Tracking Howard Dean:

This week's focus on Howard Dean continues with a link to this Feb 25 NewsHour interview between Dean and Gwen Iffil. Much of the interview focuses on Dean's Iraq-related policy stance, but Dean speaks to a balanced budget as well. He also says this about North Korea:

GWEN IFILL: Pardon me. So if you say that if you were president, you would back-burner Iraq and put North Korea on the front burner?

FMR. GOV. HOWARD DEAN: My strategy for dealing with Iraq, as president, would be to contain them, to continue to push the United Nations to disarm them, and then to open talks with North Korea with the impetus... I have a four-point plan which I outlined last weekend at Drake University, and it essentially includes beginning bilateral talks, having an interim solution where both parties agree that, "A," the United States will not attack North Korea, and "B," that the North Koreans will not develop nuclear weapons during the talks; and then beginning the process of the five-power talks including South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, and the United States to deal with this threat. That is a very serious threat. Under no circumstances can North Korea be allowed to possess nuclear weapons, and they are about to do it because this president isn't paying enough attention.

There's also this piece on a speech Dean gave at NYU that outlined his proposal for universal healthcare. Highlight:

His proposal calls for Medicaid, a federal program administered by the states, to cover citizens under the age of 25, while placing seniors directly in the hands of the federal government.

“It is dirt-cheap to take care of people under 25,” Dean said. “This is how we did it [in Vermont]. It doesn’t cost much.”

Adults under 65 will be insured through the current, employer-based system, Dean said. Vouchers should be given to benefit the self-employed and those who are not given health benefits from their employers, he said.