Interview on ABC Good Morning AmericaMay 13, 2003Well, you could call former Vermont Governor Howard Dean the stealth candidate. He's also a physician, by the way. And one of the nine contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. Some people say he's stirring up the debates, others say he put the candid in candidacy. graphics: the candidates howard dean DIANE SAWYER Early polls have showed him running strongly in New Hampshire, which holds the critical first primary in just eight months. Yeah, believe it or not, eight months from now. And he's in, New York this morning announcing a health care plan that would cover most of the 44 million Americans who don't have health insurance he says. And he joins us. DIANE SAWYER (CONTINUED) (Off Camera) And it's good to have you on the show. It's good to see you here. GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Thanks. Good to be on, Diane. Thanks. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) I just have to ask a political question right off the bat. As you know, you, nationwide you have single digit recognition. GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Sure. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) You look at George Bush up there on the carrier in his flight suit, what's the one word that describes what you think are the odds of your beating him? GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Pretty good. We've got, we've lost two and a half . . . DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) That's two words. GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Yeah. Okay, that's two. Good. How about that? It's better. We've lost two and a half million jobs in the private sector. We don't have health insurance after 50 years where almost every other country, industrial country in the world does have it. I think we could do a lot better than where we are today. Even homeland security. The Russians have a huge nuclear stockpile that we're not, we're supposed to be buying. We're not doing anything about it. Ninety eight percent of the cargo containers coming into the country uninspected. So, I think there's a reasonable chance, particularly if we focus on jobs and health insurance, as I am today. graphics: candidate statistics DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) All right. I want to ask you, and we can't go into the details of the health . . . GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Sure. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) insurance plan, but I know you have said you think yours will cost less than the others out there, what, 88 . . . GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Mm hmm. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) billion or so we're talking about. This is the question I have, though, people who would love to see universal health insurance nevertheless say, if you're gonna create something you, a monster you can't control, because . . . GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Not true. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) it's just gonna be too expensive no matter what you start out trying to do. GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN In Vermont, everybody under 18 has health insurance. All we did is build on the system we had in Vermont to cover everybody. We can do that fairly easily. I won't go into the details. But it's really simple. It's in the private sector. Nobody has to give up their doctor or change their insurance policy. It's not government run. And it's based on what we did in a small rural state, which is 26th in income in the country. We can do this for the whole country. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) I want to turn to the war, as well . . . GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Mm hmm. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) because that's what's caused such a, such a, well, it was fisticuffs practically, verbal fisticuffs in the debate with you and the other candidates. You were opposed to the war. You have said you think it's a wrong war at the wrong time. And I'm gonna just play one clip of one thing you say. And then ask about another phrase. GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Saddam was really not much of a threat to the United States, and had never been one. So, it may be that going, by getting rid of Saddam I've actually made things more dangerous for America. We'll have to find that out. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) Now, you have said not only that it may be more dangerous now, but the worst of the war is still to come. Seeing, but seeing the body bags we just saw in those pieces, seeing what the Iraqi people have talked about, the torture chambers, you really think they're worse off . . . GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN No. What I . . . DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) now? GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN . . . what, the question is, is the United States better off or not? There's no question that Saddam is a horrible person, I'm delighted that he's gone, and I think the military did a terrific job. But when you attack a country preventively, that's a problem unless you really are sure that they're a threat to you. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) But are the Iraqi people much better off today than they were before this war? GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Absolutely are they better off today. And the question is, what happens now? What happens now? Are we gonna have a Shiite Fundamentalist regime in the southern part of that country? If we do, then the American people are gonna be in more danger than they were before the war. graphics: candidate statistics DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) If we did, what would a President Dean do about it? GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN If we'd had a Shiite regime? DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) If, yeah. GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN We couldn't permit that. We couldn't permit that. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) Well, what would you do to prevent it? DIANE SAWYER (CONTINUED) Well, there are lots of things you would do and no American president nor presidential candidate should detail those, those possibilities beforehand. DIANE SAWYER (CONTINUED) (Off Camera) So you'd go to war again? GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN I didn't say that, and I would never say that. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) All right. Because it's morning and, and we gotta let everybody go, I've got to finish up with one final thing. I want to turn again to the debates, George Stephanopoulos hosted them. We saw you during those debates, multiple expressions of, what were they here? GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN I actually haven't seen this yet so. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) You haven't seen this? GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN No. DIANE SAWYER (Voice Over) If we run your expressions by here, we just run clips of you. You were, you were not a happy man. Much of the debate was spent looking at Senator John Carrie, and the two of you having at it. Now, a spokesman for John Carrie says he was surprised at how dirty this has gotten so fast. GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Well, I, I don't think this is about John Carrie or me, I think it's about taking back an America where we want jobs, we want health insurance for people. We, we wanna stop using words like quotas, the president did to describe affirmative action, which is, you know, a racially divisive term. I think we can do better than what we were, what we're doing now. And I want to take this country back. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) Again, Dr. Howard Dean, former Governor Howard Dean. As I say, when he enters the room, everybody says, oh, what's gonna happen now? It's good to have you with us. You're announcing your health care plan today. We'll follow it closely today. Thanks. GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN Thanks. DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) Robin, over to you… Copyright 2003 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. ABC News Transcripts
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