ATLANTA (AP) — Howard Dean, the early front-runner among Democratic presidential hopefuls, looked to amp-up his support among the college crowd as he launched a student outreach effort to the heavy bass beat of loud rock music and hand-lettered signs reading “Dean Rocks.”

But even as Dean boasted he will take Georgia back from President Bush in 2004, he acknowledged that his stands on gay rights and abortion may not play well in the conservative South.

The former Vermont governor spoke and fielded questions for about an hour on the campus of Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta, officially kicking off a program called “Generation Dean.”

There, his responses to questions about abortion and gay rights seemed to draw the loudest applause from an audience of about 400.

Then he spoke for about 15 minutes to a rally across the street before heading to a $100-per-person fundraiser.

Before both groups, he attacked Bush for funding tax cuts instead of health and education needs, ripped him for a “petulant” foreign policy, accused him of playing the “race card” to divide the country and of deceiving Americans about the evidence supporting war against Iraq.

“I’m not sure what generation Dean thinks he represents,” said Georgia Association of College Republicans Chairman Chuck Efstration. “Georgia’s college students and young professionals are not interested in higher taxes, bigger government, and more regulation.”

Although Atlanta is a Democratic town, Georgia has just elected its first Republican governor. Dean said he expected many Southern voters may disagree with his stands on gay rights and abortion.

“But at least they’re going to be told straight to their face that I believe in equal rights. I believe in jobs, I believe in health care and I believe in good education.”

“Equal rights under the law is not for the people who live next to you or you play golf with or that you like or that you don’t like. Equal rights under the law is for every single American, every single one,” he said.

He said the plan he proposes to extend health care to the uninsured would pay for abortions.

Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political science professor, said Dean’s assessment of how those issues will play in the Georgia and some other Southern states is probably correct.

“Gay rights is not a net winner in this state. Funding of abortions is a harder one to call. There are certainly a number of independents, particularly women, who believe abortions should be available,” Bullock said.

Dean suggested that his position on gun control might work to his advantage in the South.

“I believe in the federal laws. We should enforce the federal laws, and then we should let every state make as much or as little gun control as they want. They’re going to want it in New York and New Jersey and California, let ‘em have it. I don’t want to have their laws affect Vermont and Montana and Idaho.”

He made no mention of his rivals for the Democratic nomination but lashed out at Bush repeatedly, saying at one point, “This administration has found more ways to say things that aren’t true than any administration I’ve seen in my life, and that includes Richard Nixon.”

“As commander in chief of the United States military, I will never send our troops to a foreign country without telling the truth to the American people about why they’re going there,” he said.

Amanda Scholle, 18, a Georgia State University freshman in prelaw, said she was attracted to Dean’s campaign because of his stand on the war in Iraq.

“I know he’s not for the war in Iraq and I believe that someone that’s president should care more about American citizens and the problems that we have in our country,” she said.