Dean had lunch with reporters and editors at the New York Times the other day. Jodi Wilgoren, who's been following the Dean campaign since at least the Sleepless Summer Tour, wrote it up. Overall, it's a decent article with some good quotes from Dean, but she does manage to get in a few subtle digs. For example, she writes:

As the former governor of Vermont who got a medical deferment to avoid service in Vietnam, Dr. Dean said he would combat criticism of his national security bona fides by surrounding himself with people who could inspire confidence in such issues.

The way that first clause is written, the implication is that Dean actively sought a deferment to "avoid" service, when, in fact, he showed up as ordered ready to ship off if they told him to. Then:

Regarding Iraq, Dr. Dean, who opposed the American invasion this spring, promised to bring National Guard and Army reserve troops home, leaving 70,000 American troops, and to add about 110,000 international troops, mostly from Muslim and Arab nations. Some experts say that is probably unrealistic, considering the military capabilities of American allies in the Middle East.

This is borderline annoying. No reference to who those experts are, or to the fact that the first George Bush managed to do something much like this in the Gulf War.

I was very interested to see this idea thrown out there:

he spent most of the interview answering questions about foreign policy, attacking President Bush on Iraq and North Korea and promising to send former President Bill Clinton to the Middle East as a peace broker.

And, I enjoyed the closing quote:

"My strategy is, we're better than this, we can do better than this," he added. "America's always been the country of hope and of high moral principles and ideals. Let's hope again."