Dean scream
The Dean scream, also known as "I Have a Scream," was a speech delivered by Vermont governor Howard Dean on January 19, 2004 at the Val-Air Ballroom in West Des Moines, Iowa. That night, the presidential candidate had just lost the Iowa caucus to John Kerry and wanted to reassure his supporters. He listed states he would win to a raucous audience before screaming "Yeah!!!" Within four days, it was broadcast 633 times on national news networks and cable channels. The audio used in the airings of the scream was from Dean's unidirectional microphone, which decreased the volume of the background noise to the point where only Dean's voice was audible; this did not reflect the actual volume of the room that night, as the crowd was extremely loud.

Following the scream, Dean lost more primaries and suspended his campaign following his third-place result in Wisconsin. Some commentators have described the speech as a political gaffe that destroyed Dean's campaign; however, Dean and his campaign staff have claimed that he would have lost anyway, due to poor campaign organization. Additionally, Christine Pelosi, "Pacific Standard", and historian Robert Thompson both consider that Dean's probability of being nominated was already low due to a lack of party insider support, the Iowa loss, and the media's previous painting of Dean as too tempered for the presidential position.
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governor
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Howard Dean
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presidential candidate
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Iowa caucus
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John Kerry
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political gaffe
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Christine Pelosi
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Pacific Standard
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Robert Thompson
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Dean scream
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2004-01-19T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
January 19, 2004
DATE
office held by head of government
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position held