The Term is "Deaners"

"We're sick and tired of the Democratic party not giving us a message," he said, from the Dean headquarters in Manchester, N.H., where he is interning for the summer. "We need someone who can stand up on a moral ground."

Glenn's comments are typical of voters in the region who've lined up behind the former Vermont governor and physician. Most are quick to describe Dean as a states' rights governor, an independent thinker and a fiscal conservative, noticeably omitting the issues that have garnered the candidate the most attention nationwide: his support of a civil-union law for gays and lesbians; his promise to reform the nation's health-care system; and his anti-war stance.

"I think of him more as a moderate," said Glenn.

On the stump, Dean has made a point of expressing his desire to appeal to people across the political spectrum.

"I want to go to the South, and I'm going to say to white guys that drive pick-up trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back of their car, 'We want your vote, too, because your kids don't have health insurance either,' " he said at the California State Democratic Convention.

Experts like Fowler said that at least in the primary, Dean won't need to make that reach across the political spectrum.

"Voters in the primary are more liberal to moderate than voters in the general election," said Fowler. "Ideologically, they will not be very different from voters in New Hampshire."

Moderate was not a word used often in reference to Dean three months ago, when his anti-war speeches were earning him kudos from peace activists, and he repeatedly criticized his fellow Democrats for abandoning the party's base.

"What I want to know is what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting the president's unilateral intervention in Iraq?" became his opener on the stump.

It was his speechmaking that caught the attention of several of the Dean supporters who gathered Saturday in Charlotte for a regional Dean "summit."

The group was made up of the young and old, the politically knowledgeable and newcomers.