Leadership Quote by Howard Dean

Dean is doing something deceptively hard in intraparty politics: praising a rival without surrendering his own brand. The repetition of "I think" reads less like dithering than like methodical credentialing, a quick checklist of virtues that matter to Democratic primary voters who want both competence and conviction. Each attribute is carefully chosen. "Intellectually curious" and "very thoughtful" aim to rehabilitate Kerry from the caricature of aloofness by recasting him as engaged and serious. It is character talk standing in for ideology: safer, harder to refute, and designed to travel well on cable news.

The policy tell is "issues like the environment". It signals the post-Clinton Democratic coalition where climate was becoming a moral litmus test, not just a regulatory debate. Dean isn’t merely flattering Kerry; he’s aligning him with a values-forward agenda that Dean himself helped amplify, especially among activists and donors looking for authenticity.

Then comes the loaded word: "internationalist". In the early 2000s, that’s a rebuttal to unilateralism without explicitly litigating Iraq in every sentence. Dean uses the term to position Kerry as the antidote to Bush-era swagger while also inoculating Democrats against the old "weak on defense" trap. The closing clause - "which I am" - is the real point: it’s a handshake and a mirror. Dean is signaling unity while quietly insisting that the party’s future runs through his lane, too.