Quotable: “I've run in New York and gotten more white votes in my races than [Dean’s] gotten black votes in Vermont? Why aren't we talking about that?"
– Sharpton in Sioux City last night complaining about why Dean isn’t asked how he’ll attract minority voters

Quotable: “Right now, the Democratic voice is not a single voice. It is a chorus. It is a babble.”
-- Mario Cuomo, discussing the current wannabes and saying he’d like Gore in the race

Quotable: “I haven't talked to him so I don't know what's blazing in his saddle. But I do think he will give a very thoughtful, forward-thinking speech."
– Donna Brazile, commenting about a “major speech” on Iraq Gore scheduled to deliver today in New York

Quotable: “So as Bush continues his descent in the polls, the chance that Hillary will run becomes ever greater.”
– Dick Morris

Quotable: “The last time a Rhodes scholar from Arkansas announced against an incumbent named Bush who had just won a war in Iraq, he did okay. And he declared in October."
– Draft Clark co-founder John Margulies, arguing that it’s not to late for his four-star general to become a quarter-star wannabe

Quotable: “Perhaps most ridiculously, reporters make excuses for Dean's fierce attacks on President Bush.”
– Brent Bozell, president of Media Research Center

 Quotable:  “A lot of what he's [Graham] doing now is to try to boost him in Iowa and New Hampshire, and unfortunately that runs counter to the people back home."
-- Brad Coker, pollster commenting on Graham’s slippage in Florida poll

Quotable: “One problem for Lieberman is that President Bush's Israel policy is playing well with many Jewish Democrats.”
-- FOX News report on Lieberman’s Internet drive to attract Jewish contributions

Quotable: “His [Biden’s] team is already designated for New Hampshire and Iowa, waiting patiently in case he flashes the green light.”
– Larry Kane, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Biden’s possible presidential aspirations

Quotable: Bush “must be salivating at the prospect of a Howard Dean or a wavering John Kerry. But a Biden could be his worst nightmare: a senator with actual charisma, and a man with more experience in the dangerous worlds of intelligence and foreign policy than any other lawmaker in Washington.”
 – Kane on Biden again

Quotable: “Republicans have tried making the plight of the Honduran-born [judicial nominee Miguel] Estrada into a rallying cry in Hispanic communities. But most Hispanics, polling has found, have not heard of the filibuster and many of those who had were confusing Mr. Estrada with actor Erik Estrada, who was on the 1970s television police drama ‘ChiPS’ and is now a popular Spanish-language soap opera star.”
 – Washington Times report on low voter awareness of Senate filibusters on GWB judicial nominations.  

GENERAL NEWS:  Among the offerings in today's update:

• In Sioux City – at Harkin-sponsored forum -- Sharpton says “blatant racial insensitivity” in white-dominated newsrooms hurting his candidacy. NY activist charges that Dean has been anointed as the hot wannabe

• Graham’s not just fading in the Dem derby, but a new FL poll says his popularity in home state has dropped below 50% for first time in 16 years. Matchup with GWB: Bush 51%, Graham 39%, Undecided 10%

• ”Major speech” by Gore in NYC today sparks increased speculation he’ll be a wannabe again, possibly even more interesting: Gore reportedly asked MoveOn.org to set it up and sponsor it. Meanwhile, Mario Cuomo complained about the wannabe “babble” yesterday – and encouraged Gore to run

• Ex-Clinton consultant Morris says Hillary might not want to wait until ’08

• AFL-CIO decides against immediate wannabe endorsement – gives new hope to Gephardt’s rivals, but union honchos say he’d be the only one in the running for union-wide nod

• Judith Steinberg says she has no intention of changing her life if she ends up in the White House. The LA Times reports, in fact, the wife of People Powered Howard would probably relocate her medical practice in DC

• Lieberman launches Internet fund-raising campaign to attract Jewish contributions

• Washington Times reports GOP has “little hope” of breaking the Dem judicial filibusters, may have to wait until after next election to approve GWB appointees

• Clarksters order another paper Heineken bucket of beer and wait for their soldier to come home (and run for the Dem nomination) – but he’s vacationing with his wife in CA

• Isn’t it time for a TV rating system in Iowa and New Hampshire? Now Edwards – like Dean before him – is going to torment state’s TV viewers

• State – Vilsack ready to fight to improve state’s sexual predator law, despite legal/constitutional hurdles

• Conservative critic Bozell: Media trying to apply “a barrel of pancake makeup” to Dean to present him as a soggy centrist

• Question posed in Philadelphia Inquirer report: “Does Joe Biden have a date with destiny?”

•  Quad-City Times: Harkin dismisses GOP proposal on prescription drugs as “hopelessly complicated and stingy”

• Edwards wraps up “real solutions” to nation’s woes in a 65-page pamphlet

• Iowaism: Mission Impossible – ISU Extension Service trying to get fairgoers to eat sensibly at Iowa State Fair

All these stories below and more.

 Morning Reports:

... Morning sportscasts report death of former Iowa State football player – fullback Matt Grosserode, an ISU junior from Lincoln, Neb. – in Ames traffic accident yesterday. He played for the Cyclones the past three seasons

... Radio Iowa reports Storm Lake police have arrested a teen – Ivan Rise, 14 – on three counts of second-degree sexual assault. Police say Rise allegedly assaulted a 10-year-old girl numerous times in an abandoned mobile home

Iraq – Story getting major coverage this morning: At least 10 killed and many injured in explosion at Jordanian embassy in Baghdad.

CANDIDATES & CAUCUSES: 

… Wannabes in Iowa: Three Dem hopefuls in the state today – Graham scheduled to be at the Iowa State Fair and to open IA campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Lieberman hosts a coffee in Cedar Rapids and speaks in Marion, and Dean takes his traveling campaign circus into northern Iowa. Among Dean’s stops today – Hampton, Clarion, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Storm Lake and Arnold’s Park. Tomorrow – Graham continues his weeklong IA visit with stops in Indianola, Lucas and Chariton.  

… In Sioux City, Sharpton says his candidacy – along with Moseley Braun’s – being dismissed and not getting serious coverage from white-dominated news media. Headline from today’s Washington Post: “Al Sharpton Criticizes White Media” Excerpt from coverage by AP’s Mike Glover: “Veteran black activist Al Sharpton contended Wednesday that the news media are dismissive of his presidential campaign because newsrooms are overwhelmingly white. ‘I think when you look at the lack of diversity in the newsrooms, when you look at the lack of diversity from the editors and those in power, then you see them as automatically dismissive of anything that is not like them, which is white males,’ said Sharpton. ‘I think we've seen some very blatant racial insensitivity in the coverage of this race so far,’ said Sharpton, in an interview with The Associated Press. Sharpton complained that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has been virtually anointed the hot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 - a case, he said, of a white-dominated media focusing on a middle-age white man. He noted that many commentators have compared Dean to former presidents Carter and Clinton, both governors of relatively small states, without mentioning that both Georgia and Arkansas have sizable minority populations, while Vermont is nearly all white. ‘No one has even asked about the fact that this surge of support has been really one-dimensional,’ said Sharpton. In addition, Sharpton said he is often asked about how he can hope to lure white voters in key early states like Iowa and New Hampshire, while Dean is never pressed on how he will appeal to minorities. ‘When I come to Iowa, they ask how can Sharpton get the white vote,’ said Sharpton. ‘I've run in New York and gotten more white votes in my races than he's gotten black votes in Vermont? Why aren't we talking about that?’ Sharpton said former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, another Democratic presidential who is black, also isn't getting serious news coverage. ‘That kind of racial insensitivity has permeated this race,’ he said. ‘I think we've seen some very blatant racial insensitivity in the coverage of this race so far.’ Sharpton was in Sioux City to join Sen. Tom Harkin in a series of forums Harkin is sponsoring giving the nine Democratic candidates a chance to make their case with activists pledged to attend next January's precinct caucuses.”

… From out of the political sunset, Gore returns today for a “major speech” on Iraq – and scares the running wannabes with prospect he’ll join them. Headline from yesterday’s Washington Times: “Gore’s speech plans trigger speculation” Coverage – an excerpt – from report by the Times’ James G. Lakely: “Former Vice President Al Gore will deliver a ‘major speech’ on Iraq to a liberal activist group in New York tomorrow, fueling speculation that he will re-enter the race for the Democratic nomination for president. A member of MoveOn.org said Mr. Gore approached the group, founded to battle President Bill Clinton's impeachment, a few weeks ago about setting up the event. ‘He wanted to give the address and asked MoveOn to sponsor it,’ said the source, who requested anonymity. ‘He's going to be speaking out about a number of different issues, not just about the war.’ The speech will be Mr. Gore's first major public statement on foreign policy since delivering a scathing critique of President Bush's Iraq policy at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club on Sept. 23. At the time, the United States was attempting to build support for going to war with Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Donna Brazile, who served as Mr. Gore's campaign manager during his run against Mr. Bush in 2000, said she is looking forward to hearing what Mr. Gore has to say. ‘Whatever Al Gore has to tell us will be relevant,’ Miss Brazile said. ‘He has extraordinary foreign policy credentials and experience.’ The speech is bound to draw attention from the Democratic nominees for president, if only for a day, but Miss Brazile said she didn't think it mattered. ‘That's comparing apples and oranges,’ she said. ‘He's a statesman.’ Miss Brazile refused to speculate whether this speech signaled a re-testing of the waters for Mr. Gore, who declared in December that he wouldn't run for president again. ‘I haven't talked to him so I don't know what's blazing in his saddle,’ Miss Brazile said. ‘But I do think he will give a very thoughtful, forward-thinking speech.’  Repeated phone calls to Mr. Gore's office were not returned. In the Sept. 23 speech, Mr. Gore foreshadowed the criticisms of Mr. Bush that have been championed of late by three front-runners for the Democratic nomination for president — Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri. Mr. Gore said then that the war in Iraq would distract from tracking down ‘those who attacked us on September 11 and have thus far gotten away with it.’”

… And Gore gets a Cuomo boost yesterday. The former NY Guv tires of wannabe “babble” and wants him in the Dem mix. Excerpt from report – datelined Albany – by AP’s Marc Humbert: “Former Vice President Al Gore should enter the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, said one-time New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who complained that the sound emerging from the current field is ‘babble.’ Gore, who lost the disputed 2000 race to President Bush, has said he would not seek the party's nomination, and Gore spokesman Michael Feldman said Wednesday, ‘The vice president is not going to be a candidate in 2004.’ Nevertheless, Cuomo called on Gore to reverse course and enter the fray because the party lacks a single candidate to rally around. ‘I would like to see him get in,’ said Cuomo in an interview with WROW-AM radio in Albany, N.Y. ‘Right now, the Democratic voice is not a single voice. It is a chorus. It is a babble,’ he said.”

… AFL-CIO puts off endorsement decision until fall – viewed as a Gephardt setback and providing rivals with new hope, but the union gurus say Gephardt is only one who would even get the union brass ring. That’s if they endorse in ’04. Headline from this morning’s Union Leader: “AFL-CIO to consider endorsement in October” Excerpt from coverage – datelined Chicago – by Leigh Strope: “The AFL-CIO will not immediately decide who to back for the Democratic presidential nomination, a move that gives new hope to Dick Gephardt's rivals. The former House minority leader came here hoping to build on the labor support he already has garnered in his race against eight other Democrats. But on Wednesday, a day after labor leaders and hundreds of rank-and-file heard appeals from Gephardt and his competitors, the governing executive council decided that no endorsement would come at this meeting. Gephardt had hoped to get the union label as labor's favorite in the Democratic delegate-selection contests. But the AFL-CIO has done that only twice before - giving the prize to Walter Mondale and Al Gore. The federation's executive council, which met [in Chicago] this week, does not itself have authority to endorse candidates. But it could have voted to recommend its favorite to the larger AFL-CIO general board, on which union presidents from all 65 affiliates sit. The executive council did vote Wednesday to give President John Sweeney authority to call an endorsement meeting by the general board on Oct. 15. ‘Union members are examining the record of these candidates, and over the coming weeks and months will make decisions about who would be the best advocate for their future,’ Sweeney said at a news conference following the council meeting. Labor leaders have acknowledged that Gephardt is the only Democrat who could reach the lofty threshold of an endorsement by at least two-thirds of the affiliates representing the federation's more than 13 million rank-and-file members. But no endorsement recommendation came out of this week's meeting here, and that was sure to hearten Gephardt's rivals. ‘We're going to come back in October and do it,’ said Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, whose union will officially endorse Gephardt on Saturday. ‘He's going to be a very hot item when he starts hitting the trail,’ Hoffa said of Gephardt. Gephardt has staked his presidential aspirations on support from organized labor. His challenge is to convince skeptical leaders of the large service and public sector unions that he is a viable candidate. One of those unions is the Service Employees International Union, the federation's largest with 1.6 million members. ‘There's only one issue here: Dick Gephardt,’ said President Andrew Stern. ‘Dick Gephardt has the greatest and most passionate labor support of any candidate. The question is how broad is that support.’ So far, it's 11 unions with more than 3 million members.”

… Sharpton apparently waiting for his turn to be the Dem Flavor of the Month, says this is Dean’s month. Under the subhead “Al on Howard,” Jennifer Harper wrote in the “Inside Politics” column in yesterday’s Washington Times: “The Rev. Al Sharpton is convinced that despite Mr. Dean's much-ballyhooed Newsweek and Time magazine covers this week, the former Vermont governor is a passing fancy. ‘I think the media has flavors every month,’ Mr. Sharpton told Fox News yesterday. ‘I mean, it was John Edwards during the first part of the year. Now Dean. It'll be somebody else.’

…  Summer TV viewing takes a turn for the worse in Iowa and New Hampshire – Edwards begins buy featuring bio ads, but most IA observers say it’s too little too late given his low poll ranking in the two kickoff states. An excerpt from coverage by AP’s Iowa caucus-watcher Mike Glover: “Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards planned to hit the airwaves Wednesday with his first round of television commercials in Iowa and New Hampshire. Determined to improve on his low single-digit showing in state and national polls, the North Carolina senator will use some of the millions he raised early in the campaign on advertising. The commercials - two 30-second spots and one 60-second spot - show Edwards and his family, and focus on his background as the son of a mill worker who was the first in his family to attend college. One features Edwards touting his plan to aid college students in paying tuition, and another in which he criticizes tax breaks, arguing that they encourage companies to leave the country. ‘My grandmother came from a family of sharecroppers,’ Edwards says in one ad. ‘My father worked in a cotton mill all his life, and I helped out in the summers.’ The spots also make the point that ‘George Bush, he comes from a very different place.’ David Axelrod, a Chicago-based media consultant advising the campaign, said the television drive is part of a strategy in which Edwards spent the first half of the year raising money and now will try to introduce himself to voters. Edwards raised $11.9 million in the first two quarters of fund raising, according to reports he filed with the Federal Election Commission, placing him second behind Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. Edwards has $8.5 million on hand. ‘We've always had a plan from the beginning to spend the first half of this year raising the money we need to communicate with the American people and the second half of the year communicating with the American people,’ Axelrod said. The campaign will begin rotating three separate commercials in Iowa and New Hampshire, beginning as early as Wednesday night. Axelrod declined to put a dollar figure on the effort. ‘I would call it a substantial buy,’ he said. With his move, Edwards becomes the second Democratic presidential candidate to take to the airwaves in key early states. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean launched a similar drive earlier this summer.”

… Bozell identifies Dean as a “raging leftist,” but says the media is trying to soften his image. Headline yesterday on townhall.com: “Dean’s no civil centrist” Excerpt from column by Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research center: “Should we feel sorry for the press as they try, frantically, to apply a barrel of pancake makeup to Howard Dean and present this raging leftist to America as a soggy ‘centrist’? This is a really tough job. The entire political spectrum is going to have to be dragged off to the left of Massachusetts. It's hard not to snicker at the thought of newspapers like The Washington Post declaring in a Sunday front-page headline: ‘As Governor, Dean Was Fiscal Conservative.’ Liberal reporter Michael Powell (last noticed in a furious fit of powder-puffing Senator Hillary Clinton) trotted out an assortment of Vermont ‘liberals’ to declare that Dean was far too moderate for them. It should have come with a disclaimer: ‘The following story was gathered in Vermont, where the acceptable middle can be defined by the persistent re-election of Congressman Bernie Sanders, a flaming socialist.’ Let's review a smidgen of what the networks and news magazines have desperately tried to explain away or paper over in the last few weeks. Dean is agnostic on the closing of Saddam Hussein's totalitarian torture house, and has to be poked and pushed into acknowledging that Saddam was a bit of a bad egg. Dean obediently followed the leftist judicial activists of Vermont's Supreme Court into providing gay ‘civil unions,’ which has led to a Republican electoral surge. Dean, according to the Cato Institute, led one of the nation's highest taxing and spending states. Dean backs partial-birth abortion, and thinks the whole issue of skull-sucking infanticide is ‘phony.’ Perhaps most ridiculously, reporters make excuses for Dean's fierce attacks on President Bush. They make Democratic hearts ‘soar.’ They are not described as ‘red meat’ for ‘Bush haters,’ although those words would apply. They use words like ‘brusque,’ ‘feisty,’ ‘testy’ and ‘in-your-face.’ What they're not doing is dipping into the vocabulary they used for conservatives, for example Newt Gingrich. CBS called Newt ‘bombastic and ruthless.’ NBC chided him as a ‘rabid attack dog against anything liberal.’ ABC claimed that his ‘slash-and-burn rhetoric against Democrats has made him the poster boy for political resentment and rage, and he's proud of it.’ Network reporters wrapped these attacks in ‘news’ stories on Gingrich, and now Dean is only ‘feisty.’ If any of these outlets breathe a word about the need for Republican ‘civility’ in politics, please direct them back to everything Dean has said this year already. And he's just getting started.”

… Bush stronger in Florida than Graham – which may not mean much since the FL Sen’s popularity numbers have dropped below 50% for first time since he was elected to the Senate. Headline from yesterday’s Orlando Sentinel: “Graham’s popularity plunges” Excerpt from report by the Sentinel’s political ace, Mark Silva: “As Sen. Bob Graham seeks to boost his presidential campaign by leading his entire family on a weeklong summer tour of Iowa, a new survey back home in Florida shows his personal popularity sliding to a record low. Challenging President Bush on the war in Iraq has cost Graham support among Floridians who traditionally have backed the Democratic senator but support both Bush and the war, the statewide survey for the Orlando Sentinel, WESH-NewsChannel 2 and other Florida media shows. For the first time in the more than 16 years Graham has served in the U.S. Senate, his popularity has fallen below 50 percent at home, the poll shows. ‘Historically, Graham has always appealed to a certain number of Republican voters in Florida,’ pollster Brad Coker said Tuesday. ‘Running against the president, he certainly is driving away some of the Republicans who used to support him.’ Graham's slide in popularity is not enough to undermine prospects for re-election, should he decide to seek a fourth term to the Senate next year, Coker said. But the implications for a struggling presidential campaign are more severe. In Iowa, and in other early-nominating states, Florida's senior senator is campaigning as the one Democrat who can defeat Bush in the Sunshine State, a major electoral prize that only narrowly elected the Republican president in 2000. But Bush, whose popularity in Florida stands significantly higher today than it did after the disputed presidential election, maintains a comfortable lead over Graham in a theoretical Florida matchup. The survey by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. shows Bush favored among 51 percent of Florida voters, Graham 39 percent, with 10 percent undecided. Graham has paid a price for heated and repeated criticism of Bush, the survey suggests. Few Floridians agree, as Graham argues on national television and the campaign trail, that Bush misled the public about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. ‘A lot of what he's doing now is to try to boost him in Iowa and New Hampshire, and unfortunately that runs counter to the people back home,’ said Coker, Mason-Dixon's managing director. ‘The voters he says he can bring to the table, at least in Florida, are sort of leaving the table right now.’ The telephone survey of 625 Florida voters conducted July 29-31 carries a possible margin of error of 4 percentage points…’Bob Graham is still the best candidate to take on George Bush in Florida,’ said Jamal Simmons, Graham campaign spokesman. ‘You have a popular president, and people are starting to think about things they didn't have to think about. On Election Day, people will decide who is best prepared to lead the country.’”

… “Lieberman Unveils Drive to Gain Jewish Donors” – headline from FOXNews.com. He tells FOX News: “I am running as an American who happens to be Jewish, not the other way around.” Excerpt: “Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman has unveiled an Internet fund-raising drive devoted entirely to attracting contributions from Jewish Americans, highlighting a subplot in the Democratic race. The push for Jewish support reveals that the nation's first credible Jewish candidate for the White House has not automatically attracted the financial resources of American Jews, especially Jewish Democrats. The Connecticut senator plays down the whiff of history and Jewish-American aspirations that would come with a win. ‘I am running for president as an American who happens to be Jewish, not the other way around,’ Lieberman told Fox News. ‘I am proud of my heritage. I have been pleased to find in this campaign that a lot of others are proud that I have this barrier-breaking opportunity.’ Lieberman became the first Jewish American nominated by a major party as a vice president. When his 2000 running mate Al Gore announced that he wouldn't take another shot in 2004, Lieberman banked on tapping into Gore's fund-raising base and leveraging early financial support from Jewish Democrats. But campaign finance reports show that has not happened. ‘The fact of the matter is, the jury is out about Joe Lieberman's appeal nationwide,’ said Charles Lewis, head of the Center for Public Integrity. ‘Sen. Lieberman is having to prove himself in the Jewish community just like any other candidate,’ said E.J. Kessler, national political correspondent for the Forward, a Jewish newspaper based in New York. ‘We're talking about a community that is very sophisticated and isn't necessarily going to support one candidate just because of his ethnicity or his attachments to the community.’ Other Democratic rivals such as Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt have raised substantial sums from Jewish donors — a sign Democrats are still hedging their bets. ‘A lot of donors are giving to more than one Democrat in this crowded field of nine,’ Lewis said. One problem for Lieberman is that President Bush's Israel policy is playing well with many Jewish Democrats. Another problem is that Lieberman is selling centrism to liberal Democrats who tend to vote and contribute in large numbers in Democratic primaries and caucuses, say political analysts. ‘Sen. Lieberman's problem in the Jewish community, I mean first of all, we're talking about donors and not voters — is that he's to the right of the Jewish activist donor who's going to be involved in the game now,’ Kessler said. With that in mind, Lieberman is retooling, including adding a fund-raising method to his Web site that attempts to appeal to new Jewish donors.  The 1,800 Challenge uses the number 18, which carries great significance in the Jewish faith. The Hebrew alphabet assigns a letter to each number and ‘18’ translates into ‘Chai,’ meaning life. ‘It's a kind of a soft ethnic pitch. It should bring in some money on the margins,’ Kessler said.”

… Just what the Dem campaign needs – Edwards outlines his “real solutions” for America in a pamphlet. Headline from yesterday’s The Union Leader – “Summer reading: Edwards offers 65-page policy booklet” Coverage – datelined Concord – by AP’s Holly Ramer. An excerpt: “Democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards wants New Hampshire teachers to hit the books before they head back to the classroom.  The North Carolina senator plans to distribute copies of his 60-plus-page booklet ‘Real Solutions For America’ at a meeting Wednesday of the National Education Association of New Hampshire. Copies also will be available at two ‘Town Hall’ meetings later in the day. ‘America deserves a President who will offer real solutions to the problems people face in their everyday lives. I have a responsibility to tell you not just what I'm against, but what I'm for,’ Edwards wrote in the booklet's introduction, which was provided along with excerpts to The Associated Press.  In a crowded field of nine Democrats, Edwards has sought to distinguish himself with a steady stream of policy proposals. The booklet is divided into 11 chapters on everything from job creation to health care to foreign policy. A section titled ‘Help Working Americans Build Their Wealth’ includes Edwards' plan to provide a matching tax credit of up to $5,000 for first-time homeowners, cut capital gains tax rates for middle-class families and create matching retirement savings accounts for those with incomes up to $50,000.  Though Edwards has been touting the proposals for months, packaging them together provides a detailed look at the candidate's ideas, what they'd cost and how he'd pay for them, said Colin VanOstern, Edwards' New Hampshire spokesman.  The booklet isn't exactly beach reading, but VanOstern said he expects the crowds at the Town Hall forums to pick them up. ‘People are really starting to be engaged,’ he said.  Edwards is not the first Presidential candidate to package his ideas in a booklet - Sen. Bob Graham of Florida has a 50-page pamphlet on his economic policy alone.”

… Biden – still below the Dem radar – may have had “it” during presidential adventure 16 years ago, but does he still have “it” and is he going to run. Philadelphia Inquirer report says IA and NH teams just waiting for a “green light.” Headline on Inquirer article: “Is Joe Biden thinking presidential thoughts?” Excerpts from report by Larry Kane, who covered Biden’s first presidential bid as a television journalist: “Does Joe Biden have a date with destiny? The answer to that question may actually begin with a news story that happened in June 1987. It was a great month for Joe Biden, the U.S. senator from Delaware. Sixteen years ago, I traveled as a correspondent on the senator's launch of his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president. The journey started in the Amtrak station in Wilmington; continued to Washington, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Boston; and the cities of Nashua and Manchester in New Hampshire. Biden's presidential odyssey took me to an old-fashioned town hall in Nashua. There, and at other stops, people frenetically tried to get close. A woman, her face beaded with perspiration, spoke into my microphone. They were words I would hear over and over. ‘He's got it. He's just got it,’ she said. ‘It,’ whatever that combination of intelligence and star power, is hard to find. His speeches were received with intense emotion, his oratory flowing with the cadence of a Kennedy, and the optimism of a Reagan. He came across as neither liberal nor conservative but practical and clear in an age of labels and demagoguery. The individual chemistry between Biden and voters was a thing of beauty to watch. In one single month, he was feared and respected by the other Democratic hopefuls. And then, as the campaign continued, Biden used someone else's words in a speech. The campaign was over. In later years, the mistake seemed to pale by comparison to modern Washington indiscretions. But what was done was done, and in a twist of irony, his life was saved because of it. Months later, he suffered a brain aneurysm that almost killed him. Today, he says to me: ‘Well, I blew the campaign, but I probably would have lost my life if I'd gone on anyway. I mean, would I have driven myself to the hospital in the ice and snow of New Hampshire?’…In the years since, Biden, now in his sixth term in office, has chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee and has led the war on drugs. He now is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In the era of a less-than-dynamic John Kerry, a maverick Howard Dean, a respectful Joe Lieberman, a ubiquitous Dick Gephardt, a reserved Al Sharpton, and a few other wannabes, Biden stands out as the most charismatic politician in his party. The extent of his knowledge and experience is unchallenged. He is the go-to man when the national news broadcasts seek a powerful and respected Democrat. It is a truth that few politicians in Washington will actually speak their minds. George W. Bush, despite some recent setbacks, is a popular President and a favorite to win a second term. He must be salivating at the prospect of a Howard Dean or a wavering John Kerry. But a Biden could be his worst nightmare: a senator with actual charisma, and a man with more experience in the dangerous worlds of intelligence and foreign policy than any other lawmaker in Washington. He's also a man who never met a TV camera that didn't like him. Like the summer of 1987, these are decisive days for Joe Biden. The Democrats, in a nation of 280 million people, have so far failed to find a spark plug that will ignite the nation. Biden is thinking hard about it. ‘I'm going to probe the family during August,’ he tells me. ‘The family is the key here. It always has been. God gave me new life in 1988. Now, I have to decide what to do, what's best for my family and my state and my country.’ What will he do? Forecasting what a politician will do is risky business for a journalist. But I can tell you this: His team is already designated for New Hampshire and Iowa, waiting patiently in case he flashes the green light.”

… “First Lady Wouldn’t Be Her Full-Time Job…Judith Steinberg has no intention of changing her lifestyle if her spouse, Howard Dean, is elected. That includes her medical practice.” – headline from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times. Excerpts from coverage by the Times’ Johanna Neuman: “Dr. Judith Steinberg, an internist in Shelburne, Vt., cherishes her privacy. Fond of taking solo rides along nearby Burlington's lake-hugging bicycle path, the wife of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is — by her own account — a private person who has not made a public speech in nearly 20 years and has never given a radio or television interview. And Steinberg says she has no intention of changing that behavior just because her husband is running for president. Except for an occasional interview, Steinberg said she had no plans to give speeches or stump on the campaign trail. If Dean is elected president, she hopes to move her medical practice to Washington. Asked whether she would use the bully pulpit of the White House to advocate policy, perhaps on medical issues, Steinberg demurred. ‘I really enjoy people one on one. I enjoy listening to them,’ she said. ‘I'm not that comfortable speaking to groups. I have my opinions, but they are from a narrow point of view, a doctor's or even a patient's.’…’I would have to broaden my viewpoint’ before speaking out on policy, she said. Steinberg, 50, does not seem inclined to do so. ‘I don't think I'd have much of a staff,’ she said. ‘I don't think I would normally travel because that would take me away from my practice.’ And her husband said that if he won the White House, he would not expect his wife to abandon her career. ‘Why give up a job she loves?’ Dean asked. He seemed certain that his wife's passion for privacy would raise eyebrows in Washington. ‘Undoubtedly it will. We might as well get it out early.’ Dean's candidacy has surged in the last month — he is leading among likely Democratic voters in California in the latest Field Poll — and some moderate party leaders fear that if Dean wins the nomination, he could steer the party to the left in a replay of the Michael S. Dukakis and George S. McGovern election routs. Some political observers believe his wife's absence on the campaign trail — and likely nonattendance at the White House — could hurt him politically. ‘America wants a first lady,’ said Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report, one of the capital's best-read political newsletters. ‘If this is a viable candidacy, if by September he looks like he's got a real shot, this is going to become an issue.’ But the couple are confident, as are some analysts, that they can turn his wife's independent life into a campaign asset. ‘It will hurt and it will help,’ Dean said. Traditionalists may object, he argues, but working women may rally to a first lady who also works outside the home. ‘We have a true partnership based on mutual respect,’ he said. ‘She is going to be different than most first ladies.’”

… Are these folks serious about drafting Clark for the presidency – or are they just a bunch of drunks who keep using the potential Clark candidacy as another reason to keep visiting bars and “drafting” him? Pass another draft beer. Headline from yesterday’s Washington Post: “Gen. Clark’s Backers, Brewing Up a Draft” Excerpt of report by the Post’s Ann Gerhart: “On a typical evening at Stetson's on the U Street strip, the paper Heineken bucket is for hauling chilled beers to your table for serious swilling. This night, the bucket holds ‘regime change,’ and look there -- four quarters, five dimes, a nickel and a penny, to fund the effort to draft a certain former Army general to run for president. It's Meetup night for the Draft Wesley Clark movement, and early Monday evening, there's a sign on the door leading upstairs: ‘Closed for Private Party.’ There, the guys who started this mini-movement in April are bustling around the two pool tables and the Dr. Who pinball machine, putting out bumper stickers and buttons, pasting up a banner…Nine Democrats have been running for months, raising money and building support. None of them is good enough for those who would draft Clark. It's nothing personal; most Clarksters just think the declared candidates can't win in a campaign that will turn on national security. But how about that four-star general? Impeccable bona fides on that, they say. Led the NATO forces trying to put the Balkans back together, believes in America working with its allies, shot four times in Vietnam, Bronze Star, Purple Heart.  Some 30,000 people have sent Clark letters begging him to run, and $338,000 has been pledged to his campaign if he gets in, draft organizers say. On Monday night, Clarksters gathered at 92 Meetups across the country. ‘Something is going on here,’ says Hlinko.  As for the conventional wisdom that says Clark is too late to the party to raise funds and build support, co-founder Josh Margulies trots out the practiced answer: ‘The last time a Rhodes scholar from Arkansas announced against an incumbent named Bush who had just won a war in Iraq, he did okay. And he declared in October.’ Clark himself, in an appearance on CNN last week, said, ‘I am approaching a time when I am going to make a decision,’ adding: ‘I think one of the principal rules of making decisions is, you never have to make a decision before it's time to make a decision. And it's not time to make this decision.’ Vacationing with his wife in California, Clark was unavailable for comment yesterday on his unsolicited faithful.”

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