IPW Daily Report – Saturday, February 14, 2004
"Instead of attacking America's problems, George
Bush has decided to play attack politics,"
Kerry said in
the prepared text for the Democratic Party dinner
on Saturday night.
“With George Bush's bad record -- with his lack of
vision -- he has no choice but to resort to attack
politics," John
Kerry said. "Maybe we can't blame him, but
come November, we can
replace him."
“If California chooses
to recognize same-sex marriage, that's fine and
the federal government ought to honor it,"
John Edwards said.
"Right now we've leaned
so far into free trade that we've forgotten what
fair trade is,"
John Edwards said.
"There are an enormous
amount of people who do want to continue. Whether
it's enough to win the nomination, we will see,"
said Howard Dean.
"What I see as the
contribution of this campaign is winning the
presidency and changing this country,"
Howard Dean said
Kerry’s
valentine
Kerry’s valentine
Democrats jump on outsourcing
Wisconsin’s lament
Kerry signs up Wilson
CBS has fewer friends
9/11 testimony
The Guard flap
Number one racing fan
Hillary heard from
Kerry’s valentine
Sen. John Kerry is having to dodge questions
regarding an affair on Valentines Day. Yesterday
the NY Post cover was of Kerry saying there was no
affair. Of course, the whole country is
recognizing that we have all heard that before
with Bill Clinton.
Democrats jump on outsourcing
The Democrat National Committee has jumped on the
President’s economic advisor’s statement that
outsourcing of jobs is another type of
international trade. The quote is being used to
raise funds and insight activists to campaign
against the President. Here is the quote:
"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing
international trade. We're very used to goods
being produced abroad and being shipped here on
ships or planes. What we're not used to is
services being produced abroad and being sent here
over the Internet or telephone wires. The
economics is basically the same. More things are
tradable than were tradable in the past and that's
a good thing."
N. Gregory Mankiw, Chairman of Bush's Council of
Economic Advisers
Mankiw has since apologized for the statement.
Wisconsin’s lament
Today is the Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Madison,
Wisconsin and the Democrats will be in the cheese
state campaigning all day and night with a debate
in Milwaukee on Sunday. The Wisconsin Primary is
Tuesday, Feb. 17th.
Last night Sen. John Edwards was on the Tonight
Show with Jay Leno. Edwards even had trouble there
with Leno referring to him as a vice-presidential
candidate. Edwards has raised $3.3 million since
finishing second in Iowa's leadoff caucuses,
including $500,000 he was expecting to raise at
two events in Los Angeles Friday night.
Former Governor Martin Schreiber and six members
of the Wisconsin State Assembly have endorsed Sen.
John Edwards. Edward, campaigning in Wisconsin,
continued with his ‘the economy is terrible
lament’ and took a swipe at President Bush and the
trade deficits:
"The record trade deficit is a sign that our
nation is losing economic strength. Today, because
of the record trade and capital deficit and the
record budget deficit, we have to borrow $1.5
billion a day from China and other foreign
investors just to keep our economy afloat. This is
not the way of a great nation. This is not our
America. Yet this administration is not serious
about stopping China's manipulation of its
currency, or about enacting trade and tax laws
that create good jobs here at home. It is time for
us to create jobs in America and restore our
economic strength."
In Wisconsin Edwards heard from workers who are
about to be displaced and there was not a lot nice
said about NAFTA as well according to Reuters:
"We're basically selling our country out, in my
opinion," said Dale Wilson, 49, a Tower Automotive
worker who said he will lose his job after 28
years at the plant because DaimlerChrysler is
moving truck frame assembly to Mexico.
"It's morally wrong to take children and put them
into slave labor just to satisfy some rich fat cat
... They're making 10 million and the kid on the
street makes 10 cents," Wilson said.
While Edwards is putting up a valiant fight, there
are growing signs that the coronation of John
Kerry is about to begin. The 13 million-member
AFL-CIO announced plans to endorse Kerry next
week. There is also the fact that 70 percent of
all delegates will have been chosen by March 2
when California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Rhode
Island, Texas and Vermont cast ballots.
Kerry has claimed 539 delegates, compared to 182
for Dean and 166 for Edwards. It takes 2,161
delegates to win the nomination.
Kerry signs up
Wilson
Sen. John Kerry’s campaign has brought on-board
Joseph Wilson, former ambassador and Clinton
appointee, whose unsubstantiated charge that
senior White House officials leaked the identity
of his CIA officer wife and prompted a grand jury
probe, has taken a prominent role in Kerry’s
presidential campaign.
Wilson, speaking in Washington state, said:
"We went to war under false pretenses and that is
becoming abundantly clear to the American people,"
he told hundreds of students during a foreign
policy forum at the University of Washington. "I
don't care who you vote for, but get out there and
caucus. Don't leave it to the neoconservatives and
evangelical Christians."
Kerry campaign spokesman Dave Wade commented on
Wilson’s role in the campaign, "I think his
support speaks volumes about this administration's
blustering foreign policy as well as about the
breach of trust they've had with the American
people."
CBS has fewer friends
CBS has pulled the Medicare ad that Congress
demanded the Department of Health and Human
Services produce to inform the public about the
changes in the Medicare law that will provide for
prescription drugs and a discount buyers card
soon.
John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker J.
Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, said CBS
executive Martin Franks, who is in charge of
standards and practices for CBS, is a "partisan
Democrat" who gave $59,000 to Democrats over the
past 14 years, and has also given money to
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry of
Massachusetts.
VIACOM executives who own CBS only recently were
testifying before Congress about the Janet Jackson
debacle. They last year pulled a docudrama on the
life of Ronald Reagan from airing on CBS and put
it on one of their cable channels. The FCC has
threatened loss of license if networks don’t
improve their content.
Democrats have called on the General Accounting
Office to investigate the commercial to determine
if it is a political campaign ad for President
Bush’s reelection.
9/11 testimony
9-11 Commission Chairman Kean and Vice Chairman
Hamilton today requested a private meeting with
President Bush to discuss information relevant to
the Commission's work. The President has agreed to
the request. While the Chair and Vice Chair have
suggested the possibility of a public session at a
later time, we believe the President can provide
all the requested information in the private
meeting, and there is no need for any additional
testimony.
The Guard flap
Republican National Committee Chairman Ed
Gillespie sent out the following regarding the
Alabama Guard wishful slander against President
Bush:
For the last 10 months, day after day, spending
over $40 million in campaign ads supported by $7
million from third parties, Democrats have
attacked the President and his policies using some
of the most vitriolic rhetoric in the history of
presidential politics.
We highlight policies and note Senator John
Kerry's long record. They, in turn, accuse the
President of desertion -- a military crime
punishable by death -- as the Clark campaign did;
or accuse the President of being AWOL, a felony
punishable by imprisonment, as DNC Chair Terry
McAuliffe has done. Terry McAuliffe has become the
John Wilkes Booth of Presidential character
assassination.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but
they are not entitled to their own facts. On
Tuesday, new documents proved again that the
President served honorably in the National Guard:
·
The Washington Times published a
letter from Col. William Campenni who says he was
a lieutenant with President Bush in the 111th
Fighter Interceptor Squadron.
·
The White House released military
records that show the President fulfilled
requirements necessary for an honorable discharge
from the Texas Air National Guard in 1973.
·
The documents include pay and
accreditation records stored on microfilm in a
U.S. government military archives in Colorado.
·
On Thursday the military released
records of one Lt. George W. Bush's visit to an
Air Force dentist while on guard duty in Alabama.
The media was probably ready to follow up with,
"Well, that only proves his teeth were there, but
do you have any proof of the rest of his body
being there?"
Until today, when John B. "Bill" Calhoun, an
officer in the Alabama Air National Guard, said he
remembered President Bush sitting in his office in
Montgomery during 1972:
"He'd sit on my couch and read training manuals
and accident reports and stuff like that," Calhoun
told The Washington Post. "The pilots would read
those so they would see what other guys did wrong.
. . . He never complained about coming."
It's only February and they have made clear they
intend to run the dirtiest campaign in modern
presidential politics. This is because they don't
want a debate on the issues, and they don't want
to run on Sen. Kerry's record. I guess I can't
blame them for that. We as a party cannot sink to
their level. We must stick to the truth in this
race.
Number one racing fan
President Bush will be attending the Daytona 500
and the drivers are glad according to the Washington Post:
"He's just a great American," said Terry Labonte,
a Bush supporter and fellow Texan. "In times like
this, I'm glad we've got someone like him in
office."
The Democrats hope to make inroads with NASCAR
dads who normally cast ballots for the Republicans
in national elections but might be growing
disenchanted with Bush's handling of the economy,
stagnant job prospects, Iraq and the ballooning
budget deficit.
Hillary heard from
In a week when our nation will be honoring
America's Presidents and learning more about the
alleged John Kerry affair, NBC's Today Show will
talk to the women behind the men in a week-long
"America's First Ladies" series. Be sure to catch
Hillary's interview, which airs on Tuesday,
February 17th.
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