On the road with Dean in Iowa

Maybe the country would be better off if all Americans participated in presidential campaigns like those in Iowa. But most Americans know their president only as an image on TV.

For Dean, that's unfortunate. Although obviously talented, he's more likable in person than on TV, where he's often reduced to bomb-throwing sound bites. On the trail, Dean is smiling and affable. But in his first televised media "availability" of the day, he puts on a dour face. As the press horde (more of a hordette) gathers round, Dean grimaces a little. The smile is gone. He blinks and flinches slightly as a microphone is thrust in his face. But the pain is short. The cameras turn away, and like a switch, his smile is back.

Dean's crowds are big (for Iowa in July, at least—around 40 show up at one stop, and more than 70 at another) and enthusiastic. "He's a Democrats' Democrat," crows one voter at the day's last event in Ottumwa. There was "hardly anybody" when Gephardt came, she says.