Quotable:
“There is something
aggressively wholesome about this campaign.”
– Mark Silva, Orlando Sentinel political
reporter, traveling with the Grahams
during their Iowa “vacation.”
Quotable:
“When a television
reporter taunted Mr. Kerry to at least
utter Dr. Dean's name, Mr. Kerry,
who is rarely at a loss for words, grinned and
pinched his mouth shut. This is Mr. Kerry's
world these days.”
– New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney,
reporting on Kerry’s New Hampshire
campaign tour
Quotable:
“The 2004 presidential
race seems to be carrying the Democratic
Party in a dangerous direction on the
issues of the Iraq war and national security
-- dangerous for the nation and risky for the
party too.”
– Washington Post editorial from
yesterday, commenting on Gore’s speech
last week
Quotable:
“Mr. Gore
believes, for example, that the Patriot Act
represents ‘a broad and extreme invasion of
our privacy rights in the name of terrorism.’
But then how to explain that 98 senators --
including all four Democratic senators now
running for president -- voted for it?”
– More from yesterday’s Washington Post
editorial
Quotable:
“It's very clear what
the program is -- it is to defund the
Democratic Party.”
– Ed Lazarus, political operative
working for the Assn. of Trial Lawyers,
commenting on GOP “tort reform” efforts
Quotable:
“Three months after many
Democrats and Mr. Kerry himself thought
he was rolling to the Democratic presidential
nomination, he is frequently stuck in the
shadow of an opponent who has moved from
small-bore annoyance to potential threat.”
– NY Times’ Nagourney again
Quotable:
“If Davis survives,
he'll owe it to the Clintons. Then, if
Hillary jumps into the presidential race,
she'll have the California delegates locked up
as well as the ones in New York.”
– Senior Democrat, quoted in Chicago
Sun-Times report on Bill Clinton’s role in
Davis efforts to fight CA recall.
Iowa State Fair:
This
is Veterans’ Day at the fair with
performances by the 34th Army Band
and the Iowa Veterans’ Band. Adult piano
playing competition (age 17 and above) at
Pioneer Hall. Angus Beef Cattle judging at the
Pioneer Pavilion. Harness racing this
afternoon and the Goo Goo Dolls, with
special guest Lisa Marie Presley, tonight
in the Grandstand.
GENERAL
NEWS:
Among
the offerings in today's update:
-
Discussion of Dean unavoidable as Kerry
attempts to recalibrate his approach in
early battleground states
-
Chicago
Trib’s Zeleny reports that the recall is
“absorbing the political oxygen in
California.” Some strategists expect
state to be “less lucrative and too
politically volatile” over next couple
months
-
Chicago
Sun-Times: Beleaguered Gov. Davis
turns to “perhaps the only man in America
who can save his skin” – SuperBill Clinton
-
From CNN’s
Capitol Gang: Wall Street Journal’s Al Hunt
says “Lieberman better understand you
can’t win primaries campaigning as Bush lite”
-
Kerry
says Bush failed on Liberian response
-
In New
Hampshire, Gephardt – on Teamsters
Endorsement Tour – claims GWB ruined the
economy
-
Washington
Post joins editorial assault – along with
the Union Leader – on Gore’s
unrealistic world perspective. Will Gray
Davis be calling Al for advice too?
-
Things
aren’t exactly going that well for Edwards
on the prez campaign trail, but now he’s
getting pressure from home to make a Senate
decision
-
Graham
and family take optimistic message across
state during Iowa vacation, but find few
supportive Dem caucusgoers
-
In SC,
Edwards uses slave school as backdrop for
attack on Bush, claims “we still have two
public school systems in America”
-
Supreme
Court Justice Kennedy urges American Bar
Assn. to lobby for repeal mandatory minimum
sentence laws
-
Washington
Post reports that “tort reform” battle turns
more partisan, Dems see GOP attempt to
“defund” their party
-
Iowaism:
Tourists already showing up in Sioux
City to celebrate 200th anniversary
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
All these stories below and more.
Iowa Pres Watch Note:
Although the California recall election is
aimed at removing Guv Davis from office, it
also has the potential to be a setback for the
Dem wannabes – especially when it comes to
media coverage and most especially for those
candidates trying to break through the ranks
in the post-Labor Day period. Just as the
Dem prez campaigns were expected to pick up
the pace this fall, the wannabes may find they
are the second, third or fourth – or even
lower -- option for coverage on a daily basis.
(Don’t forget that Congress returns on the
political radar again – and GWB goes back to
the White House – in a couple weeks, too. And,
by the way, there are still U. S. troops in
Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. ) TIME’s Margaret
Carlson made the point on CNN’s Capitol Gang
Saturday: “And for the next 60 days, I
think this is the last time we're going to see
Gore and Lieberman, a speech covered by them,
because the next 60 days, all politics is
California.” Reports about the CA recall
have dominated the national political media
outlets over recent days and through the
weekend, and many of the nation’s political
writers – such as the Washington Post’s Dan
Balz, the New York Times’ Adam Nagourney and
the Chicago Tribune’s Jeff Zeleny – who
normally cover the wannabe beat have been
hanging out in L. A. suburbs. It gets even
worse for the wannabes in California. Most
have been making regular and frequent stops in
the Golden State during the campaign – and
generally getting solid coverage (and raising
big bucks) – but the major media outlets have
been (and probably will be) dominated by
recall stories. All the reports on the Los
Angeles Times website’s political page
Saturday were devoted to the recall and
related articles. California political
columnists have been consumed with the recall
effort – and it’s a sure bet every national
commentator and columnist with a pencil,
computer or satellite truck will be weighing a
few times between now and Oct. 7. It’s
almost like the cable news channels (FOX, CNN,
etc.) believe they invented the recall – as
well as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gary
Coleman. Likewise, the Dem prez candidates can
expect a major disruption in any anticipated
coverage in early October as the media – and
political reporters – descend on CA for the
big election. Being a wannabe – especially a
wannabe attempting to gain traction (such as
Edwards and Lieberman) or trying
stop Dean (such as Kerry,
Lieberman and Gephardt) or trying
to pretend they are viable (such as Graham,
Kucinich, Sharpton or Moseley Braun) – is
tough under ideal conditions, but it’s even
going to be tougher with the headlines going
to the recall and the national political media
covering the California political carnival.
(See related Zeleny report below.)
CANDIDATES
& CAUCUSES:
… On the
Iowa Wannabe Trail: Graham’s Iowa
“vacation” continues with a discussion on the
economy with Dem activists in Davenport
and a “Grillin’ with the Graham’s” event at
Lake McBride State Park near Solon.
Tomorrow the Graham caravan rolls into
Calmar, Dyersville and Dubuque.
Next wannabe due in – Edwards starts
series of “Main Street Tours” on Wednesday.
Almost all of candidates expected in Iowa this
week. Events: Wednesday --
Iowa Federation of Labor convention in
Waterloo. Thursday – Vilsack-sponsored
health care forum at Drake University in
Des Moines. Friday – Labor forum in
Cedar Rapids.
… “Recall
circus eclipses 2004 races…California
cash, attention diverted” – headline from
yesterday’s Chicago Tribune. Tribune national
correspondent Jeff Zeleny, who usually is
following a Dem wannabe around, surfaces in
Beverly Hills to cover the CA recall. An
excerpt: “If you're a Democratic presidential
candidate, there are few better places in
America to come calling for money than the
tony neighborhoods and immaculate boulevards
of Beverly Hills. For Howard Dean, the
political star of the summer, the fashionable
90210 ZIP code provided a bigger
treasure-trove than almost anywhere else and
played an essential role in turning the
unlikely candidacy of a former Vermont
governor into that of a leading presidential
hopeful. His rivals have traveled here
too, seeking money and endorsements from
well-heeled donors and Democrat-loving
celebrities. But the presidential
candidates' California money drive has been
unexpectedly complicated by the spectacle of
the gubernatorial recall. The unfolding
drama of a wounded governor--challenged not
only by Arnold Schwarzenegger but also by a
string of lesser-known characters and even
busty billboard queen Angelyne-- could
affect the Democratic primary and leave a
trail of unknown consequences for the 2004
presidential campaign. At this early stage
of a presidential race, as the nine Democrats
battle through a summer of obscurity,
California should have been a safe harbor for
candidates to harvest contributions and forge
relationships with the Democratic Party's
elite in the nation's most populous state.
August and September were intended to be a
time to build war chests for an expensive
winter of campaigning. With the Oct. 7 recall
election absorbing the political oxygen in
California, and to some degree across the
country, presidential politics has suddenly
become a far less relevant sport. And
the Democrats, who desperately need to raise
money to keep their candidacies afloat, were
wondering late last week if the state could
become a less lucrative or too politically
volatile place to spend considerable time
during the next two months. ‘The recall
will be tapping into the same kinds of donors
that would normally be giving money to the
presidential candidates,’ said Mark DiCamillo,
a longtime observer of California politics and
director of the Field Poll. ‘If you assume
it's a zero-sum game, that people only give a
certain amount of political money, it will
take some money away from presidential
candidates.’ During the first six months of
the year, the nine Democratic presidential
candidates collected nearly $9 million from
California contributors. In the same period,
President Bush raised $4.2 million from state
donors. No one suggests that even a bizarre
recall could dry up the California money well,
but the special election and its unlimited
spending present a diversion that none of the
10 candidates, including the president, had
anticipated. ’My first instinct is to stay
as far away as possible,’ said a senior
strategist with a Democratic campaign who
conceded that his candidate would have no
choice but to visit the state at some point.
‘You can't have a significant financial plan
in a presidential race that doesn't involve
California.’ The Republican National
Committee and the White House were never
thrilled at the notion of recalling Gov. Gray
Davis, a Democrat who has been under attack
because of an enormous budget deficit, the
fallout from an energy crisis and widespread
unpopularity. In fact, some Republican
strategists thought Bush would have a better
chance of winning California's 55 electoral
votes in 2004 if Davis were still in office
and could be used as a symbolic punching bag.”
…
Apparently tired of trying to explain his vote
for the Iraq resolution, Kerry moves on to
another foreign policy issue that he probably
knows even less about – Liberia. Headline
from the New Hampshire Sunday News – “Kerry
raps Bush on Liberia response in Manchester”
Report – an excerpt – from Union Leader
staffer Mark Hayward: “Democratic
Presidential hopeful John Kerry said U.S.
troops should have been sent to Liberia sooner
and promised he would only commit military
personnel abroad if he could face the parents
of a dead soldier. ‘The test is whether
you can look in the eye of a parent as
commander in chief and say, ‘This had to
happen,’ ‘ Kerry, a Vietnam veteran,
said as he spoke to a family in the city’s
North End yesterday. The Massachusetts
senator spent about an hour knocking on doors
of likely Democratic primary voters on Ray
Street. Some 300 Kerry volunteers from
Massachusetts and New Hampshire complemented
his effort after getting handfuls of
literature and a pep talk at Kerry’s
Manchester campaign headquarters. They
were expected to visit homes in Manchester,
Nashua, Concord and Derry. A separate group
met in Dover and canvassed there. In speaking
with one family, Kerry said he had
wanted President Bush to commit troops to
Liberia earlier. ‘We’ve dilly-dallied;
we’ve lost lives. It’s a very poor show of the
United States of America to do what is right,’
Kerry said. On Wednesday, seven Marines
flew into Liberia to coordinate U.S.
logistical support for a peacekeeping force of
West African soldiers. Some 2,000 Marines are
on ships off the coast of Liberia, but Bush
has said they will not enter the country until
besieged President Charles Taylor departs.
Taylor is pinned in the capital by a
2-month-old rebel siege, which has led to the
deaths of more than 1,000 civilians and
created widespread hunger and sickness.
Kerry said he supported former President
Clinton’s military efforts in Kosovo and he
would have sent troops to Rwanda, where in
1994 an estimated 800,000 died in genocidal
attacks. Kerry, who voted to send
troops to Iraq, said Bush should have done
more to build an international coalition and
legitimacy for the war.”
… As if
Edwards didn’t have enough problems trying to
pretend to be a credible Dem contender, the
locals back home are now pressuring him to
decide on his Senate future. Weekend
headline from the Boston Globe online edition:
“N. C. party presses Edwards for decision:
White House or Senate race?” Excerpt –
datelined Raleigh – from AP report by Scott
Mooneyham: “Fight all the way for the White
House or return home and run for reelection to
the Senate? North Carolina Democrats are
pressuring John Edwards for an answer now,
arguing that the longer he delays, the better
the chances of Republicans reclaiming his seat
in 2004. Edwards could try for a
political double of pursuing the party's
nomination while running for a second Senate
term. State law allows him to do both, but
not even Edwards's confidants expect him to
try. So North Carolina Democrats nervously
watch the Republicans charge ahead. ‘It is
just time for some decisions to be made, and
they need to be made now,’ said state
Representative Mickey Michaux, a 13-term House
member from Durham. ‘If John is not going to
run, then John ought to say that he is not
going to run and let other people know that.
If he is going to run, then he ought to be
gearing up his campaign to run for Senate.’
The Democrats' biggest fear is that he will
proceed with his presidential bid and
eventually drop out of the Senate race, but
take so long to decide that he leaves
potential Democratic Senate candidates at a
disadvantage. The Edwards campaign
said he has no timetable for making a
decision. ‘I think the longer this situation
remains in doubt, the weaker our candidate
will be,’ said Tony Rand, the state Senate
majority leader and a Democrat from
Fayetteville. Democrats' fears have been
heightened by Representative Richard Burr's
emergence as the Republican front-runner.
With backing from the White House, Burr has
raised $1.8 million this year for the Senate
race and transferred $1.7 million from his
House campaign account, according to
Federal Election Commission reports. Democrats
poised to run if Edwards should choose
a presidential bid are former White House
chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former state
House speaker Dan Blue… Questioned about the
race, Jennifer Palmieri, Edwards's
presidential campaign spokeswoman, reiterated
what the candidate has said: ‘He is running
for president, and he hasn't made a decision
on the Senate seat.’ Democrats expressed
concern that he has hurt his chances with
North Carolina voters by spending so much time
on the presidential campaign trail.”
… Only
about 300 from three states showed up to
support Gephardt in DSM – see yesterday’s
report – but apparently New England
Teamsters are just wild about Dick, which
probably explains why Dean and Kerry are
fighting it out for the January victory while
Gephardt falters. Headline from
yesterday’s New Hampshire Sunday News – “Gephardt:
Bush ruined economy” Excerpt from report
by the UL’s Mark Hayward: “Congressman Dick
Gephardt rode into Manchester in a shiny
trailer-truck cab yesterday evening, hauling
behind it the coveted endorsement from one of
the nation’s largest labor unions. About
1,000 Teamsters and their families were on
hand at JFK Coliseum to greet Gephardt
and Teamsters General President James P.
Hoffa. They arrived about 6:30 p.m. as Patrick
Kennedy, a Democratic congressman from Rhode
Island, was speaking. The endorsement was
announced yesterday morning in Detroit, and
Gephardt traveled to Des Moines,
Iowa, and then Manchester, using it to bolster
his campaign. The endorsement has special
meaning for Gephardt, whose father was a
Teamster milk truck driver. His father
often told him, Gephardt said, that food was
on the dinner table and a roof over their head
because of the Teamsters. ‘I wish Dad could
be here to see this,’ an emotional
Gephardt told the crowd, ‘because I see
him in you.’ The outdoor event, held outside
the front of the hockey arena, was about as
close to old-fashioned political rallies as
they come. Members of locals from across New
England congregated and shouted their numbers
to showcase their strength. They waived
‘Teamsters for Gephardt’ placards. They
chanted ‘Gep-hardt’ and ‘Hoff-a’ and booed any
mention of President Bush. Bruce Springsteen’s
‘Born in the U.S.A’ blared from speakers.”
… Dean vs.
Lieberman – a Capitol Gang Perspective.
Excerpts from transcript of Saturday’s
discussion on CNN’s Capitol Gang involving
Margaret Carlson, Mark Shields, Robert Novak
and Al Hunt: SHIELDS: Margaret Carlson,
what was the impact of Joe Lieberman's
attack on Howard Dean?…CARLSON:
Zero, I think, because Howard Dean is not
susceptible to conventional attacks,
because he's in virtual reality land of
campaigning. Listen, Joe Lieberman is
still ahead in South Carolina. He's staked out
the center. But in this race, being
anti-Bush is probably the only way to get the
nomination. And if you were to put Dean
and Lieberman into a Cuisinart, you'd
come out and have one normal candidate, in
that Dean is so angry, and no matter what
Joe Lieberman says, it comes out as reasonable
and considered and decent, not the kind of
stuff that's going to energize activist
Democrats. And for the next 60 days, I think
this is the last time we're going to see Gore
and Lieberman, a speech covered by them,
because the next 60 days, all politics is
California…SHIELDS: And -- good point.
And Bob Novak, I was in Chicago for the
[AFL-CIO] debate, or whatever you want to call
it, the day after Joe Lieberman makes
his attack on Howard Dean, and the --
it, it's -- that's it, he never says -- picks
up that theme again…NOVAK: He
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) cannot win a Democratic
nomination by saying the ideological leader
can't win, or that he is off the mainstream.
It just doesn't work. And Joe
Lieberman's campaign is, is, is, is the most
dysfunctional, because he seems to be running
in a nonexistent national primary. There is no
national primary. He's not going to win South
Carolina. I don't know who is, but it
isn't going to be Joe Lieberman. But
they have to -- the establishment has to
figure out a way to stop Dean if they're going
to stop him. They're not going to stop him
with Joe Lieberman…SHIELDS: One
problem, Al Hunt, with trying to stop Howard
Dean is, there's no establishment front-runner
consensus candidate around whom to organize…HUNT:
Well, that's right, Mark. Of course, Dean
is driving the insiders crazy. Look, this
is not about ideology. It is true that Howard
Dean opposed the Iraqi war. So did that
notorious lefty Robert D. Novak. It strikes me
that the greatest passion that Dean brings
when it comes to issues is fiscal
responsibility. And he's actually to the
right of Democrats on some issues. But what
Dean -- the tsunami that Dean has caught,
as Margaret alluded to a moment ago, is this
deep and pervasive anti-Bush current. Now,
that may not be enough to win a general
election among Democratic voters. That may not
be enough to win a general election, but it's
sure a requisite for winning the primary. And
Joe Lieberman better understand you can't
win primaries campaigning as Bush lite.”
… Edwards tries to make point on education
– and criticizes Bush – with visit to slave
school in South Carolina. Excerpt of AP
coverage by AP’s Bruce Smith in yesterday’s
Greenville News: “Democratic presidential
contender U.S. Sen. John Edwards
visited the site of the nation's first school
for freed slaves Saturday and attacked
President George Bush's education record. ‘In
many ways we still have two public school
systems in America - one for the haves and one
for the have-nots,’ Edwards, the
North Carolina Democrat, told a crowd of about
100 people gathered at the Penn Center on this
sea island near Beaufort, S.C. ‘The president
has talked about his slogan no child left
behind. But I have served on the Education
Committee and my concern is this president is
actually leaving millions of children behind,’
Edwards said to loud applause and hoots
from the audience. Edwards was
campaigning before South Carolina's
first-in-the-South Democratic presidential
primary next February. The Penn Center, which
runs a number of community outreach programs
for island residents, began in 1862 as a
school for freed slaves after Union forces
captured the area early in the Civil War.
Edwards said the president has failed to
provide enough money to even pay for his own
education plan. ‘We have to address the
serious needs in our public schools,
particularly narrowing the gap between the two
public school systems in America,’ Edwards
said. Edwards called for a national
initiative to boost teacher pay and for pay
incentives to encourage good teachers to teach
in poorly performing schools. He also said
there needs to be more investment in early
childhood education programs and in
after-school programs. After-school programs
can provide students with a place to go so
they are off the streets and productive,
Edwards said. ‘The president's solution
was to cut half a million after-school slots,’
said Edwards. ‘This is not what he
values. This is not what he puts his
priorities on. For the president, public
education is a slogan. It's a political
issue.’ Then Edwards added: ‘For me,
this is personal.’”
… Must read.
Headline from editorial in yesterday’s
Washington Post: “Mr. Gore Blurred View”
Excerpt: “The 2004 presidential race seems to
be carrying the Democratic Party in a
dangerous direction on the issues of the
Iraq war and national security -- dangerous
for the nation and risky for the party too.
Some of the candidates are more off course
than others. If they listen to former vice
president Al Gore, who took it upon himself
last week to suggest a theme of attack for the
nine candidates, they will all go off the
cliff. Mr. Gore, who not so long
ago was describing Iraq as a ‘virulent threat
in a class by itself,’ validated just about
every conspiratorial theory of the antiwar
left. President Bush, in distorting evidence
about the Iraqi threat, was pursuing policies
‘designed to benefit friends and supporters.’
The war was waged ‘at least partly in order
to ensure our continued access to oil.’ And it
occurred because ‘false impressions’ precluded
the nation from conducting a serious debate
before the war. This notion -- that we
were all somehow bamboozled into war -- is
part of Mr. Gore's larger conviction
that Mr. Bush has put one over on the nation,
and not just with regard to Iraq. You can see
why he might want to think so. Mr. Gore
believes, for example, that the Patriot Act
represents ‘a broad and extreme invasion of
our privacy rights in the name of terrorism.’
But then how to explain that 98 senators --
including all four Democratic senators now
running for president -- voted for it? The
president's economic and environmental
policies represent an ‘ideologically narrow
agenda’ serving only ‘powerful and wealthy
groups and individuals who manage to work
their way into the inner circle.’ But then why
do so many other people support those
policies? Mr. Gore has an umbrella
explanation, albeit one that many Americans
might find a tad insulting: ‘The
administration has developed a highly
effective propaganda machine to embed in the
public mind mythologies…’ Thus, Mr. Gore
maintains, we were all under the ‘false
impression’ that Saddam Hussein was ‘on the
verge of building nuclear bombs,’ that he was
‘about to give the terrorists poison gas and
deadly germs,’ that he was partly responsible
for the 9/11 attacks. And because of these
‘false impressions,’ the nation didn't conduct
a proper debate about the war. But there was
extensive debate going back many years; last
fall and winter the nation debated little else.
Mr. Bush took his case to the United Nations.
Congress argued about and approved a
resolution authorizing war. And the approval
did not come, as Mr. Gore and other
Democrats now maintain, because people were
deceived into believing that Saddam Hussein
was an ‘imminent’ threat who had attacked the
World Trade Center or was about to do so.”
… New York Times: Due
to Dean surge, Kerry forced to recalibrate his
approach in Iowa and New Hampshire. Times
headline: “As Campaign Tightens, Kerry
Sharpens Message” Excerpt from weekend
report by Adam Nagourney: “Senator John
Kerry of Massachusetts had just finished a
walking tour through Littleton, a small town
near here in the White Mountains, when he
paused to take questions from local reporters
outside a candy store. There was one
subject this day: Howard Dean. Again
and again, Mr. Kerry was asked his views of
Dr. Dean. Again and again, Mr. Kerry, who had
passed a half-dozen Dean placards on his walk,
demurred. When a television reporter
taunted Mr. Kerry to at least utter Dr.
Dean's name, Mr. Kerry, who is
rarely at a loss for words, grinned and
pinched his mouth shut. This is Mr. Kerry's
world these days. Three months after many
Democrats and Mr. Kerry himself thought
he was rolling to the Democratic presidential
nomination, he is frequently stuck in the
shadow of an opponent who has moved from
small-bore annoyance to potential threat. By
all appearances, the changed atmosphere in
the early battlegrounds of Iowa and New
Hampshire has forced Mr. Kerry to recalibrate
his approach to the crowded race for the
nomination. By his own account, Mr.
Kerry's campaign message — which even some
supporters described as toothless and
themeless back when the fight seemed simpler —
has become sharper, more focused and more
compact. A candidate who has a reputation
for circular speaking and windy orations is
invoking Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman
(‘I'm going to tell the truth and they'll
think it's hell.’), and sounding campaign
notes from John McCain, Paul Wellstone and,
well, Dr. Dean. Mr. Kerry is denouncing
corporate chieftains for ‘looting America,’
and proclaiming the economy under President
Bush the worst since the Great Depression.
He is attacking Mr. Bush's credibility and
competence on issues as different as tax cuts
and the postwar cleanup in Iraq to large and
enthusiastic crowds in New Hampshire and Iowa.
‘This is the greatest say-one-thing-do-another
administration that I've seen in all the time
I've been in public life — since Richard Nixon
was president of the United States,’ Mr.
Kerry said in Minneapolis. After what many
Democrats, including Dr. Dean,
described as vacillation on the subject, Mr.
Kerry is now standing by his decision to
vote for the war in Iraq, arguing, ‘I
didn't take the easy road, but I took the road
that I thought was correct.’ He is seeking to
claim the mantle in 2004 for expanded health
care coverage, an idea that was pioneered in
this campaign by Representative Richard A.
Gephardt of Missouri and Dr. Dean.
He is also following Dr. Dean into the
campaign computer age. Last week, he began his
own campaign Web log, or blog, to provide a
digest of his travels, modeled after the blog
Dr. Dean has used with great success to
rally supporters and contributors. And more
than ever, Mr. Kerry is invoking his
stature as a Vietnam veteran as he challenges
the stature of his Democratic opponents — none
of whom, he frequently points out, have ‘worn
the uniform of our country’ — to withstand a
debate with Mr. Bush on national security…Mr.
Kerry said any changes in his style and
campaign — which he said would become even
more vivid as he approaches the official
announcement of his candidacy next month —
were not in response to the ascendancy of Dr.
Dean. Rather, Mr. Kerry said
over the roar of a private jet flying him
through the Midwest last week, any such
changes were testimony of his evolution as a
candidate, the natural rhythms of a campaign,
and the increasing vigor he has felt in the
months since he had cancer surgery…Whatever
the reason, the change is bracing, and
suggests that the fall campaign will be
lively, if polls continue to show Mr. Kerry
and Dr. Dean battling for support in
states like [New Hampshire].”
… Too good to
pass up. The Grahams in Iowa: Graham takes
in Iowa scenery, exudes confidence and
optimism, and gets questions on “hog lots” –
but has a tough time finding supportive
caucusgoers. Weekend headline from the
Orlando Sentinel: “Graham works hard, but
few voters seem impressed” The Sentinel’s
political ace Mark Silva joins the Graham
family on their Iowa “vacation.” Excerpt: “Adele
Graham, silhouetted in the shade of a long and
fabled covered bridge, strolls through one of
Madison County's flat-roofed river-crossings
popularized in a sentimental best-seller about
middle-aged romance. ‘Don't we have a
pretty country?’ Graham asks a granddaughter
clutching a purple alfalfa flower from the
cornfields along the Middle River, where the
Holliwell Bridge has stood since 1880.
‘Iowa is a park . . . so beautiful.’
Yet Iowa is no walk in the park for her
husband, Bob Graham, one of nine Democrats in
search of his party's 2004 presidential
nomination. Graham, Florida's
senior senator and former governor, has his
entire family in tow as he tours the state
where so far he has a mere sliver of support.
Six other Democrats are running stronger in
Iowa, which on Jan. 19 will take the first
measure of presidential candidates, according
to a poll here. But that hasn't dissuaded
Graham from embracing the challenge with a
single-minded fervor. ‘My father can be
elected,’ Graham's first-born daughter,
Gwen, assures a roomful of elderly Iowans at
lunch on the tree-lined courthouse square of
this village. Winterset, where five
historic covered bridges survive, served as
the setting for the 1995 film based on Robert
James Waller's weeper about a brief love
affair between a photographer and a married
woman. There is something aggressively
wholesome about this campaign. The sun is
setting one breezy evening by the shore of a
lake, as Graham, 66, and his wife start
singing their campaign song to 50 people who
turn out for barbecued bratwurst and sweet
corn on the cob. ‘You've got a friend in
Bob Graham,’ sing the candidate, his wife and
four grown daughters, the women all dressed in
matching, embroidered white overalls. Hearing
the familiar refrain, 10 Graham grandchildren
scramble across the grass to join in the
chorus. ‘When you elect a president, you
elect a family,’ says Adele Graham, wife of 44
years to the man who predicted when she was 18
that one day he would be elected Florida's
governor. He will be elected president,
Adele Graham passionately tells crowd after
crowd with a confidence that conveys a
guarantee of truth. The candidate's own
spirits are lifted even higher by a hot-air
balloon ride Friday at the Indianola
Balloon Classic. Yet the political
landscape below offers little support for
unbridled optimism. The newest statewide
survey ranks Graham's support at 1
percent among likely caucus-goers. Howard
Dean, the former governor of Vermont
riding a summer wave, has advanced to equal
standing here with Dick Gephardt, the
congressman from Missouri who carried Iowa's
caucuses in his last presidential campaign 15
years ago. Graham confronts the reality of
Dean's growing support as he tours the Iowa
State Fair, a Midwestern Disney World where
butter-carved sculptures of an Ayrshire dairy
cow and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle are on
display and ‘pork on a stick’ is consumed with
a passion. This year's concession to good
health: ‘salad on a stick.’…Graham's
family tour started with the fair, where the
Floridian was the first presidential candidate
to stand at a ‘soapbox’ sponsored by the
Register and make a pitch. His grandchildren,
seated on hay bales in a semicircle, listen
intently as their ‘Doodle’ explains why Bush
must be retired, but never more than a
half-dozen fair-goers at any one time pause
and listen to grandpa, and then move on.
‘President Bush has clearly established what
his vision is,’ Graham tells his
restless audience. ‘His vision of the future
is one in which the rich get the most
attention in which America uses its power as
an arrogant bully.’ Bush has cast ‘a veil of
secrecy’ over the war, Graham
complains, a secrecy unknown since Richard
Nixon was president. When he finishes,
Graham asks for questions. It's about ‘hog
lots.’ Sue Droessler wants to know what
Graham will do about the hog lots cropping
up around the Kossuth County town where her
family lives. The smell is so bad, she
complains, that they can't open their windows.
It's a problem of unchecked corporate
power, Graham replies. The Justice Department
has not enforced antitrust laws, he says,
adding: ‘One of the first things I will do as
president is to fire [Attorney General] John
Ashcroft.’”
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