|
Quotable:
On DEAN |
“I will never hesitate to send our troops
anywhere in the world to defend the United
States of America.”
– Dean, speaking at CWA forum in
Chicago
“After addressing the labor activists,
Dean took to a Navy Pier rooftop, where
hundreds cheered as he promised, if
elected, to send the president back to
Crawford, Texas, and U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft to ‘an undisclosed
location.’”
– Chicago Sun-Times Curtis Lawrence,
reporting on Dean’s visit
“September will hold plenty of surprises.
We wouldn't be the Dean campaign if we
didn't turn a few heads.”
– Dean
Iowa campaign manager Jeani Murray,
commenting on plans to unleash more that
1,000 Deanies on Iowans with a
door-to-door project |
|
Quotable: On
LIEBERMAN |
“Way to go, Adam.”
– Lieberman to deputy press secretary
Adam Kovacevich, after meeting a SC
voter who supports GWB because of his
Christian values.
"‘He’s
the only guy who has ever shown me any
respect.’”–
California Lieutenant Governor Cruz
Bustamante on why he
endorses Lieberman for
president.
|
|
Quotable: On
GRAHAM |
“The
decision of the future of Puerto Rico
should be made directly by Puerto Ricans.”
– Graham, campaigning in Puerto
Rico
|
|
Quotable: On
KERRY |
“When it comes to creating opportunity,
restoring fiscal discipline, putting
values back into our economy, and
preparing for the jobs of the future,
George Bush hasn't lifted a finger. I
intend to move mountains.”
– Kerry, announcing his economic
package yesterday in New Hampshire
“Kerry has run the worst campaign of any
front-runner in either party in years.
Having been involved in a few of those
myself, I can tell you that is quite a
chore.”
– Political consultant David Carney,
reacting to latest NH poll showing Dean
with 21-point lead over Kerry
“If elected president, Kerry promised to
cut the deficit at least in half in his
first term.”
– AP’s Holly Ramer, reporting on
Kerry’s economic proposal
“Though it's garnering little attention
from the political press corps,
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's
presidential campaign has been plummeting.
Once
the odds-on choice to win the Democratic
nomination and take on President Bush, Mr.
Kerry's emotionless, messageless campaign
has stalled.”
–
Washington Times political ace Donald
Lambro |
|
Quotable: On
CLARK |
“It's safe to say he wants to run. But he
approaches this like a military man. He
wants to know, Can I win the battle? He
doesn't want to have a situation where he
could embarrass himself, but I'm
absolutely certain he wants to run.”
– Longtime Clark friend, quoted in
the NY Times
“Just imagine Clark, with his
distinguished military record, up against
our draft dodger president who likes to
play ‘Top Gun’ dress-up. Imagine the
Rhodes Scholar against the leader who
can't ad lib without a speechwriting
staff.”
– Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The
American Prospect, in the Boston Globe |
|
Quotable: On EDWARDS |
“Edwards
said congressional candidates in all parts
of the country would want him to campaign
for them during the general election --
which may not be the case with some of
Democratic rivals. He did not mention any
other candidates by name.”
– News
& Observer of Raleigh, reporting on
Edwards claim he’s best wannabe to
help Dems regain congressional control |
Special Update:
Dean
begins to look like political King Kong in
Iowa – latest poll gives him (25%) lead over
Gephardt (21%) with Kerry at 16% and Lieberman
holding in fourth place with 12%. All other
wannabes in single digits. Could it be time
for Gephardt to make decision to join Dean and
Edwards at Labor Day parade in Des Moines?
GENERAL
NEWS:
Among
the offerings in today's update:
-
New York
Times – Clark’s possible announcement
date 9/19 at University of Iowa. Topic of
planned Iowa City speech: “The American
Leadership Role in a Changing World”
Meanwhile, the DSM Register reported
yesterday McAuliffe told Vilsack that
Clark would run
-
New poll in
IA: Dean tops Gephardt and other wannabes
– but GWB would take them all out in
head-to-head matchup
-
Report:
Hillary to convene Bill & Braintrust after
Labor Day to review prez bid status
-
Kerry’s
bad luck continues: On the day (yesterday)
he outlined economic package for states,
polls show him faltering and commentators
say his candidacy is “plummeting”
-
The latest
Dean challenge to rivals: Get more
than 1,000 supporters on streets going
door-to-door in Iowa next month – like
Team Dean plans. After
“Sleepless” tour and starting TV ads in six
states, Team Dean sets out to show IA
organizational/voter contact dominance. The
Goal: Triple number of Dean supporters in
state during Sept
-
New
Hampshire poll reaction: After survey shows
21-point lead, Team Kerry dismisses the
outcome, says the NH Dems are still
extremely fluid.
(Iowa Pres
Watch Note: The Kerry folks may be
right that it’s fluid – NH Dems are flowing
toward Dean.)
-
Boston Globe
column: If Clark gets in, he’d “instantly
be among the top tier” wannabes and Kerry
would be hurt most
-
Question
of the day: How many more bad polls
and unfavorable media commentaries can
Kerry’s campaign withstand? Kerry
doesn’t announce until next week and
political ace Lambro writes that his
campaign is “plummeting”
-
Lieberman’s
presidential race is proving the old adage
that it pays to be nice to others.
-
Former
Iowa Dem congressman Bedell to back Dean
this weekend
-
In South
Carolina, Edwards says he’s the best hope
if Dems want to win White House -- and
regain House and Senate
-
In Colorado,
Kerry claims he’s a Coloradoan, too
-
In Chicago,
Dean claims he can take the White House
despite his anti-war, left leaning policies
-
In South
Carolina, Lieberman faces a tough crowd –
and gets sermon on Christian values
-
In Iowa,
Kerry says he won’t confine his caucus hopes
to veterans
-
In Puerto
Rico – that’s right, Puerto Rico – Graham
says he would tackle “decolonization”
situation if elected prez
-
In New
Hampshire, Dems give Dean highest points
among wannabes for health care plan
-
Quad-City
Times: Grassley shuts down
negotiations on prescription drug bill in
fight over rural health care provisions
-
Edwards
says GWB lacks compassion for ordinary
people & is too arrogant to seek help in
Iraq
-
On Issues:
Children’s Defense Fund targets Iowa,
four other states as Head Start
battlegrounds
-
Dean
lands on right side of Cuban issue for FL
activists – supports dropping embargo, but
not during Fidel’s dissident crackdown
-
Daily Iowan
(University of Iowa) editorial dismisses
Alabama Ten Commandments controversy as a
“publicity stunt”
-
Labor Day
update: Report says IA’s median wage has
dropped 17 cents
-
Iowaism:
Lovethatlegend – a two-year-old filly –
could get record sale price for an Iowa-bred
horse
All these stories below and more.
Morning Report:
WHO-TV (Des
Moines) reports that the body of an adult
Hispanic male was found last night near
Sandpiper Beach at Saylorville Lake northwest
of Des Moines. The WHO report
said that within an hour of discovering the
body authorities ruled it as a homicide,
saying they discounted an accidental drowning
because of the “way the body was placed in the
lake.”
WHO-TV also
reported that Dem Secretary of State Chet
Culver is being urged to challenge GOP Sen.
Chuck Grassley’s bid for re-election next
year. The ultimate irony: Grassley defeated
Culver’s father – John Culver, a former
Kennedy roommate at Harvard – to win his first
Senate term in 1980.
CANDIDATES
& CAUCUSES:
… In new
Iowa survey, Dean looks tough – but GWB is
even tougher. Dean beats Kerry 25% to 21% --
but the best news is that Bush could defeat
the top tier Dem wannabes. Excerpt from
report from KCCI-TV (Des Moines): “Former
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has vaulted into the
lead among Iowa Democrats polled this week.
The exclusive KCCI News Channel 8 poll,
conducted by Research 2000, finds Dean
leading the pack of 10 candidates who are
running or considering a run for president of
the United States. The poll, conducted Aug.
25 through Aug. 27, shows that if the Iowa
caucuses were held today, 25 percent of those
polled would support Dean. Missouri Rep.
Richard Gephardt is second with 21 percent,
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is third with 16
percent and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is
fourth with 12 percent. The other candidates
are all in single digits. This newest poll
is a huge leap forward for Dean. In the
last KCCI NewsChannel 8 poll conducted
June, 2003, Dean was in third place with
11 percent. Richard Gephardt was in first
place in June with 27 percent. Dean's
surging poll numbers track with another poll
released in New Hampshire this week showing
him building a big lead among Democrats in
that state. When Iowans are polled at
large, including Republicans and Independent
voters, none of the Democrats show an ability
to beat Republican President George W. Bush.
The poll asked head-to-head match-up
questions. If the choice were between Bush and
Gephardt, Bush would win with 48
percent to Gephardt's 39 percent. In a
match between Bush and Kerry,
Bush would get 49 percent of the vote while
Kerry would garner 40 percent. The
telephone poll of 600 likely voters who say
they vote regularly in state elections also
found that 16 percent of those polled say
Bush is doing an excellent job handling the
situation in Iraq, while 36 percent say
he's doing a good job, 33 percent a fair job,
10 percent a poor job and 5 percent are not
sure. Dean staffers in Des Moines said they
are pleased their candidate keeps moving up in
the polls. Dean communications
director Sarah Leonard said the more people
get to know Gov. Dean, the more they
will like him. Gephardt's communications
director in Iowa, Bill Burton, said there is
no concern about the polling numbers, claiming
Gephardt has said all along this will be a
tight race to the very end.”
… Weekend
wannabe watch: Gephardt, unless there’s a
change in his schedule, appears ready to shun
IA unions over Labor Day weekend – but Dean,
seeking to pick up union endorsements, and
Edwards will show. Both Dean and
Edwards are scheduled to be in the Des
Moines Labor Day parade sponsored by the
South Central Iowa Federation of Labor. The
parade kicks off at 11 a.m. Monday at the Iowa
Statehouse and ends at the Iowa State
fairgrounds. Dean also is scheduled to
participate in Labor Day picnics in Iowa City
and Burlington, and attend receptions in
Wapello and Muscatine.
… Kerry,
who discovered last spring that he has Jewish
roots to go with Catholic heritage, now claims
that he’s a Coloradoan. Under the subhead
“Colorado native,” Greg Pierce wrote in
his “Inside Politics” column in yesterday’s
Washington Times: “Sen.
John Kerry brought his presidential campaign
to Colorado on Tuesday and proudly announced
that he is a native of the state. The
Massachusetts Democrat, who spent about six
hours in Denver, revealed that he was born in
1943 at the now-closed Fitzsimons Army
Hospital, where his father was recovering from
tuberculosis while serving in the Army Air
Corps. Mr. Kerry's brief homecoming wasn't
planned to put him in touch with his roots,
the Denver Post reports. Instead, the campaign
rally and fund-raiser snagged him $125,000 in
less than two hours, organizers said. The
contributions come a week before Mr. Kerry
is scheduled to formally kick off his
presidential bid Tuesday in front of an
aircraft carrier in Charleston, S.C.”
… “General Is Said
to Want to Join ’04 Race” – headline from
yesterday’s New York Times. Report says he
will wait until after the September filing
period and “possible” announce date and site
will be 9/19 speech at University of Iowa.
Excerpt from report by the Times’ Michael
Janofsky: “Wesley K. Clark, the retired
four-star general who has been contemplating a
run for president, has told close friends that
he wants to join the Democratic race and is
delaying a final decision only until he feels
he has a legitimate chance of winning the
nomination. ‘It's safe to say he wants to
run,’ said a longtime friend who has had
frequent political conversations with General
Clark. ‘But he approaches this like a
military man. He wants to know, Can I win the
battle? He doesn't want to have a situation
where he could embarrass himself, but I'm
absolutely certain he wants to run.’
Whether he does, his friends said, will be
determined by his instincts and a firm
assessment of Howard Dean, the former governor
of Vermont, whose early success has come in
part through criticism of White House
strategies in Iraq that are every bit as
strong as General Clark's. While General
Clark has consistently maintained that
he has not yet made up his mind, his friends
said a major obstacle has been cleared —
family approval. They said his wife, Gert,
who had initially expressed reservations, now
favors his running. ‘He is going to do
it,’ said another of General Clark's
friends. ‘He's just going back and forth as to
when’ to announce. In an interview from his
office in Little Rock, Ark., General Clark
said today that he intended to announce his
decision whether he would run in two weeks or
so. ‘I've got to by then,’ he said. ‘I've
just got to. I can't have done nothing, and if
I do it, there's groundwork to be laid.’ More
than likely, General Clark would wait
until sometime after Sept. 15, a financial
reporting date for presidential contenders. If
he announces before then, he would have to
reveal how much money he raised in the third
quarter of the year, which pales beside the
millions generated by Dr. Dean, Senator
John Kerry of Massachusetts and other
leading Democratic candidates. A
possible date for an announcement is Sept. 19,
when General Clark, who has been highly
critical of Bush administration foreign
policy, is scheduled to deliver a speech at
the University of Iowa. The subject is ‘The
American Leadership Role in a Changing World.’
The addition of General Clark into the
presidential campaign could shake up a race
that has remained fairly static for months,
with Dr. Dean, Mr. Kerry and Representative
Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri showing
greater traction than the others running:
Senators Bob Graham of Florida, Joseph
I. Lieberman of Connecticut, John
Edwards of North Carolina, Representative
Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, former
Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois
and the Rev. Al Sharpton. While
some contenders view General Clark more as a
running mate than presidential threat, his
credentials could pose problems for several of
them. As a former military officer, he
would sound at least as credible on national
security matters as Dr. Dean. As a
Southerner from Little Rock, General Clark
might blunt the appeal of Mr. Edwards and Mr.
Graham in the South. And as a Vietnam
veteran, he would temper a prominent theme
of Mr. Kerry's campaign, that he is the
only Democrat running to have served in
combat. But almost all the other Democrats
have financial and organizational advantages
over General Clark. He has done almost
nothing to prepare for a nationwide campaign
or even one centered in the early test states,
Iowa and New Hampshire. A spokeswoman, Holly
Johnson, said his only political activity had
been traveling the country, giving speeches.”
… Joe
Lieberman’s presidential race is proving
the old adage that it pays to be nice to
others. Lieberman’s prospects are
improving because of an earlier endorsement
by California Lieutenant Governor Cruz
Bustamante. Bustamante’s rise in polling
just over a month a way from the recall vote
is providing hope to Lieberman’s chances of
bagging the big prize of California’s March 2nd
Democrat Primary. Bustamante could also bring
support from the Hispanic community into the
Lieberman camp. Bustamante would be the
highest ranking Hispanic in the country if he
wins the California Governor’s race. The
Lieberman-Bustamante pairing is a
strange match by all accounts. However, it
seems Lieberman’s treatment and demeanor
towards Bustamante was the deal sealer back in
May when Lieberman received his endorsement,
according to a quote by AP. “Richie Ross, a
Bustamante campaign consultant, said he asked
Cruz [Bustamante] ‘Why would you be for
Lieberman, his politics aren’t the same as
yours?’ And he said,
‘He’s the only guy who has ever
shown me any respect.’”
… Kerry may soon
qualify for an “I’ve fallen and can’t get up”
commercial. While Dean bandwagon – including
lead in latest IA survey – rolls along, Kerry
goes with subpar economic proposal that
probably won’t attract one supporter anywhere.
Excerpt from New Hampshire report –
datelined Durham – by AP’s Holly Ramer: “Democratic
presidential hopeful John Kerry on Thursday
proposed sending $25 billion to states
struggling with budget deficits as part of a
broader plan to jump-start the economy and
spur job creation. The two-year ‘State Tax
Relief and Education’ fund would help states
that have had to cut education spending and
lay off police and firefighters under Bush
administration policies that have ‘brought
back the days of deficits, debt and doubt,’
Kerry said. ‘When it comes to creating
opportunity, restoring fiscal discipline,
putting values back into our economy, and
preparing for the jobs of the future, George
Bush hasn't lifted a finger. I intend to move
mountains,’ Kerry said at the University
of New Hampshire, where he outlined an
economic package that mixed new ideas with
some old proposals. ‘Let me put it plainly: If
Americans aren't working, America's not
working,’ the Massachusetts senator said.
The state fund was one of several short-term
proposals that Kerry would finance by
repealing President Bush's tax cuts for the
top 1 percent of income earners. Some of
his Democratic rivals - Rep. Dick Gephardt
of Missouri and former Vermont Gov. Howard
Dean - want to repeal the entire tax cut,
an idea Kerry continues to criticize.
‘Some in my own party are so angry at
George Bush and his unfair tax cuts that they
think the solution is to do the exact opposite,’
Kerry said. ‘They want to return to
rejected old-style policies that eliminate all
tax breaks, including those to working
people.’ Kerry said he would provide
tax relief to middle-class families by keeping
the child tax credit, reduced marriage penalty
and lower tax rates that were part of the Bush
package while lowering capital gains and
dividend taxes for the middle class. He also
proposed a new tax credit to help families
afford college. The credit would apply to
100 percent of the first $1,000 spent on
tuition and 50 percent of the rest, up to
$4,000. He also proposed a new tax credit to
encourage manufacturers to remain and expand
operations in the United States and promised
to hold weekly summits for the first six
months of his presidency to develop strategies
for creating jobs in key regions and
industries. Despite recent signs of economic
recovery, Kerry insisted the nation remains
in a ‘fight for our economic future.’ The
Commerce Department said Thursday that the
economy grew at a solid 3.1 percent annual
rate in the April to June quarter, a
better-than-expected showing. This week, the
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said
the federal government faces at least eight
more years of budget deficits, including a
record $480 billion shortfall in 2004. If
elected president, Kerry promised to cut the
deficit at least in half in his first term.”
… Dean’s
non-stop assault on rivals – and Dem voters –
just keeps going on and on and on. For Team
Dean, it’s either a “Sleepless” tour getting
big crowds or fundraising dominance or another
round of TV spots or – the latest gimmick –
sending more than 1,000 door-to-door across
IA. Headline from yesterday’s The Union
Leader: “Dean to step up campaign in Iowa”
AP’s resident caucus-watcher, Mike Glover,
warns of latest Iowa political threat – a
Deanie at the door. Excerpt: “Democrat
Howard Dean is stepping up his campaign in
Iowa, with plans for more than 1,000
supporters to push his presidential candidacy
door-to-door next month. As part of his
effort to capture Iowa's precinct caucuses,
Dean also is enlisting the help of labor in a
direct challenge to rival Dick Gephardt, who
won Iowa in his unsuccessful bid for the
presidency in 1988 and has captured several
union endorsements this year. Recent polls
show Dean closely bunched with
Gephardt at the top of the field. More
than 1,000 Dean backers will spend weekends
campaigning for the former Vermont governor,
with 500 supporters flying in from Texas
during the weekend of Sept. 27 to canvass for
Dean. ‘We plan to triple the number of
supporters we have in Iowa by Sept. 30,’ said
Dean Iowa campaign manager Jeani Murray
in a memo outlining the strategy. ‘Our field
and political organization will be
aggressively bringing new supporters into our
campaign which will be announced with a series
of events over the next four weeks.’ Labor
activists will announce on Thursday the
creation of a ‘Labor for Dean’ organization
that could aid the candidate with paid
advertising and the type of campaigning by
union rank-and-file that has boosted
Democrats. Dean was the first in
the nine-person Democratic field to run ads in
Iowa, and he is trying to match that with an
aggressive organizational effort. Dean's
campaign has scheduled a news conference
Thursday with Sandy Upstreet, president of the
International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers state conference, and Tom Gillesppie,
president of the Building Trades Council, to
announce the union effort. In addition, Murray
said the campaign planned ‘Dean Corps’
events throughout September in Iowa, in which
Dean backers participate in community
projects. ‘September will hold plenty of
surprises,’ Murray said. ‘We wouldn't be the
Dean campaign if we didn't turn a few
heads.’ Dean has run one of the most
intensive campaigns in Iowa, with campaign
appearances in 75 of the state's 99 counties.
His field organization has held meetings in
all 99 counties.”
… Is the Kerry
campaign whistling through the political
graveyard in New Hampshire? Team Kerry played
down latest survey showing Dean up by 21
points. Other wannabes appear to be frozen in
place. Excerpt from report by The Union
Leader State House Bureau Chief Garry Rayno
with reaction on Zogby survey: “A new poll
shows Democratic Presidential candidate Howard
Dean with a commanding 21-point lead over John
Kerry in New Hampshire. The poll done by
John Zogby shows the former Vermont governor
with 32 percent of likely Democratic primary
voters to the Massachusetts senator’s 17
percent. Recent polls have the two much
closer. The Kerry campaign played down the
poll. New Hampshire communications director
Kym Spell said the electorate is extremely
fluid right now, and the polls will bounce up
and down a lot in the next few months. ‘At
the end of the day, the people of New
Hampshire are looking for a candidate with the
capacity to be commander in chief and with a
positive message of where he will take the
country, and that candidate is John Kerry,’
she said. Dean campaign spokesman Dorie
Clark said, ‘It’s always dangerous to live and
die by the polls this far in advance. For now,
it’s a nice thing. It encourages our
supporters and shows their hard work is
helping to make a difference.’ Political
consultant David Carney, who has worked on a
number of Presidential campaigns here and in
other areas, said, ‘You have to look at it
in terms of trends. You can quibble about the
number, but the trend is dead on.’ He
said the other candidates have run safe and
cautious campaigns that have not excited
anybody, while Dean has had something
substantive to say. ‘What turns on
partisans in both parties is having something
to say,’ Carney said. Carney said there
also may be another reason for Dean’s lead.
‘Kerry has run the worst campaign
of any front-runner in either party in years,’
he said. ‘Having been involved in a few of
those myself, I can tell you that is quite a
chore.’ Kerry led in New Hampshire
polls earlier this year; in one poll, he held
a 26 percent to 13 percent advantage in
February. The two candidates were
essentially tied in a Zogby poll in June…Rich
Killion of the Marlin Fitzwater Center for
Communications at Franklin Pierce College said
while the center’s most recent poll taken in
late July had Dean up by 1 percent, the rest
of Zogby’s numbers match what he has found in
his last two polls. He said his last poll
showed that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman
and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt are
well-known, with good favorable ratings, yet
are very low in the ballot test. ‘They are
well-known, but they aren’t registering with
likely Democratic primary voters,’ Killion
said. In the Zogby poll, Gephardt and
Lieberman are at 6 percent. Killion said
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has
raised a significant amount of money at the
national level and earned a lot of accolades
from Beltway pundits and politicians, but
still has low poll numbers. Zogby has
Edwards at 4 percent. Other candidates in
Zogby’s polls include retired Gen. Wesley
Clark at 2 percent, Florida Sen. Bob
Graham and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich
at 1 percent, and Carol Moseley Braun
and Al Sharpton at 0 percent.”
… Dean to
get boost from ex-Congressman Bedell. The
Sioux City Journal reported yesterday that
former 6th District Congressman Berkley Bedell
will formally announce his endorsement for
former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean during Labor
Day weekend events. Dean is among
the upper tier of Democratic Party
presidential candidates and Bedell's
endorsement will be Dean's most prominent to
date from a national legislator. Bedell
will be campaigning in support of Dean
on Monday, Sept.1, first meeting with Woodbury
County Democrats at a brunch and then at noon
at Riverside Park for the Northwest Iowa Labor
Council's Labor Day picnic.
’I believe that Gov. Howard Dean
understands the issues and values we face here
in Iowa,’ said Bedell. ‘He comes from a
state where he balanced the budget, protected
the environment and created jobs.’ A Spirit
Lake native, Bedell represented the
6th District from 1974 to 1986.”
… Washington Times
columnist Lambro uses three words to describe
Kerry’s campaign on the eve of his planned
announcement: Plummeting. Messageless.
Emotionless. Headline from yesterday’s
Washington Times: “That sinking feeling”
Excerpt from Lambro’s commentary: “Though
it's garnering little attention from the
political press corps, Massachusetts Sen. John
Kerry's presidential campaign has been
plummeting.
Once
the odds-on choice to win the Democratic
nomination and take on President Bush, Mr.
Kerry's emotionless, messageless campaign has
stalled.
All the momentum is rolling with feisty former
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, whose
combative, ultraliberal, antiwar campaign is
surprising the pundits and rousing the
Democratic Party establishment. Arguably, Mr.
Kerry has the sharpest campaign team in
the business, and the heaviest hitters. But
what Mr. Kerry may possess in senatorial
gravitas, he lacks in personality, bite and
soul. Mr. Dean, however, is all bite,
jabs and left hooks. His stump speeches
leave Democratic audiences pumped and ready to
sign up. ‘It's message vs. no message,’ says
independent pollster John Zogby. ‘Dean is
focused. His messages can fit on a bumper
sticker. They're clear. You know who he is and
where he stands. He reminds me of John McCain…The
result: Mr. Kerry's campaign is in a slump
and, at least for now, shows no signs
recovering…Nationally, most Democrats
either know little about Mr. Kerry or dislike
what he is selling. For months he was
ambivalent on the war in Iraq, but is now
trying to reinvent himself as a staunch critic
of Mr. Bush's postwar plans. Mr. Zogby has
Mr. Kerry doing no better than fourth
in his nationwide rankings with 9 percent,
running behind Mr. Dean, Mr.
Gephardt and Sen. Joe Lieberman of
Connecticut, who are locked in a three-way tie
with 12 percent each. With just four months
to go before the Iowa caucuses and New
Hampshire primary in January, Mr. Kerry is
shockingly weak in just about every region of
the country, according to Mr. Zogby. In
the Eastern states, Mr. Lieberman and Mr. Dean
were locked in first place with 13 percent
each. Mr. Kerry, a New Englander
who you would think would do best in the East,
is in the backfield with Mr. Gephardt
and Al Sharpton — barely drawing 4
percent. In the South, Mr. Kerry is tied
with Mr. Sharpton at 9 percent, trailing
Mr. Gephardt and Mr. Lieberman
with 15 percent and 11 percent,
respectively. Mr. Kerry trails badly in the
Central/Great Lakes region with 8 percent,
well behind Messrs. Gephardt, Dean and
Lieberman. His best regional showing is in
the West, where he runs 2 points behind
frontrunner Mr. Dean (17 percent).”
… “Lieberman
meets tough crowd in Spartanburg” –
headline from yesterday’s Spartanburg
Herald-Journal. Tony Taylor reported that
Lieberman got a sermon on Christian values
during South Carolina campaign stop.
Coverage – an excerpt – by Tony Taylor: “Democratic
presidential candidate Joe Lieberman came to
Spartanburg Wednesday to preach the evils of
high gasoline prices and record unemployment.
But the U.S. senator from Connecticut got a
sermon on Christian values when he met the
public at Junie White's Exxon on South Pine
Street. Lieberman's campaign staff
guided the candidate over to greet a customer
before he spoke to reporters. Mark Wucherer, a
foreman at Kohler Co., moved forward to shake
Lieberman's hand. When a reporter
asked Wucherer whether he supported Lieberman,
Wucherer grimaced and said, ‘No, I'm leaning
toward President Bush. A lot of issues he
(Lieberman) stands for, I don't.’ Wucherer
said his support for Bush boils down to one
issue. ‘His belief in Jesus Christ,’ Wucherer
said. ‘Accepting Christ as your savior will
change your attitude on everything.’
Lieberman, who is Jewish, paused a moment in
stunned silence. Then he said, ‘Nice to
meet you,’ and moved away to speak to the
media. As he walked toward reporters,
Lieberman shouted to deputy press secretary
Adam Kovacevich: ‘Way to go, Adam.’ A
bystander called out: ‘Welcome to South
Carolina.’ Lieberman, campaigning
in South Carolina because the state holds one
of the nation's first Democratic primaries,
was in the Upstate to sway the party faithful.
The general election -- and the Republican
Party's dominance here -- were far from the
candidate's mind. ‘We'll focus on the
Democratic primary first and focus later on
this other stuff,’ Lieberman said.
William Moore, a political scientist at the
College of Charleston, said Lieberman knows
the Democratic nominee won't carry the state
in 2004.’South Carolina has not voted
Democratic in a presidential election since
1976,’ Moore said. ‘It's unlikely to become
competitive in the general election.’ The
area's religious leanings also are no secret,
Moore said. ‘If you look at the South and
South Carolina, it's overwhelmingly Protestant
with a small number of Catholics and Jews,’ he
said. ‘An overwhelming number of those
Protestants are Christian fundamentalists.
It's about a third of the vote in the
Republican primary. But he came here for the
Democratic primary.’ Moore said Democrats
consider the Feb. 3 South Carolina primary
important because it is the first in the
South. After Wednesday's gaffe, Lieberman
regained his composure and returned to his
political message. He blamed the Bush
administration for high gas prices and record
unemployment rates. ‘Gas prices jumped 10
cents one day in Connecticut,’ Lieberman
said. ‘Why is this happening? The oil
companies say it's because of the blackout,
the broken pipeline in Arizona or what's
happening in Iraq. I don't buy that. I'm
very suspicious.’ Lieberman pointed out
Bush's close ties to the oil industry and
accused the president of putting petroleum
interests ahead of consumers. The oil
companies know they can get away with gouging,
he charged. ‘It really smells,’ Lieberman
said. ‘If you just lie back and do nothing,
the oil industry realizes there's no cop on
the beat.’”
… Clark – who’s
generating as many news reports as real
wannabe Dean – would, according to Boston
Globe column, transform the race, presumably
pass “go” and move directly to the top tier.
Kerry’s support would be jeopardized.
Headline on Robert Kuttner’s column in the
Wednesday’s Globe: “If Clark runs, all bets
are off” Excerpt from commentary by
Kuttner, who is co-editor of The American
Prospect: “Wesley Clark has told
associates that he will decide in the next few
weeks whether to declare for president. If he
does, it would transform the race. Call me
star-struck, but he'd instantly be among the
top tier. Clark, in case you've
been on sabbatical in New Zealand, is all over
the talk shows. He's the former NATO supreme
commander who headed operations in Kosovo, a
Rhodes Scholar who graduated first in his
class at West Point, and a Vietnam vet with
several combat medals including a purple
heart. He has been a tough critic of Bush's
foreign policy. His domestic positions are
not as fully fashioned, but he'd repeal Bush's
tax cuts and revisit the so-called Patriot
Act. More interestingly, Clark is progressive
on domestic issues by way of his military
background. Though it is very much a
hierarchy, the military is also the most
egalitarian island in this unequal society.
Top executives -- four-star generals -- make
about nine times the pay of buck privates…Clark
is the soldier as citizen. Even better, he's
the soldier as tough liberal. Just imagine
Clark, with his distinguished military record,
up against our draft dodger president who
likes to play ‘Top Gun’ dress-up. Imagine the
Rhodes Scholar against the leader who can't ad
lib without a speechwriting staff. Oh, and
he's from Arkansas. The draft-Clark
people have already raised over a million
dollars. Clark's not-yet-announced
campaign is the second Internet phenomenon
this year, after Howard Dean's. If he
declares, Clark will have lots of
volunteers and donors. Like John McCain,
he'd be a terrific draw for political
independents. Except he's a Democrat. The
downside is that it's hard to get into the
race this late. A lot of the fund-raisers and
campaign professionals are already committed…a
lot of the support for the existing candidates
is soft, with the exception of Dean's. Some of
Dick Gephardt's own closest backers wonder if
he can really do it, and that also goes for
John Kerry, Joseph Lieberman and John Edwards.
This year, just about everyone engaged in
Democratic politics has a higher commitment to
the goal of ousting George Bush than to any
single Democratic candidate. Clark
could probably peel off a lot of donors and
campaign professionals -- and grow some new
ones. And, as candidates drop out, many
professionals will soon be looking for work.
If Clark gets in, Kerry would be hurt the
most, because Kerry is most like Clark.
His military record and defense expertise make
him the most bullet-proof of the Democratic
field on national security issues. But,
paradoxically, Dean might be hurt, too.
Dean has been the favorite of the
antiwar activists and he's also the freshest
face. Clark is an antiwar candidate and a
former four-star general and an even fresher
face. As someone who's not an identified
liberal from a conservative part of the
country, he'd also pull votes from Lieberman,
Edwards, and Graham. Who might Clark
pick as a running mate? Someone with domestic
political experience: a Western or Midwestern
governor or senator. Maybe New Mexico Governor
Bill Richardson, a former Clinton Cabinet
official and a Hispanic. Or how about
Michigan's effective and popular governor,
Jennifer Granholm? Or Illinois Senator Dick
Durbin? Dwight Eisenhower was the last general
to make it to the White House. He could have
had the nomination of either party. He decided
that he was a Republican, but he governed as
an old-fashioned moderate, and he was
phenomenally popular. Now all of this may
just be an August sunstroke fantasy. We'll
soon find out. And if Clark doesn't get
in, he'd make one fine vice presidential
candidate for any of the bunch.”
… Dean
makes points with critical Cuban American
voters – especially after activists express
concern about Bush policy. The VT wannabe says
he’s like to have “instructive engagement” on
Cuba, but not while crackdown on dissidents
continues. Under the subhead “Dean’s
Cuba policy,” Greg Pierce reported
Wednesday in his “Inside Politics” column in
the Washington Times: “As he surges to the
top of the race for the 2004 Democratic
presidential nomination and begins to think
about a potential contest against President
Bush, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean says he
is shifting his views on the trade embargo
with Cuba, the Miami Herald
reports. Speaking to reporters during a
four-day national campaign swing, Mr. Dean
said he supports rolling back the embargo in
order to encourage human rights advancements —
but citing Fidel Castro's recent crackdowns on
dissidents, said that in recent months he has
become convinced that ‘we can't do it right
now.’ Mr. Dean called Cuba a
‘political question,’ and said recent
developments on the island would prevent his
goal of ‘constructive engagement of Cuba.’…’If
you would have asked me six months ago, I
would have said we should begin to ease the
embargo in return for human rights concessions,’
he said, responding to a question from a
Herald reporter at a dinner Sunday night in
Seattle. ‘But you can't do it now because
Castro has just locked up a huge number of
human rights activists and put them in prison
and [held] show trials. You can't reward that
kind of behavior if what you want to do is
link human rights behavior with foreign
trade.’”
… “Hot and
hip” – subhead on item in yesterday’s
“Inside Politics” column in the Washington
Times. Greg Pierce wrote: “Democrat
Howard Dean is the hot and hip presidential
candidate of the summer, Reuters reports.
From Rolling Stone to Modern Physician
magazine, everybody wants a piece of the
doctor running for his party's nomination,
reporter Patricia Wilson writes. Aboard the
‘Grass Roots Express,’ the chartered jet that
ferried him coast to coast on a late summer
political swing, the former governor of
Vermont found himself squeezed in a center
seat discussing Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
with a reporter on his left and
medical-malpractice caps with a correspondent
on his right. German television, the New
Yorker magazine and CBS' ‘60 Minutes II’ vied
for face time with the one Democratic
contender to create early buzz with a sense of
momentum almost five months before the first
contests on the road to the White House. Mr.
Dean was the flavor of the week as his
‘Sleepless Summer’ tour across eight states in
four days wound up with a boisterous
late-night rally Tuesday in New York City's
Bryant Park.”
… “Edwards:
Best for control of Congress”
– headline from the News & Observer of
Raleigh.
Edwards
contends he’d lead Dems back to congressional
success – but doesn’t name other wannabes that
Dem candidates might not want campaigning for
them in ’04.
Excerpt from report by the N&O’s John Wagner:
“U.S.
Sen. John Edwards argued Tuesday that
Democrats are most likely to make gains in the
U.S. House and Senate in 2004 if he is the
party's presidential nominee.
During an appearance at the University of
South Carolina Law Center, Edwards
said congressional candidates in all parts of
the country would want him to campaign for
them during the general election -- which may
not be the case with some of Democratic
rivals. He did not mention any other
candidates by name. ‘Democrats need to not
only take back the White House but also the
House and Senate,’ Edwards told a crowd
of about 200 people, many of whom were law
students. In response to a question,
Edwards also relayed his plan to create
panels to pre-screen medical malpractice
lawsuits and to hold lawyers financially
responsible if they file frivolous cases.
‘Those of us in the legal profession, we carry
a responsibility,’ Edwards said. The
gathering was the second in a series of
town-hall-style meetings Edwards held
in South Carolina, an early presidential
primary state, on Monday and Tuesday. The
final meeting was late Tuesday afternoon in
Greenville, S.C.”
… Dean, apparently
responding to Kerry and Lieberman attacks,
says he can win the White House despite
antiwar, liberal rhetoric. Excerpt from
report by Curtis Lawrence in Wednesday’s
Chicago Sun-Times: “Presidential
hopeful Howard Dean brought his ‘Sleepless
Summer Tour’ to town Tuesday, taking control
of a labor convention for most of the morning
and telling supporters how he can take the
White House despite his anti-war rhetoric and
other left-leaning policies. Dean
is one of five Democratic candidates who
stopped by the Communications Workers of
America's convention at Navy Pier during the
last two days courting the labor vote.
While he didn't mention them by name, many of
Dean's remarks seemed directed at two of his
rivals: U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-Mass) and
Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn). Kerry
was here Monday wooing labor activists and
chatting with Vietnam War veterans, two who
served with him in the Mekong Delta.
Lieberman, who has criticized Dean
for taking the party too far left, followed
Dean at the Communications Workers
convention on Tuesday. Dean reminded the
crowd that while he was opposed to the war in
Iraq, he was not soft on defense. ‘I will
never hesitate to send our troops anywhere in
the world to defend the United States of
America,’ Dean said. But taking a jab
at President Bush and those who supported the
war, he added, ‘I will never send our sons and
daughters and our brothers and sisters to die
in a foreign country without telling them the
truth about why they're going.’ And in an
apparent dig at the more conservative
Lieberman, Dean said, ‘You cannot beat
George Bush by trying to be Bush Light.’ After
addressing the labor activists, Dean took
to a Navy Pier rooftop, where hundreds cheered
as he promised, if elected, to send the
president back to Crawford, Texas, and U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft to ‘an
undisclosed location.’ Later Tuesday,
Lieberman bristled at the ‘Bush Light’
reference and described himself as an
‘independent-minded Democrat’ who wasn't
afraid to stand up to George Bush. His
campaign released a letter he penned with Sen.
Hillary Clinton, criticizing the Bush
administration for allegedly suppressing
information about potential air-quality
problems at Ground Zero, site of the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade
Center. ‘It means that when people were
deciding whether to move back into their
residences around Ground Zero . . . the White
House concealed the full truth,’ Lieberman
said. ‘In my opinion that is scandalous
behavior by the George W. Bush
administration.’ Lieberman also came down
hard on the Bush's economic policies.”
… Venturing where
few – if any – wannabes have gone before,
Graham shows up in Puerto Rico to address
“decolonization” issue. Headline from
Miami.com (Miami Herald): “Graham would try
to finalize Puerto Rico’s status if elected
president” Excerpt: “In a whirlwind
fundraising swing in Puerto Rico, Florida
Democratic Sen. Bob Graham said Monday that if
elected president he would try to resolve the
issue of the island's relationship to the rest
of the United States as quickly as possible.
‘The decision of the future of Puerto Rico
should be made directly by Puerto Ricans,’
Graham said at the campaign headquarters
of former Gov. Pedro Rosselló, who is running
in the 2004 gubernatorial election as a member
of the opposition New Progressive Party.
Graham said he supports Rosselló's position,
which is to hold a federally mandated
referendum on Puerto Rico's future, meaning
the federal government would be legally bound
by the results. The U.S. Congress has
denied the option in the past. In nonbinding
referendums in 1967, 1993 and 1998, voters
rejected statehood and indicated they
preferred to retain commonwealth status. Three
weeks ago, the U.S. House approved, by a
one-vote margin, legislation giving federal
endorsement to a ‘decolonization’ referendum
every 10 years -- with a three-way choice of
independence, statehood and commonwealth --
until Puerto Ricans choose either statehood or
independence.”
… So, if
Kerry really is serious about appealing to
“all groups in the country,” why is he always
standing next to war monuments, campaigning in
VFW halls and talking about his Vietnam
record? Headline from Wednesday’s
Quad-City Times: “Kerry aims for support
beyond vets” Excerpt from coverage by the
Times’ Kathie Obradovich: “Standing at
Iowa’s Vietnam War memorial, U.S. Sen. John
Kerry said Tuesday that he is not pinning his
hopes in the Iowa Caucuses solely on the
support of veterans drawn by his decorated
military service. ‘No one should be left
out of this process. I’m not just reaching out
to veterans,’ Kerry, of Massachusetts,
said. ‘On every occasion I get, I’m reaching
out to all groups in the country.’ Kerry,
who won the Silver Star for valor and three
Purple Hearts for combat wounds as a gunboat
commander during the Vietnam War, said he
sees the issues facing veterans as a ‘metaphor
for the difficulties we’re facing in the
country today.’…’I mean, if veterans, who
are respected and who have done their duty for
the country and who carry with them the
nation’s gratitude, are having trouble getting
the money they need, think how tough it is for
kids in a community where they have no money
for their schools,’ he said. Rep. Steve
Warnstadt of Sioux City, a Gulf War veteran
and a major in the Iowa National Guard, said
he would work to get veterans to the caucuses
for Kerry in every Iowa county. ‘One of
the reasons I’m supporting Sen. Kerry
is not just because he’s a veteran, but
because he has a visceral commitment to
veterans’ issues,’ said Warnstadt, chairman of
the Iowa’s Veterans for Kerry Committee,
which includes 34 veterans serving as state
and county chairs and co-chairs. Kerry
said he was not aware of plans to turn out
veterans in every county, but was ‘gratified
to hear it — I mean, if he’s really going to
do that, I don’t see why not.’ Kerry
said he does not believe veterans make
military service a litmus test for choosing a
candidate. ‘I mean, veterans are very
independent-minded. Some will decide that
these issues are important to them and some
will decide otherwise,’ he said, noting
that he does not know how many of Iowa’s
290,000 veterans vote in the Democratic
caucuses. Kerry has argued that his
experience in the military and foreign affairs
makes him the Democrat who most effectively
can challenge Republican incumbent George W.
Bush on war issues.”
… “Clark
likely to run, says Democratic panel chief”
– headline from yesterday’s Des Moines
Register. Excerpts from coverage by the
Register’s Thomas Beaumont: “Democratic
National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe
told Gov. Tom Vilsack on Wednesday that he
expects Gen. Wesley Clark to run for the
party's 2004 presidential nomination. The
speculation came as the former NATO commander
hinted that he would decide in the next three
weeks. ‘Chairman McAuliffe indicated he
thought General Clark would get into the
race,’ Vilsack press secretary Matt Paul said
of Vilsack's conversation with McAuliffe.
Their talks centered on recent Democratic
victories in special legislative elections,
outreach efforts by Iowa Democrats, and
President Bush's political vulnerabilities.
The comments about Clark were in
passing as the conversation ended, Paul said.
While a Washington, D.C.-based effort to draft
Clark to run has been running ads in
several states including Iowa, the retired
army general told The Des Moines Register on
Tuesday that he would decide whether he
will be a candidate by the time he speaks at
the University of Iowa on Sept. 19. The
Iowa visit is of interest because the Iowa
Democratic precinct caucuses kick off the 2004
nominating season on Jan. 19. Clark has
been mentioned as a potential presidential
candidate since last year. An aide said
Clark was traveling in Washington, D.C.,
but planned to spend the Labor Day weekend at
home in Little Rock, Ark., with his family.”
… “Edwards
blasts Bush at town meeting…Democratic
hopeful says president lacks compassion for
ordinary citizens.” – headline from
Wednesday’s The State in Columbia, SC. Excerpt
from report by The State’s veteran political
reporter Lee Bandy: “Democratic
presidential hopeful John Edwards unleashed a
blistering attack Tuesday on President Bush,
saying he lacks compassion for ordinary
citizens and is too arrogant to seek
international help in war-torn Iraq.
During a town-hall meeting at the USC School
of Law, the Seneca native also said Bush's
economic policies built around tax cuts are
bankrupting the country. ‘I thought when
President Bush's father was president, things
couldn't get much worse; this fellow is making
his father look pretty good,’ Edwards,
50, told a standing-room-only crowd of 200,
mostly law school students, jammed into a
lecture room…Edwards, a U.S. senator
from North Carolina, spoke for about 20
minutes and then fielded questions from the
audience for nearly an hour. ‘This president
does not come from the same place that most of
us come from, and as a result, he does not
view the things the way most of us do,’
Edwards said. ‘If I were to describe what
I think is the fundamental difference between
George Bush and most of us, it's really pretty
simple. What he honors and respects is really
one thing, and one thing only -- wealth.’
State Republican Chairman Katon Dawson said
Edwards does not tell his audiences his plan
for creating jobs calls for a tax increase.
‘Call me crazy, but I don't think taking
several hundred dollars out of the wallets of
hard-working moms and dads is the best way to
get our economy growing,’ Dawson said.
Edwards delivered his basic stump
speech with a few new twists. He
repeatedly attacked Bush's trade policies,
blaming them for the loss of 3 million U.S.
jobs. He mentioned South Carolina's 7 percent
jobless rate, the highest in nine years, and
laid the blame squarely at Bush's feet. ‘It's
devastating, and this president is not going
to do anything about it,’ Edwards said.
The loss of jobs in South Carolina and closing
of textile plants due to rising foreign
competition are starting to cause voters to
question Bush's economic policies, a
development that could portend trouble for the
president even in a Republican-leaning state
like South Carolina. Edwards ridiculed a
recent White House statement characterizing
the current situation as a ‘jobless economic
recovery.’…’I don't know where the
president grew up, but where I come from,
there is no such thing as an economic recovery
without jobs,’ he said. ‘The best way for us
to have real economic recovery is to make sure
George Bush gets another job in 2004.’”
… Maybe
it’s because he’s a doctor or due to his TV
spots, but New Hampshire Dems give Dean the “most
credit” for plan to improve health care. Just
like in the real head-to-head surveys, Dean
leads Kerry in health care poll too.
Headline from Wednesday’s The Union Leader: “NH
voters associate Dean with health care”
Excerpt – datelined Concord – from report by
AP’s Holly Ramer: “Former Vermont Governor
Howard Dean gets the most credit among New
Hampshire Democrats for proposing a plan to
improve health care coverage, according to a
poll released Tuesday. Fifty-four percent
of likely Democratic primary voters said they
knew Dean has offered a specific health
care plan, up from 41 percent two months ago
and far ahead of his rivals for the
nomination. Just 28 percent of the
Democrats polled mentioned Massachusetts Sen.
John Kerry, 18 percent said Missouri Rep. Dick
Gephardt and 10 percent said North Carolina
Sen. John Edwards. The remaining five
Democratic presidential hopefuls, along with
President Bush, were in single digits.
Pollsters attributed Dean's showing to his
background as a doctor, his frequent visits to
the state and his popularity in general…They
also noted a sharp increase in the percentage
of independent voters who associated Dean with
health care, from 18 percent to 46 percent
since June. But the pollsters were quick
to point out that voters remain far from
satisfied with what they're hearing. Half said
the candidates talk most about health care
problems, with 31 percent saying they hear
mostly about solutions. ‘If there's one
directive to candidates from this date, it's
that voters want to hear not only about
problems but solutions,’ said pollster
Celinda Lake. Both Dean and Kerry have
proposed an expansion of government programs
for the poor and allowing others to buy into
the health care plan that covers the president
and Congress. Gephardt's more
ambitious plan would give nearly all Americans
access to health care by providing tax credits
to companies at a cost that eventually would
top $247 billion a year. The centerpiece of
Edwards' plan is mandatory coverage for
all children. Sens. Joe Lieberman of
Connecticut and Bob Graham of Florida have yet
to release detailed health care plans,
while Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and
former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun
advocate a single-payer, government-run
system. The Rev. Al Sharpton supports
adding a health care amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.”
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