Larry King LiveJanuary 27, 2004BYLINE: Larry King, Wolf Blitzer HIGHLIGHT: Results of New Hampshire primary announced. BODY: KING: Thank you, Wolf Blitzer. We can now check in with Governor Howard Dean of Vermont. Governor, are you with us? HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I am, Larry. How are you? KING: I'm fine. Last week, you were so calm on this show and then so different in your speech. Did something happen in that hour in between? DEAN: Well, I do get people riled up, if I want to. I had 3,600 kids show up in Iowa to help me. I thought I owed them a pep talk afterward. We were a little disappointed that we came in third. But I don't think I'll be making a speech like that again tonight. KING: How do you feel tonight? DEAN: Good. You know, we came in a solid second, it looks like. And I think that's good, And we needed a recovery from the performance in Iowa. I think we did what we needed to do, and I'm very pleased. And now it looks like this is going to end up being a discussion about how much change we want in Washington. I think we need a lot of change. I think it's going to be-I think the only way to beat George Bush is to have somebody from outside Washington come down and do something for ordinary American working families again. And I don't see that happening with folks from inside Washington. But the Democratic voters have spoken in New Hampshire. And I always liked this part of the process, to be honest with you, because the great part of the country: The voters get the final say, not us. KING: How did you lose that big lead you had a month ago in this state? DEAN: Well, it was Iowa that did it. The Iowa bounce is real. It makes a difference. I was pleased to recover. We were even further behind when I came back from Iowa. You know, we had been knocked down pretty hard by everybody while we were the front-runner. And we're not the front-runner anymore, but I'm still determined to change the country. And we've got a lot of people out there who want real change in America. KING: Bob Woodward, do you have a question for Governor Dean? WOODWARD: Yes, Governor, as you traveled around New Hampshire, how about the war issue, the Iraq war issue? What were you hearing from people? A lot of polling suggests that that is no longer the big issue. Did you sense that? DEAN: I think that's true. I think the significance of the war issue for me is that I was willing to stand up against the war when nobody else was. That's kind of my trademark, standing up for what I think's right and not always what's popular. So, the war, I agree, was not the most popular issue. I never thought it would be. I always thought that jobs and health insurance for families was going to be the biggest deal in the election. I think it is. KING: Wolf Blitzer, you have a question for the governor? BLITZER: Thank you, Larry. Governor, I think I heard you take somewhat of a little swipe at John Kerry when you suggested that people may be interested in getting someone from outside Washington, not from inside Washington. Did you intend to take a little swipe at John Kerry? DEAN: I don't think that's a swipe at anybody. Everybody I'm running against, at this point, is from inside Washington. I'm not. That's just a fact. There are two different kinds of candidates. I'm a governor. I have balanced budgets. I've delivered health insurance to people. Senators do different things. And I don't think we ought to say that's a swipe. I think that's a difference of-in our careers. KING: Where, Governor, do you go from here? Where do you go tomorrow? DEAN: Tomorrow is actually home for a day of campaigning by satellite, into 12 states, and then off to Michigan and South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, and so forth and so on. KING: What are the prospects in Missouri, which will send the most delegates next Tuesday? DEAN: Actually we're going to be going there as well, I think on Friday. You know, Missouri is an important state. We have a nice organization in Kansas City, a good organization in St. Louis, just because of all the ordinary grassroots people that have put their folks together. I've been doing a little campaigning by satellite into Missouri over the past couple of weeks, so I think we ought to do reasonably well there. KING: Do you have to do-do have you to win two or three states next week? Logically? DEAN: No, all we have to do is keep the support, the enormous support of the grassroots behind us. We've raised a lot of money this week over the Internet, more than has been reported than the other candidates. We intend to change this country. We're not in this just to change presidents; we want to change America. I want to give America back to ordinary working families again from a power structure in Washington that's really taken it from them. George Bush thinks corporations are more important than people; I don't. And we're going to change this country one way or the other. KING: So you would not call yourself disappointed tonight? DEAN: You know, you'd always like to win. We always play to win in every single state. We know we can't win every one, but we always try to win every one. So until we do win, we'll always be a little disappointed. But I'm very proud of Karen Hicks and her incredible crew in New Hampshire. They worked very, very hard for a long, long time. And we're going to put some of those people on the road so we can win some other states. KING: Thank you, Governor. Governor Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont... DEAN: Thanks, Larry. KING: ... running second tonight, a strong second, trailing by a little over 10 percent in the actual vote that you see up on the screen for our viewers. Content and programming Copyright 2004 Cable News Network Transcribed under license by FDCH e-Media, Inc. http://www.lexis.com/
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