US: After campaigning up and down the country for months, it was hardly a surprise when Mr Howard Dean officially declared yesterday that he was running to be nominated as Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2004, writes Conor O'Clery in New York
Nevertheless when the former Vermont governor officially announced his long-shot candidacy in front of a cheering home-state crowd of 3,000, it marked a stepping up of his liberal, anti-war campaign for the Democratic nomination.
The outdoor rally, held in the brick-lined streets of the placid lakeside town of Burlington, Vermont, with a church steeple in the background, was designed to get publicity and money for the expensive primary elections, starting in January.
All nine Democratic candidates have to compete with the phenomenal fund-raising ability of President Bush, who last night travelled to Manhattan for a fund-raising dinner that will add $5 million to his war chest in a single evening. Mr Dean will by comparison raise $4 million in the quarter ending June 30th, his campaign staff say.
The 54-year-old former governor has galvanised support from anti-war Democrats who feel that the other major Democratic candidates have compromised themselves by giving in to President Bush over Iraq and tax cuts.
Yesterday he accused Mr Bush of creating an insurmountable deficit and surrounding himself with "narrow-minded ideological advisers" who alienated allies just as the Roman Empire did.
"Everywhere I go people are asking fundamental questions: Who can we trust?" he said, in a jibe at the President for leading the country to war because of the threat of lethal weapons that have yet to be found.
Mr Dean, who is trailing Democratic front-runner Mr John Kerry by 21 to 30 per cent among Democratic voters in New Hampshire, is airing the first political ads of the campaign this month, spending $300,000 to raise his profile in Iowa, where the first test of support for candidates will be held in January.
"Too many Democrats in Washington are afraid to stand up for what we believe in," he tells voters in the 30-second spots.
Mr Dean is trying to build an Internet-driven, national grass-roots campaign.