The Iowa Des Moines Register debate covered little
new ground but demonstrated that each candidate has chosen the line
on which they will fight out their campaign.
Howard Dean may have made the most revealing
comment when he began to talk about the fact that he will “balance
the budget in the sixth or seventh year of his term.”
It was reminiscent of the kind of mistake made by President H. W.
Bush when he looked at his watch while candidate Bill Clinton was
responding to the issue of people suffering because of the poor
economy of the time. Whether it becomes a signature of Dean’s style
of mis-speaking and presuming the candidacy is yet to be seen.
After Dean made his statement the audience began laughing at Dean’s
presumptive second term. He was clearly dazed and blankly unaware as
to why the laughter erupted from the live audience at his statement…
In a signal as to the nature of the divided labor
support in this election, the greatest rift and desire to mix it up
came over Dick Gephardt’s charge that he was the only one who had
opposed NAFTA and the Chinese trade agreement. Everyone wanted to
take on a piece of Gephardt and defend their position on that front.
John Edwards made the most point against Gephardt by getting him to
admit that Edwards did not vote against NAFTA. Edwards also listed a
number of trade agreements that he opposed including fast track
trade agreement authority for the President.
Gephardt still made points and left the closing
statement for the large number of industrial unions supporting him:
"Howard, you were for
NAFTA, you came to the signing ceremony. You were for the China
agreement ... It's one thing to talk the talk, you've got to walk
the walk," Gephardt said.
Dean took several hits from the traditional triad
of Dick Gephardt, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman on Iraq, running
against Washington, raising taxes on the middle class and the
hypocrisy of not opening up his sealed records. In addition, Dennis
Kucinich hit him for not agreeing to pull the troops out of Iraq
now.
Kerry, in a clear statement aimed at Dean, said
Democrats can't defeat Bush by being light on national security ...
“We can't go back to raising taxes on the middle class. We need a
president who has the temperament and the judgment to be able to
convince America that we know how to make this country safe.”
Lieberman’s attack was, "I don't know how anybody
could say that we're not safer with a homicidal maniac, a brutal
dictator, an enemy of the United States, a supporter of terrorism, a
murderer of hundreds of thousands of his own people ... in prison
instead of in power."
Dean’s rebuttal was that we have lost 23 more
troops since the capture of Saddam, and we are canceling airline
flights and we should have concentrated on Osama bin Laden:
“I actually don't
believe that, because I think, given the time that's elapsed, we
could have done the proper thing, which George Bush's father did,
and put together a coalition to go after somebody who was a regional
threat but not a threat to the United States.”
“Our resources belong in
fighting Al Qaida. Al Qaida has got us in a position where we're now
worried because we're at level orange. We need a concentrated attack
on Al Qaida and on Osama bin Laden. Saddam Hussein has been a
distraction.”
Lieberman offered this rebuttal:
“… Howard Dean's
criticism of my statement that we're safer with Saddam Hussein gone.
You know what? We had good faith differences on the war against
Saddam. But I don't know how anybody could say that we're not safer
with a homicidal maniac, a brutal dictator, an enemy of the United
States, a supporter of terrorism, a murderer of hundreds of
thousands of his own people in prison instead of in power.”
“And to change the
subject as Howard does and to say that we haven't obliterated all
terrorism with Saddam in prison is a little bit like saying somehow
that we weren't safer after the Second World War after we defeated
Nazism and Hitler because Stalin and the communists were still in
power… We have many threats to our security, there is no question.
We are a lot stronger... “
Dean made his frequent argument regarding the Bush
middle class tax cut -- that property taxes for schools, college
tuition and health insurance premiums have all increased higher than
the Bush middle class tax cuts, which Dean targeted at $304.
Lieberman chastised Dean for not recognizing the
middle class tax cut and said that in Iowa it was closer to
approximately $1,800 for a middle income family of 4.
Dean was also challenged on not being the only
Democrat candidate who balanced a budget -- Gephardt argued he had
gotten the votes for President Clinton’s plan to balance the budget.
For the full transcript of the debates visit the
Washington Post.
P.O. Box 171,
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