What, exactly, was that sound Howard Dean made in that "we're going to fight on" speech he delivered to his disappointed backers in Des Moines on Monday night?

After the no-longer-front-runner declared that his campaign would go to "South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico" and "California and Texas and New York" and a whole bunch of other states, Dean drew rousing applause from his shaken but still enthusiastic backers with a promise to go on to Washington and take the White House back.

Dean's eyes were a might too wide, and the veins on his head and neck were bulging a bit more obviously than an image consultant might recommend, but Dean says he was just giving the truest of his true believers what they wanted - and perhaps needed - following the campaign's surprisingly weak third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses: "passion."

Fair enough.

But the core question remains: What was that sound Dean made after he finished his on-to-the-White-House rant? The New York Times called it "a throaty howl." And, yes, it was more a howl than a yowl. But both howls and yowls are longer and deeper in tone than the sound that came out of Dean's mouth. No, this was neither a howl nor a yowl, nor a yap, nor a hiccup.

Dean's speech-punctuating sound definitely was higher-pitched than a howl, and quicker than a yap.

So how can we describe Dean's "eye-yowwww" battle cry? Comparisons will be made to the sound of a cat with its tail caught in a door.

But the Dean campaign is not finished, of course. Like Dean, former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis came in third in Iowa and still won the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. Bill Clinton finished fourth there in 1992, only to win both the nomination and the presidency that year. Dean still has campaign resources and a base of charged-up supporters in states across the country, including Wisconsin, where his is clearly the most widely and well organized campaign.

But Howard Dean is going to have to retool that campaign, in Wisconsin and elsewhere. He might want to start by focusing in on the states where he could renew his candidacy. Wisconsin is one of those states. Dean's been here and earned enthusiastic responses. He has won key endorsements, from popular Democrats like Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and state Rep. Mark Pocan. And he's got a real grass-roots organization going, with activists going door to door, making calls and performing the basic duties of a campaign just about anywhere that there are Democrats.

Unfortunately, as he went through that pre-yelp list of states where he plans to take his fight for a nomination that is no longer his for the taking, Dean failed to mention Wisconsin. Bad move. Then, when he went through a post-yelp list of battleground states, he again failed to mention the Badger state. Really bad move.

The Feb. 17 Wisconsin primary will be a definitional one on the Democratic calendar, and it is likely to be a make-or-break date for Dean. He will never get to New York or California if he does not get his ticket punched here. So, instead of perfecting his candidate's wail, Howard Dean would do well to learn the words to "On, Wisconsin!"

Copyright 2003 The Capital Times

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