Dean Whistles Dixie

Howard Dean hopes to solidify his standing as the Democratic presidential front-runner with a Southern strategy that calls for courting black lawmakers and spending time and money in key Southern states.

The former Vermont governor has a formidable lead in New Hampshire, and could also come out on top in Iowa. But even if Dean wins these two early political tests, he still faces a formidable roadblock.

On Feb. 3, just a week after the New Hampshire primary, four states hold primaries: South Carolina, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona.

Dean rivals like Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Joe Lieberman and retired Gen. Wesley Clark hope to ambush the anti-war front-runner and jump start their own candidacies by winning in one or more of these Sun Belt primaries.

Dean hopes to maintain the political momentum he's expected to get in Iowa and New Hampshire with an aggressive Southern strategy that was on display Sunday in the crown jewel of the Feb. 3 primaries: South Carolina.

Dean rallied about 400 supporters at a downtown hotel in Columbia with the announcement of his latest supporter — Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Jackson's endorsement could help broaden the New Englander's appeal to black voters who are expected to make up much of the electorate in the South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary.

It was Dean's first visit to the state since being pressured into apologizing for urging Democrats to court Southern whites who display Confederate flags on their pickup trucks. Critics said Dean misunderstood Southerners.

Jackson's father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination himself in 1984 and 1988, has endorsed none of the nine candidates in the 2004 campaign.

Dean, who was in town to open his first campaign office in the state, also attended church a service at Columbia's Community Christian Methodist Episcopal.

Dean "made a great impression," said churchgoer Mary Lucas. "We need more jobs, we need a better education system. ... I hope he does get elected so he can do some of those things he talks about."

Lucas, 60, then followed Dean to the standing-room crowd at a hotel just blocks away from where the Confederate flag flies on the state Capitol's grounds.

Dean has raised more money than his eight Democratic rivals, but he was one of the last to open a campaign office in South Carolina.

But the Washington Post reports that Dean plans to make up for lost time by cultivating black voters and spending more time and money than his rivals in key Southern states.

The newspaper also reports that part of Dean's Southern strategy will be a bid to move away from race, an issue that often looms large in Southern primaries.

Dean outlined this approach during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday":

"Why can't we talk about jobs, health care and education, which is what we all have in common, instead of allowing the Republicans to consistently divide us by talking about guns, God, gays, abortion and all this controversial social stuff that we're not going to come to an agreement on?" Dean said.