Reply #28: Dean labels himself a social progressive/fiscal conservative [View All]

He always has, and still does.

Here he is speaking on Larry King on October 1, 2003:

DEAN: I am fiscally conservative, and I'm very proud of it. I think that what we need in this presidency is the opposite of what President Bush is. He is a borrow and spend, borrow and spend, credit card president, who is not conservative about money at all and not socially progressive. I'm socially progressive. I'm fiscally conservative, and I have a record to show it, and I'm very proud of that.
http://www-cgi.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0310/01/ltm.04.html

What he said on MTP Sunday is no different that he's been saying all along when someone tries to pin identify him as liberal. Here he is on Larry King again, in August 2002, saying pretty much the same thing about being liberal that he said last Sunday:

DEAN: ...You know, they all say, Well, he's so liberal. Well, if liberal is balancing budgets, please do call me a liberal. No Republican president has balanced a budget in 34 years in this country. If you want jobs and investment in this country, you're going to have to have a Democrat because the Republicans simply can't handle money.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/04/lkl.00.html

But, hey, if you want to fault the guy for "running from the liberal label" when he never claimed to be liberal, be my guest.

(Edit: to add link.)