HITTING 'EM UP.

At eight o'clock last Tuesday night, Cynthia Williams worked her way to the front of a packed crowd at Suite 16, a night club in Chelsea. Williams, who is black, with dyed-blond hair, jumped up and down, screaming, "I love him! I just love him!" She was wearing a button that read "The Doctor Is In."

A few minutes later, the doctor arrived, in the form of Howard Dean, M.D., a Democratic candidate for President and former governor of Vermont. The other club patrons--almost exclusively white, and dressed in business casual--began chanting, "D-E-A-N in the U.S.A.!" in rock-anthem fashion. The first Presidential primary, in New Hampshire (where Dean is currently polling a close second), is not until January, but fund-raising season has arrived in New York, and the Downtown Dean Series, as it is called, was offering "young professionals" the chance to meet their favorite candidate for sixty-five dollars a head.

"A lot of people get turned on by the way he talks," a woman named Jennifer Robinson said, as Dean, short and sturdy, removed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves, then mounted a small platform, in front of a phalanx of women.

"I apologize for being late," Dean began, "but I was taping 'Charlie Rose.' I'll be on tonight, so be sure to watch at eleven." He then delivered a rallying anti-Bush speech, touching on basic issues: health care (more coverage), foreign policy (more multilateralism), media ownership (less Rupert Murdoch), fiscal responsibility (less tax cutting). As he spoke--"Why would anybody invest in America if we behave like Argentina does?"--Robinson trembled and quavered, "Yeeessss!"

"I think we have a little time for Q. and A.," he said at last.

Williams raised her hand.

"If I'm not mistaken, weren't you in New Jersey at the dinner?" Dean asked. (He was referring to a meeting of Democrats in Atlantic City which he had attended the previous weekend.)