Posted on 01/15/2004 2:29:50 PM PST by billorites
He's a hardheaded penny-pincher, she's a publicity-shy doctor. PEOPLE magazine sat down with Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean, 55, and his wife, Judy, 50, for their first joint interview. Read 17 things we learned about him, then peruse the exclusive transcript.
1. He calls his wife "sweetie"; she calls him "Howie."
2. He wore his prom tuxedo to one of President Clinton's White House state dinners to save money, but coughed and split his pants and had to be escorted home by state troopers covering his posterior.
3. His staff forced him to buy a new suit at Paul Stuart in New York for the campaign (it cost $800). "It nearly killed me."
4. He always turns off the lights when he walks out of a room. He used to get into fights with his wife about turning up the heat in the winter, so now she pays the bill so he doesn't have to see it.
5. The last sitcom he watched was All in the Family in its original run.
6. He is compulsive about recycling. Once he picked up every newspaper off an airplane at the end of a flight and hauled them to a recycling center. He also does recycling inspections of his staffer's bins.
7. He insists that paper in his office be printed on both sides.
8. He likes Outkast and Wyclef Jean (his son's music) as well as Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead.
9. He fixes the toilet at home; plumbing is his "therapy."
10. He never takes taxis or limos. In New York City he takes the subway.
11. Asked his favorite food indulgence, he responds: fish. (He later amends this to chocolate chip cookies.)
12. He drinks generic ginger ale and snacks to save money.
13. He plays the guitar and harmonica. He sings '60s folk tunes (see: Peter, Paul and Mary above.)
14. Despite his reservations about cost, he was finally persuaded to take his shirts to the dry cleaner last year. He used to just throw them in the wash.
15. As the governor of Vermont, he drove himself and pumped his own gas.
16. He has been known to tape his shoes together.
17. He wears '70s-style gold-rimmed glasses that he won't update; his wife carries a purse covered in pen marks. They are both devoted discount shoppers ...
Bill Clinton, as sleazy as he is, would probably be loads of fun at a party, compared to Poppa Bush. George W. on the other hand is the guy you want at your BBQ, rather than Al Gore.
Dean is toast. A wealthy kid, who was given money, makes alot of money, but is culturally illiterate is not going to win a presidential election.
It kinda reminds me of Ralph Nader in a sense. Nader is a cheap ass SOB, but he has a ton of money. That does not a president make.
Howard Dean is nothing more, nor less, than Jimmeh Cahtuh -- with an attitude.
No doubt about it, that would be a horrible fate for our nation.
This is pretty disturbing. Dean is not a man who should be leading the nation on a good day, let alone a day of crisis. It also bothers me that a man with this level of anxiety and other odd compulsions lacks the self awareness to take himself out of this political process. His drive for power must be mighty powerful.
There are people who KEEP their prom tuxedos??
I went to three, never bought one.
That's disgusting.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.-- C. S. Lewis
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