than the Iowa cap, as seems likely, we'll have learned something important about him .Namely, he's not really a no-nonsense country doctor. He just plays one on TV." LINK

And yet, look no further than the same Boston Globe edition to find out that the Walter Shapiro worldview on this holds sway for now:

Eileen McNamara's must-read trip with Dr. Dean to a Wolfeboro, New Hampshire event is so over-the-top glowing it could go straight on the deanforamerica blog, but it also captures quite nicely how and why Dean does a better job connecting with audiences than anyone else running. LINK

And the hard-working Brian Mooney chronicles how tough the money raising slog is this month for Gephardt and Kerry. LINK

In addition, while most of the other eight candidates rarely miss an opportunity to attack Dean, they are also spending a lot of their time attacking each other, to try to make sure that no one else can emerge as the Dean Alternative nationally or in a key state.

And, of course, as Howie Kurtz cleverly suggests today, every moment spent attacking someone BESIDES Dean gives The Doctor something of a breather. LINK

Konichi wa, General Clark.

All this makes the Dust-up in Durham the year's final debate that will set the table for the January Madness exceedingly important.

If you don't believe us, ask the people of New Hampshire, who are already getting excited about WMUR's extensive pre-debate coverage; the people of the University of New Hampshire, who are way nice; and the nation's major news organizations, who are already engaged in war-gaming about how they plan to cover what by any objective standard amounts to the Super Bowl of Democratic presidential debates.

Of course, the ABC News name will need to be, per usual, pristine, going into this event, representing the highest journalistic standards, and thus we must finish off today's summary with a longish look at what amount to a weeks' worth (and it is only Wednesday!!!) of CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFCATIONS.

Don't read anything into the order we put them in; each error is like a dagger to our hearts.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

1. In some editions of Monday's Note clip 'n' save, we cited a list of political factors that will be key over the next few weeks, and in the third paragraph we wrote this:

"In parentheses after each item, we list those people who should be Noting more carefully what's going on out there; in brackets are those who are already paying quite a bit of attention."

Seemed pretty straight-forward to us.

But not since the Jim Jordan memo have we had such a clear and chilling window into the, uhm, reading comprehension abilities of at least some of our readers.

Apparently, this part caused a mini-stir:

"Watch the quiet (and not so quiet) battle between those Democratic elected officials/super delegates who move towards public support of Howard Dean and those who implicitly or explicitly join the Stop Dean movement."

"John Breaux's shot across the Burlington bow on "This Week" yesterday was not the first time you will hear anti-Dean boogeyman stuff like that, and Gina Glantz isn't the last person getting on the Dean bandwagon. in fact, some intriguing B-I-G names have already secretly signed up. (Daschle; Teresa Vilmain; Steve Rosenthal) [Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman, Tom Davis, Tom Reynolds]"

Did this mean that Daschle, Vilmain, and Rosenthal are secretly supporting Dean? NO. It meant that they should be paying more attention than they are to the people who ARE secretly signed up and what it might mean to them.

THUS: TOM DASCHLE, TERESA VILMAIN, AND STEVE ROSENTHAL ARE TO OUR KNOWLEDGE REMAINING SCRUPULOUSLY NEUTRAL IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION BATTLE.

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2. Another mistake that The Note made yesterday wasn't severe enough to cause chaos in the Democratic Party or a rupture in the space-time continuum, but it did damage our comedic flux capacitors enough that we must correct ourselves.

Thanks go to Jeremy Cluchey, a fellow at the Partnership for Public Service in D.C., for pointing out to us that it was in fact George McFly, and not Marty McFly, who had the "destiny" line in the original "Back to the Future."

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3. Also yesterday, we cited an opinion piece in the Yale Daily News by student Zach Jones about Howard Dean's alleged vulnerabilities as a general election candidate.