For a few moments at least, Howard Dean had a little bit of momentum heading into the 2004 presidential primaries, thanks to some very promising early polling and his ability to raise the most money among Democratic candidates in the latter part of 2003. It also probably helped that Dean had been a candidate for what felt like an eternity to that point, effectively launching his campaign with an exploratory committee in 2002.
But any hope the populist Vermont governor had of becoming the nominee vanished pretty quick, especially after the infamous “Dean scream” that may have truly tanked his candidacy.
Did the Howard Dean Scream Really Lose Him the Election?
Dean initially polled very well in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire, as voters gravitated to his anti-Iraq War beliefs and, to some extent, his fiery brand of politics. But when it really mattered, Dean sputtered in the Iowa caucus, finishing in third and losing it to eventual Democratic nominee John Kerry.
Even then, Dean was dealing with a dysfunctional and disorganized campaign operation, but even as his team was unraveling, Dean did what any good politician would do, and he attempted to fire up his base at a rally in Des Moines. At this point, you know the rest of the story. “If you had told us one year ago that we were going to come in third in Iowa, we would’ve given anything for that,” Dean told the crowd, before whipping them into a frenzy by saying with increasing gusto, “Not only are we going to New Hampshire… we’re going to South Carolina, and Oklahoma, and Arizona, and Oklahoma, and New Mexico, and we’re going to California, and Texas and New York, and we’re going to South Dakota, and Oregon, and Washington, and Michigan, and then we’re going to Washington, DC to take back the White House. Hiyaaaaa!”
It sure whipped his supporters into a frenzy, but as we all know, that’s not the rest of the primary season would play out. And depending on who you ask, this moment – which was played 633 times on national news networks and cable channels – is ultimately what sunk the 2004 Dean campaign.
But more on that in a second. Here’s the infamous moment in all its glory:
Doing Some Damage Control on the Dean Scream
According to staffers, the crowd was extremely loud that night and Dean had to obviously yell over them, being caught up in the excitement of the moment himself (which, again, is an aspect you’d probably want in a candidate you support). The audio used over and over and over again on TV was from Dean’s own mic, which only picked up his voice and limited the background noise, amplifying Dean’s excited speech and allowing numerous commentators to distort the reality of the situation.
But no matter what the reasoning ultimately was from the Dean camp, it would appear the damage was done.
Given the state of American politics today, it seems ridiculous to think that a candidate showing a little emotion at a rally could sink an entire campaign, and in all honesty, it probably didn’t. After all, a third-place showing in Iowa didn’t exactly bode well, and Dean would follow that up with a second-place finish in New Hampshire, which would pretty much sink him before things even moved on to South Carolina.
But the “Dean scream” was an easy thing to point to, supposed evidence of a man whose fiery demeanor meant he had a temperament that belonged in the White House. Oh, how things have changed.