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American Morning
Interview With Jay Carson
Aired January 22, 2004 - 08:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: With just five days to go to the New Hampshire primary, neither John Kerry nor Howard Dean appears comfortable with the word front runner. Each seems to prefer the word underdog.
Jay Carson is the national spokesman for the Dean campaign and he joins us from Manchester this morning.
Nice to see you, Mr. Carson.
Thanks for being with us.
JAY CARSON, NATIONAL SPOKESMAN, DEAN CAMPAIGN: Good morning.
Thank you.
O'BRIEN: You know, all the candidates, whenever I talk to them, they say polls, polls, I never follow the polls. But I know actually that political operatives like yourself do follow the polls, and very closely.
So when you see the new polls come out like the poll from the "Boston Herald" , which shows Senator Kerry at 31 percent and Howard Dean at 21 percent; when you see the "Boston Globe," which shows a very similar number and ranking; and when you see the new Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby poll, very similar number, how concerned are you about these figures coming out as you head into New Hampshire just five days away?
CARSON: Well, it's just like you said it, Soledad, we just don't follow the polls. No, I mean a lot can change -- as you guys have pointed out, a lot can change in five days. There are five key days between now and the election -- and election time. Governor Dean is going to be traveling all across the state, a state that knows him well, a state where it's going to be very difficult to redefine him and smear him in the way that the other candidates were able to, with some success, in Iowa.
He's going to be pointing out that he stood up for -- that he stands up for what's right regardless of whether it's popular, and that he's delivered results, and not just speeches.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about one particular speech, which you well know is getting lots of flak, that concession speech after Iowa. There were some people who said Howard Dean did not look presidential, that he looked almost like a little bit of a crazy man and that he has done irreparable damage to the campaign. Do you think people who say that are overstating it?
CARSON: Absolutely. What Governor Dean was doing is he had a room full of 3,500 who had come to Iowa to work hard for him, to volunteer for him. He wanted to go out there and show his appreciation for the hard work that they had done. He did that. He was energizing them. And we're not going to make any apologies for it.
He is going to be traveling around the state this week. As I said, it's going to be hard to redefine him. They're going to try, but it's going to be very difficult to redefine him in a state where people -- he lives right next door. He was a governor right next door for 12 years. These people have seen him on television for a long time. He's going to continue to get out there and provide this clear contrast with the Washington politicians.
O'BRIEN: What about people like former New Hampshire Senator John Durkin, who said wow, I had endorsed him originally and now I'm stepping back? I'm an undecided because, specifically because of that behavior after -- during the concession speech, the speech itself? He said, "I wish I had turned off the TV and gone to bed. I'm sorry I even saw that." The repercussions are much greater than the 3,500 people that you talk about Howard Dean was really speaking to that night.
CARSON: You know, that's Senator Durkin's decision. We won't take issue with it. What's important is that we get the voters of New Hampshire out to vote for us on Tuesday, and we're confident we're going to do that.
O'BRIEN: So what's the strategy? What's the change? Would you say there's been sort of a decision to move the campaign in a different direction?
CARSON: It's not moving in a different direction, it's just, you know, talking about the -- the other candidates did a very good job of muting the opposition to the Iraq war as an issue. No one was talking about it a year ago when it mattered. Now everyone talks about it. To listen to all the -- if you listen to all the candidates, you'd think that they were all opposed to it, too.
So what's important is to remind voters that Governor Dean stood up for this when it was right, not when it was popular. It was not popular to oppose the Iraq war. It was not popular to oppose no child left behind. It was not popular to sign a civil unions bill. He did all of these because they were the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, the other candidates weren't there when it mattered. So we have to remind them that he's the candidate that's going to do what's right regardless of whether it's popular. And he's delivered results, delivered health care for all the kids in his state, delivered prescription drugs for seniors in his state, that he's actually done these.
The, you know, the Washington candidates are good people, they've delivered great speeches on these issues, but they've never really done anything on any of them.
O'BRIEN: Jay Carson is the national spokesman for the Dean campaign.
Mr. Carson, thanks for being with us.
Appreciate it.
CARSON: Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 22, 2004 - 08:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: With just five days to go to the New Hampshire primary, neither John Kerry nor Howard Dean appears comfortable with the word front runner. Each seems to prefer the word underdog.
Jay Carson is the national spokesman for the Dean campaign and he joins us from Manchester this morning.
Nice to see you, Mr. Carson.
Thanks for being with us.
JAY CARSON, NATIONAL SPOKESMAN, DEAN CAMPAIGN: Good morning.
Thank you.
O'BRIEN: You know, all the candidates, whenever I talk to them, they say polls, polls, I never follow the polls. But I know actually that political operatives like yourself do follow the polls, and very closely.
So when you see the new polls come out like the poll from the "Boston Herald" , which shows Senator Kerry at 31 percent and Howard Dean at 21 percent; when you see the "Boston Globe," which shows a very similar number and ranking; and when you see the new Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby poll, very similar number, how concerned are you about these figures coming out as you head into New Hampshire just five days away?
CARSON: Well, it's just like you said it, Soledad, we just don't follow the polls. No, I mean a lot can change -- as you guys have pointed out, a lot can change in five days. There are five key days between now and the election -- and election time. Governor Dean is going to be traveling all across the state, a state that knows him well, a state where it's going to be very difficult to redefine him and smear him in the way that the other candidates were able to, with some success, in Iowa.
He's going to be pointing out that he stood up for -- that he stands up for what's right regardless of whether it's popular, and that he's delivered results, and not just speeches.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about one particular speech, which you well know is getting lots of flak, that concession speech after Iowa. There were some people who said Howard Dean did not look presidential, that he looked almost like a little bit of a crazy man and that he has done irreparable damage to the campaign. Do you think people who say that are overstating it?
CARSON: Absolutely. What Governor Dean was doing is he had a room full of 3,500 who had come to Iowa to work hard for him, to volunteer for him. He wanted to go out there and show his appreciation for the hard work that they had done. He did that. He was energizing them. And we're not going to make any apologies for it.
He is going to be traveling around the state this week. As I said, it's going to be hard to redefine him. They're going to try, but it's going to be very difficult to redefine him in a state where people -- he lives right next door. He was a governor right next door for 12 years. These people have seen him on television for a long time. He's going to continue to get out there and provide this clear contrast with the Washington politicians.
O'BRIEN: What about people like former New Hampshire Senator John Durkin, who said wow, I had endorsed him originally and now I'm stepping back? I'm an undecided because, specifically because of that behavior after -- during the concession speech, the speech itself? He said, "I wish I had turned off the TV and gone to bed. I'm sorry I even saw that." The repercussions are much greater than the 3,500 people that you talk about Howard Dean was really speaking to that night.
CARSON: You know, that's Senator Durkin's decision. We won't take issue with it. What's important is that we get the voters of New Hampshire out to vote for us on Tuesday, and we're confident we're going to do that.
O'BRIEN: So what's the strategy? What's the change? Would you say there's been sort of a decision to move the campaign in a different direction?
CARSON: It's not moving in a different direction, it's just, you know, talking about the -- the other candidates did a very good job of muting the opposition to the Iraq war as an issue. No one was talking about it a year ago when it mattered. Now everyone talks about it. To listen to all the -- if you listen to all the candidates, you'd think that they were all opposed to it, too.
So what's important is to remind voters that Governor Dean stood up for this when it was right, not when it was popular. It was not popular to oppose the Iraq war. It was not popular to oppose no child left behind. It was not popular to sign a civil unions bill. He did all of these because they were the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, the other candidates weren't there when it mattered. So we have to remind them that he's the candidate that's going to do what's right regardless of whether it's popular. And he's delivered results, delivered health care for all the kids in his state, delivered prescription drugs for seniors in his state, that he's actually done these.
The, you know, the Washington candidates are good people, they've delivered great speeches on these issues, but they've never really done anything on any of them.
O'BRIEN: Jay Carson is the national spokesman for the Dean campaign.
Mr. Carson, thanks for being with us.
Appreciate it.
CARSON: Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
