Dean scream

The Howard Dean scream incident, commonly known as the Dean scream speech, was an energetic scream by Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, on January 19, 2004, during a speech he gave 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!" The scream's unusual tone, which Dean later attributed to the cracking of his hoarse voice, immediately attracted media attention. Within four days, it was broadcast 633 times on national news networks and cable channels. The Dean scream is considered the first political meme to go viral online.

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 by making him sound unpresidential; however, Dean and his campaign staff later commented that he would have lost anyway, due to poor campaign organization. Additionally, Christine Pelosi, Pacific Standard, and historian Robert Thompson all said 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 hot-tempered for the presidency.

2004 presidential election and Iowa caucus

Vermont governor Howard Dean's 2003–04 presidential campaign began as a huge success in its first several months, garnering popularity from the press and American citizens for his left-leaning populism and anti-Iraq War beliefs; as of fall 2003, he was number one in almost every poll throughout the United States, including those in Iowa and New Hampshire. Dean's Iowa campaign webmaster Adam Mordecai described all of the campaign staff feeling "invincible" initially.