Dean: Bush Is 'Front-runner'

Dec. 23 -- Leading Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, in an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS' Reena Singh, called President Bush the "frontrunner" heading into 2004 but vowed to fight by building an army of energized grassroots supporters.

Singh spoke with the former Vermont governor Monday night in between campaign stops in New Hampshire. Here is a partial transcript of their conversation:

Facing a Strong Challenge

Singh: If you go into this election facing a president with a high approval rating, with the economy … turning around, and people still for the most part think[ing] he is doing OK with the war and … $200 million in his bank account, how do you fight that?"

Dean: Well, first of all, we think we're the only campaign that can match that $200 million. We're going to get 2 million people to give us $100 and I think there are probably 2 million people that would part with a one-way ticket to Crawford, Texas. Collectively we can do that. Secondly, I think that political campaigns are not just about saying whatever it takes to win, which is what most Washington folks like to do. I think political campaigns are about building a consensus for a different agenda. If you don't talk about the agenda you never get it. I think we can get it by laying out a positive agenda, by pointing out many of the things that the president has said and were not true. Perfect example: cutting off unemployment benefits for people who have run out of their unemployment during the week of Christmas. That's kind of the hallmark of what I see as the Bush administration philosophy about ordinary Americans. And I think there are a lot of people out there who agree with me.

Singh: In your last few speeches, you've talked about party building. If you do end up in the White House and you don't swing enough votes for Democratic candidates, where do you go from there?

Dean: We are planning on swinging enough Democrats to win seats in the Congress the way we tried to help [Iowa Democratic] Congressman [Leonard] Boswell. We asked our donors to support him and they did — $68,000 in 48 hours. We can raise money for marginal Congressional seats and we hope to pick up 12 seats. But if that doesn't work, I think we just go to the American people. If I win then there will be an agenda of health insurance, jobs and a foreign policy that makes this country the most respected nation in the world again. And I think people will want that agenda. And if the right wing of the Republican party blocks that agenda they will have to answer that in the following Congressional elections. And I have every confidence that they will answer for that.