Profile: Howard Dean

This week, Slate begins a series of short features explaining who the 2004 presidential candidates are, what they've said and done, and where they propose to take the country. The first installment summarizes each candidate's personal and professional background. Today's subject is Howard Dean.

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Howard Brush Dean

Web site: www.deanforamerica.com.

Age: 54 (born Nov. 11, 1948).

Highest grade completed: Medical school (1978).

Political experience: State representative, Vermont (1983-1986); lieutenant governor (1986-1991); governor (1991-2002).

Asserted achievements: Extended health care to 92 percent of Vermonters (including 96 percent of kids); signed legislation allowing gay couples to attain the legal equivalent of marriage; balanced Vermont state budget every year in office.

Previous jobs: Investment broker (1972-1974); physician (1978-1991).

Spouse: Judith Steinberg Dean.

Children: College-aged daughter, high-school-aged son.

Previous marriages: None.

Military history: None. Exempted from service in Vietnam due to an unfused vertebra.

Medical history: None reported.

Parents' jobs: Father was a stockbroker. Mother runs a small appraisal business.

Net worth: $3.8 million.

Religion: Congregationalist.

Campaign song: "A Little Less Conversation" (Elvis Presley).

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William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War. Follow him on Twitter here. Avi Zenilman is a former Slate intern.

Photograph of Howard Dean by Ellen Ozier/Reuters.

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