Indians enamored of Dean despite his refusal to pander to them

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…While candidates Dennis Kucinich and Wesley Clark made their appearances Monday and were politely applauded for their pro-sovereignty and pro-veteran stances, Indians couldn't seem to get enough of Dr. Dean.

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What was most interesting about Dean was his refusal, even in the midst of 3,000 American Indians, to carve out positions tailored only to Indian voters.

He's done this before. In September, when he came to Albuquerque for the first televised debate, he declined to go too far into Hispanic voter appeals.

"I think Hispanics want what everyone else wants," he told me then.

He said essentially the same things to Indians Wednesday.

"The problems that you have as Native Americans are the same problems that everyone else has," Dean said. "The truth is, we all share a common agenda. Every American needs health care. Every American needs economic determination."

It's an extremely portable campaign philosophy, but you might think it could get you into trouble. A group gathers, invites you to its event, and waits for you to tailor your presentation, to say what its members want to hear. Not necessarily so with Dean.

But if it hurt him, it hardly seemed evident Wednesday.

http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/112203_news_shea.shtml

[Cha]

1. Isn't this so nice to see...

"Then he tried, again, to leave. As he did so another audience member stood up, calling, "Governor, governor." When Dean finally stopped to listen, the man didn't have a tough question, but rather, a bit of praise: He'd heard the other candidates, he said, but found Dean's positions the best."

"Dean, again, thanked the crowd, got an ovation, and this time successfully left"