In March, Howard Dean was slowly breaking through and developing a following. His fundraising was modest, but growing.
Dean saw that some of his Dem rivals were independently wealthy (specifically Kerry) and hoped to keep a relatively even playing field, so he promised to raise a big fuss if any of the other candidates decided to abandon spending limits and skip public financing.
“It will be a huge issue,” Dean said in March. “I think most Democrats believe in campaign finance reform…. [I’ve] always been committed to this. Campaign finance reform is just something I believe in.”
Since then, Dean’s campaign has caught fire and his fundraising has gone through the roof. Dean raised over $7.5 million in Q2 and he’s on pace to raise a lot more this quarter. With this mind, it looks like the good doctor is prepared to “revisit” his earlier promise.
Dean told the AP on Friday that his campaign was “exploring” the possibility of opting out of the public financing system because he’s starting to wonder if he can raise more money by ignoring the spending limits he once embraced.
“Could we change our mind? Sure,” he said. “But I really don’t want to do that.”
What about the earlier promise to make a “huge issue” if any of his rivals opted out of the public financing system? Dean said he didn’t exactly remember saying that.
“I was asked very early on and I said I intend to take the match,” Dean said. “I think what I said is that we weren’t looking into that as an option.”
Of course, we now know that isn’t what he said in March. Claiming not to recall his earlier promise is pretty weak. If Dean believed just five months ago that the public financing system should be respected and candidates who ignore it deserve criticism, Dean should have a better explanation than “I forgot.”
To be fair, the point may be moot. Dean campaign manager, Joe Trippi, told the Washington Post yesterday that the campaign was merely considering opting out of the voluntary limits as a “remote possibility” brought up as a hypothetical option in a casual staff conversation.
Nevertheless, it’s just one more example of Dean flip-flopping on an issue. He says all candidates should accept public financing because he “believes in” campaign finance reform. A few months later, now that his bank account his flush, his earlier commitment is quickly — and literally — forgotten.
This follows similar flip-flops on the Social Security retirement age, the death penalty, his position on North Korea, his position on repealing Bush’s tax cuts, and so on.
My criticism isn’t so much that Dean is now questioning the public financing system; I have some reservations about it myself. My point is Dean seems to have a habit of changing his mind on issues in a way that makes him vulnerable. Disciplined (and electable) presidential candidates aren’t supposed to make these kinds of mistakes with such frequency.
In other words, every time Dean flip-flops on one of these issues, Karl Rove probably writes it down on a pad that says “things to hammer Howard Dean with if he gets the Dem nomination.”