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Iowa primary precinct caucus and caucuses news, reports
and information on 2004 Democrat and Republican candidates, campaigns
and issues
IOWA
DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.
PAGE 1
Wednesday,
July 30, 2003
GENERAL
NEWS:
Among
the offerings in today's update:
During
Sioux City stop, Kerry says the
voters he meets are “kind of tired about
being trickled on by George W. Bush.”
Sioux City Journal says Kerry sets
standard for crowd size, enthusiasm
After
hitting Dean and Kerry in
recent editorials, The Union Leader saves a
volley for Edwards statement about wealth
and values, says he “needs a new
strategy, and he needs it immediately.”
Another day,
another New Hampshire poll: Dean & Kerry
still deadlocked. Faltering Three (Kucinich,
Moseley Braun, Sharpton) also deadlocked
together -- at “zero percent”
Gephardt
picks up seventh union endorsement as
honchos, money-brokers scheduled to meet in
Chicago next week on AFL-CIO plans
In Des
Moines today, Dean
scheduled to
outline economic plan, hit DC Dems for being
too timid in opposing Bush policies
In
Carroll yesterday, Kerry
called on
the president to make section of the 9/11
report public
Hillary,
counterattacking alleged “right-wing”
attacks, invites supporters to become
“Hill’s Angels” for 2006 reelection bid
In the
Senate, tough battle ahead on energy bill
this week with a big looming obstacle: 70 to
100 proposed Dem amendments. Grassley
tells WHO Radio the Senate’s August recess
may be delayed in effort to complete work on
the legislation
Gephardt,
slumping after dismal fundraising reports,
goes back to his ace in the hole – trade
FOXNews.com
report: Kerry rides Harleys, Dean hands
out tongue depressors, Graham sponsors a
NASCAR truck in the ongoing struggle among
wannabes for recognition
Boston
Globe: Report on the “irascible” and
“impatient” Howard Dean includes his
planned formula for presidential success –
2004 election will be 25% to 50% national
security, 50% to 75% economic security.
This is the must-read story of the day
as Globe report says the “impetuous Dean
makes Bob Dole look soft and cuddly”
OpinionJournal.com’s Taranto asks an
interesting question about Kucinich:
Is this guy for real?
Guess
who’s coming to (Harkin’s) dinner in
September? Clue: He’s a past – and probably
would like to be a future – president
Edwards
joins the health-care proposal parade – he
does not guarantee universal coverage, but
would require children be insured
Dean’s
“Cheney Challenge” – an Internet fundraiser
to match the $250,000 to $300,000 the VP
raised in SC – draws more than 7,500
responses and over $400,000
KCCI-TV (Des
Moines) reports “dangerous” new
methamphetamine ingredient -- red
phosphorous – also poses new challenges for
IA law enforcement
Iowaism: Who
would have guessed that jaywalking was
illegal in Iowa City?
All these stories below and more.
Morning reports:
… Morning
newscasts say an Iowa state trooper was
seriously injured overnight in a near
head-on crash just south of Interstate 80 in
Poweshiek County (Grinnell). No
additional details available yet
… Radio Iowa
reports that authorities are investigating
a “suspicious death” in Leon in southern
IA. The report says Melody Sue Jeffery, 42,
was found in her home by her father yesterday
… Central Iowa newscasts this morning indicate
that former Indianola High School football
coach David Summy has pleaded guilty to
illegal gambling charges. He has resigned
the coaching position he held for 21 years,
but remains on the Indianola faculty as
a history and social studies teacher.
… Dean
scheduled to outline economic plan in Des
Moines today, but it looks more like a very
bipartisan attack – hitting Bush policies, but
also taking on Washington Dems for timid
opposition to GWB’s approach. KCCI-TV (Des
Moines) reported yesterday that Dean
will outline the basics of his economic
plan during Iowa visit today. In addition, the
AP’s caucus-watcher, Mike Glover, previewed
Dean’s proposal and comments. An excerpt
from Glover’s report: “Presidential hopeful
Howard Dean is dismissing Democrats in
Washington as too timid to challenge President
Bush's economic policies, arguing that their
reticence reflects a fear of losing. The
former Vermont governor plans to offer a more
detailed economic plan in September, but he is
using a campaign swing through Iowa this
week to try to distinguish himself from his
foes for the nomination while criticizing
party leaders willing to compromise. ‘Too
many Democrats in Washington have become so
afraid of losing that they have remained
silent or only halfheartedly fought the very
agenda that is destroying the democratic dream
of America,’ said Dean in remarks
prepared for delivery to a union hall audience
Wednesday. ‘In order to change America, we
are going to have to change the Democratic
Party, and make it stand for principles once
again,’ he said. The Associated Press
obtained copies of his remarks and the outline
of his economic proposals. Dean has
vaulted to the top tier in the Democratic
primary race based in part on his staunch
opposition to the U.S.-led war against Iraq, a
position that resonates with the party's
liberal base. He received a financial boost in
the second-quarter fund-raising period,
collecting more than $7.5 million, largely
through the Internet, and his ratings have
improved in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire.
He is trying to broaden his appeal by
focusing on the economy. His effort comes,
however, as centrist Democrats, including many
who gathered in Philadelphia this week,
expressed real fear that his candidacy and
possible nomination will mean ruin for the
party next November against President Bush.
In his remarks, Dean assailed Bush and
his economic plan. The president, in
addressing the National Urban League Monday,
had touted his policies, including tax cuts,
for providing greater opportunity for
Americans. ‘Never has a president talked so
much about jobs while doing so much to destroy
them,’ Dean said. The former Vermont
governor, who often cites his record on
balancing the state budget, proposed several
economic steps, including an increase in the
minimum wage, broadening unemployment
insurance to cover part-time workers, more
money for cash-strapped states and expanding
high-speed Internet access. The cost and
additional details will come in September, he
said.”
… “Edwards’
error: N. C. senator makes big strategic
mistake” – Headline on editorial in
yesterday’s The Union Leader. Editorial
excerpt: “Sen. John Edwards, by national
standards clearly a moderate Democrat, has
tried to breathe life into his flailing
Presidential campaign by tacking to the left.
What can he be thinking? In Nashua on Sunday,
Edwards, who by the way is a trial lawyer
worth about $14 million, said of President
Bush, ‘His values are not our values. They are
not the values of most Americans. What he
honors and respects is really only one thing:
wealth.’ Not content to leave after
uttering that absurdity, he went on. ‘Most
Democrats are against George Bush’s tax cuts
for the rich. That includes me.’ With
President Bush’s approval ratings still around
55 percent, Edwards says President
Bush’s values are not shared by most
Americans, and he hints that as President he
would raise taxes. This will go over with
most Americans, and with Edwards’ own
constituents in North Carolina, like sushi at
a pig-pickin’. Not only will rhetoric like
this fail to move the party’s leftist base
away from Howard Dean, with whom it is
hopelessly infatuated, but it will alienate
the moderates, Edwards’ core
constituency. Edwards needs a new strategy,
and he needs it immediately.”
… “Kerry
Blasts Bush on 911 Report, Saudis…Democratic
Candidate Campaigning in Carroll” –
Headline from KCCI-TV (Des Moines)
online. Excerpt from report on Kerry’s
visit to western Iowa yesterday: “Massachusetts
Sen. John Kerry is calling on President George
W. Bush to make public a section of a report
of an investigation into the ties between
Saudi Arabia and terrorist networks.
Kerry spoke Tuesday during a campaign stop
in Carroll. He said his proposal is
timed to coincide with the president's
meetings with Saudi officials in Washington.
He said it's an opportunity for Bush to make
the record clear. The Saudis have called
on Bush to release the report as well, saying
it will show they have no ties to terrorism.
The Bush administration has declined, saying
that would interfere with ongoing
investigations. At the same time, Kerry
said the U.S. is hamstrung by its reliance on
Saudi oil, which weakens America's ability to
influence events in the region. He said it's
time for the U.S. to develop energy
independence.”
… Under the subhead “Dean’s fund-raising,”
Greg Pierce wrote about Dean’s challenge to
top Cheney’s financial goal in his “Inside
Politics” column in the Washington Times. An
excerpt from yesterday’s column: Democratic
presidential hopeful Howard Dean asked his
supporters to match the fund-raising prowess
of Vice President Dick Cheney, and they came
through with more than $400,000 over the
Internet in a single weekend, the
Associated Press reports. The effort began
Friday, when the former Vermont governor's
campaign Web site challenged donors to match
the $250,000 that Mr. Cheney was slated to
raise at a single luncheon in South Carolina.
Mr. Dean's campaign set a deadline of
midnight yesterday to reach the goal. More
than 7,700 donors helped Mr. Dean surpass his
goal by Sunday, and contributions
continued to come in throughout the day
yesterday. ‘Let's show Dick Cheney that the
grassroots have the power to take on the
special interests that have bought the Bush
administration,’ the campaign urged in an
e-mail. ‘Let's show George W. Bush and Dick
Cheney that we will not let our government be
sold to the highest bidder.’ Mr. Dean's
Web site used a baseball-bat icon to track the
amount of money donated online, showing
updated totals every half hour.”
… Gephardt
picks another union endorsement - his seventh.
The International Alliance of Stage
Employees, Theatrical Stage Employees and
Moving Picture Technicians, or IATSE,
announced its support of the Missouri
congressman on Tuesday in New York. The union
has more than 100,000 members in the United
States and Canada. Union President Thomas C.
Short said Monday that Gephardt ‘has
demonstrated through words and most
importantly his actions, that he supports
working families. He has fought to protect the
rights of unions to organize, bargain and
represent their members.’ The AFL-CIO's
executive council will meet next week in
Chicago to gauge the political temperature of
its 65 affiliate unions and whether a single
labor endorsement is even possible. An
endorsement likely won't happen unless a
candidate can receive the backing of unions
representing two-thirds of all rank-and-file.”
… In Iowa,
Kerry blasts Bush for “trickle down economics”
and sets new standard for size of crowd and
enthusiasm during Sioux City visit.
Headline from yesterday’s Sioux City Journal:
“Kerry critical of Bush economic ‘trickle’
policies” Excerpts from coverage by the
Journal’s Bret Hayworth: “Citing the
‘extreme’ Bush administration as ripe for
ouster, Democratic Party presidential
candidate John Kerry said the recent tax cuts
need to be scaled back for so many more things
that America needs.
The
Massachusetts senator said the tax cuts only
help ‘the wealthiest Americans,’ while
endeavors in education, health care and
transportation are left wanting.
Kerry
said President Bush should know better than to
put forth the tired platform of ‘trickle down
economics,’ with the theory that tax cuts to
the richest will make their way down to the
working class. In a dig that drew cheers
from the crowd at the Elks Lodge No. 112 in
Sioux City, Kerry opined that ‘everybody I
meet is kind of tired about being trickled on
by George W. Bush.’
Kerry said with 3 million jobs lost
since Bush took office in January 2001, the
worst growth rate since World War II and with
the administration turning a federal budget
surplus into record deficits now estimated at
$475 billion, Bush has ‘the worst economic
record since Herbert Hoover was the
president.’ Said Kerry, ‘The only thing
that George W. Bush has created is the nine of
us running for president... It ought to be
clear that the person who needs to be laid off
is George W. Bush.’ Kerry said no
true conservative Republican would back the
fiscal irresponsibility of such deficits.
Kerry said as president he would repeal
the tax cut to those with incomes over
$200,000…The new standard for size of crowd
and enthusiasm in a Sioux City 2004 public
campaign stop belongs to Kerry. Since the
first stumping in mid-March by Rep. Dick
Gephardt, Kerry holds the high-water mark for
Democrats following Monday evening's
festive gathering of 210 Siouxlanders at the
Elks Lodge. Lots of the attendees wanted
pictures with the senator.”
… “Dean,
Kerry deadlocked in Franklin Pierce poll”
– Headline from yesterday’s The Union Leader.
Excerpts from the poll report: “Democrats
Howard Dean and John Kerry are deadlocked in a
New Hampshire poll of likely voters in the
presidential primary. The survey by Franklin
Pierce College showed Dean, the former Vermont
governor, at 22 percent, and Kerry, the
Massachusetts senator, at 21 percent. The
poll, conducted for WNDS-TV in Derry, N.H.,
was taken July 20-24. The survey also found
an increasing number of undecided voters - 37
percent, up from 31 percent in May. A poll
last week by the American Research Group in
New Hampshire also found a spike in the
undecideds, with many saying they were taking
another look at the Democratic field as
President Bush's approval ratings dropped and
he appeared more vulnerable. The American
Research Group poll showed Kerry with a
slight lead over Dean. Only three in
10 voters in the Franklin Pierce poll said
they were definitely committed to their chosen
candidate. The remaining Democratic
candidates were in single digits, with Rep.
Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. Joe
Lieberman of Connecticut at 6 percent.
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina was at
2 percent, and Sen. Bob Graham of
Florida was at 1 percent. Rep. Dennis
Kucinich of Ohio, Carol Moseley Braun and Al
Sharpton were at zero percent. Two
unannounced potential candidates - retired
Army Gen. Wesley Clark and Sen. Joe Biden of
Delaware - received some support: Clark was
at 2 percent, Biden at 1 percent. Another
recent poll, conducted for The Boston Herald
and released last weekend, also showed Dean
and Kerry essentially tied. The
Franklin Pierce poll of 500 likely primary
voters had an error margin of plus or minus 4
percentage points.”
… Edwards
outlines limited health care proposal aimed
primarily at requiring parents to ensure
children are covered. Headline from
yesterday’s Quad-City Times: “Edwards would
mandate health insurance for kids”
Excerpts from coverage by the Times’ Ed
Tibbetts: “All parents would be
required to get health insurance for their
children under a plan Democratic presidential
candidate John Edwards pitched Monday. Edwards,
a U.S. senator from North Carolina, is the
latest presidential hopeful to unveil a
health-care plan. Although his proposal is
less expensive than some of his rivals’ ideas,
it does not guarantee universal coverage,
except to children. Parents would have to
ensure coverage for children younger than 21.
‘For the first time in history, we’re going to
make sure every child in America has health
care, just like we do with education.’…
Edwards’ plan would cover 21 million people at
a cost of $53 billion a year. National
figures show that about 41 million people
nationwide do not have health insurance.
Edwards would spend $25 billion on tax
credits to ensure coverage of children.
Parents earning less than $100,000 a year
would be eligible for tax credits to help
defray the cost. They could use the credits to
pay for insurance provided through their
employers or buy into state/federal
health-care plans. About 12 million children
are uninsured, his campaign states. A family
of four earning about $60,000 annually would
get a $300 tax credit and would pay no more
than $365 a year for coverage, the campaign
states. A family of four with $36,000 in
annual income would have to pay no more than
about $110 a year. People would have to prove
on their income taxes that their children have
insurance. The plan would be paid for by
eliminating the Bush tax cuts, cutting the
federal government’s non-defense work force
and ending other subsidies. Former Vermont
Gov. Howard Dean, U.S. Rep. Richard
Gephardt, D-Mo., U.S. Rep. Dennis
Kucinich, D-Ohio, and U.S. Sen. John
Kerry, D-Mass., all have put forth
health-care plans.”
… Bush and
seven wannabes – excluding Graham and Kerry –
share same stage for first time during the
campaign at Urban League convention in
Pittsburgh. Headline from yesterday’s
Washington Post: “Bush Tells Urban League
Policies Aid Minorities…President Gets
Polite Response at Convention” Excerpts from
coverage by the Post’s Mike Allen: “President
Bush made a rare appearance before an African
American audience today and argued for a
conservative brand of “active government” that
his advisers believe will help him make
inroads with black voters. Bush, speaking
to the annual convention of the National Urban
League, received polite but tepid applause as
he described his dedication to ‘bringing
economic hope to every neighborhood, a good
education to every child, and comfort and
compassion to the afflicted.’ Bush
catalogued the ways he says his administration
is working to benefit minority churches,
families and businesses. He used the word
‘faith’ 17 times in slightly more than a
half-hour. ‘Our journey toward justice has
not been easy and it is not over,’ Bush said.
‘Yet I am confident that we will reach our
destination.’ Five hours later, seven of
the nine candidates for the Democratic
presidential nomination appeared on the same
stage, marking the first time Bush and his
challengers had shared a venue on the same day…It
was Bush's first appearance in 23 months
before a large civil rights organization and
one of the rare times that the audience was
not controlled by the Republican Party.
Bush delivered an education speech to the
National Urban League in 2001. He has
consistently declined invitations from the
NAACP and has turned down repeated invitations
from the Congressional Black Caucus since a
White House meeting in the first month of his
presidency…Bush won 9 percent of the black
vote in 2000. Ed Gillespie, making his first
trip as Republican National Committee
chairman, said the party sees hope in a trend
since 1996 of younger African Americans
identifying themselves as independents rather
than as Democrats. Speaking just before
dinnertime, the Democrats continued their
pattern of attacking Bush instead of one
another. The roster included the three
candidates who apologized and hastened to
Miami this month after being rebuked for
initially skipping the NAACP's national
convention -- Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.),
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) and Sen. Joseph
I. Lieberman (Conn.). Gephardt told 1,500
National Urban League delegates that Bush ‘has
made this economy a mess. This economic
program is a disaster. In my first week as
president, I'll ask the Congress to get rid of
the Bush tax cuts. They have not worked.’
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean said it
was a disservice for Bush to say in January
that admissions policies of the University of
Michigan ‘amount to a quota system.’ Bush
also said he supports diversity. Last month,
the Supreme Court issued two decisions about
Michigan's admissions system that, taken
together, ratified diversity as a rationale
for race-conscious admissions…Sen. John
Edwards (N.C.) said Bush ‘honors and respects
only one thing -- wealth.’…’These are not
the values we grew up with,’ Edwards
said. ‘This election, at its core, is about a
very simple thing. It's about whether we
believe in an America where the family you're
born into controls your destiny. That's George
Bush's America. It is not our America.’
Lieberman focused on ‘the scandal of poverty
in America,’ contending that under Bush,
‘many of the American dreams of people who are
poor and trying to work their way up have been
dashed against the shoals of compassionate
conservatism.’ Al Sharpton said that
‘unlike the president that you heard this
morning, I will try to uphold the truth.’
Former senator Carol Moseley Braun (Ill.)
called the war in Iraq ‘an expensive
misadventure.’ Sens. John F. Kerry
(Mass.) and Bob Graham (Fla.) did not
attend, citing prior commitments. Kerry
sent delegates a letter saying he is ‘proud to
march with you all on this journey.’”
… The stuff
of big-time political campaigns – Harleys,
tongue depressors, NASCAR truck races.
FOXNews.com reports on the continuing efforts
of the Dem wannabes to gain name recognition.
Excerpt from online account by Liza Porteus:
“Some Democratic presidential hopefuls who
need to penetrate the American psyche before
next year's primaries are creatively trying to
become household names. Sen. John Kerry of
Massachusetts rides a Harley-Davidson around
Wisconsin. Former Vermont Gov. Howard
Dean hands out tongue depressors at campaign
events. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida has
his presidential campaign logo on the hood and
quarter panels of a NASCAR Ford Craftsman
Truck. ‘There's no doubt ... I don't think
people are saying they're going to vote for
Joe Lieberman because they've heard of
him but if they've heard of him, then he's
favorable — they know a little bit about him,’
said Maurice Carroll, director of the
Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. ‘The
national awareness that you're around has to
help.’ Based on recent polls, the Democrats
need all the help they can get. A Fox
News-Opinion Dynamics poll released last week
showed that if the 2004 presidential election
were held today, 42 percent of the electorate
would re-elect Bush, 31 percent would vote for
the Democratic candidate and 19 percent say it
depends on the Democrat or it's too soon to
say. But few of the people who said a
Democrat could do a better job than Bush could
actually name a candidate of that party.
‘The Democratic candidates are all still
pretty much unknown to the voters,’ said
Opinion Dynamics President John Gorman.
Another Fox News poll released in June shows
that most candidates are mostly unknown. Al
Gore’s vice presidential running mate in the
2000 election helped Connecticut Sen. Joe
Lieberman achieve the highest name
recognition of the nine candidates.
Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt and New York Rev.
Al Sharpton were the only other candidates who
had better than 50 percent name recognition.
The least well-known include former Illinois
Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Ohio Rep.
Dennis Kucinich, North Carolina Sen.
John
Edwards and Dean. The four
are not identifiable by at least 70 percent of
those surveyed. Florida Sen.
Bob
Graham was not identifiable by 61
percent of those polled. While voters may not
be paying attention yet, they will eventually,
say poll takers. ‘By and large, the public at
large isn't that focused on the campaign yet —
that's just the reality of the situation,’
said Carroll Doherty, editor at the Pew
Research Center for the People and the Press.
‘Eventually, the field's going to shake out
a little bit and whoever's been in the top
tier is going to get more attention, and that
shake out is going on now.’”
… From
yesterday’s “Inside Politics” column in the
Washington Times – an excerpt that appeared
under the subhead “Ace in the hole”: “’While
some observers focus on Rep. Richard
Gephardt's surprisingly weak fund-raising
numbers and even go so far as to wonder
whether the former Democratic leader will be
long for the presidential race, Gephardt
has gone to his ace in the hole to solidify
his position in the top tier of candidates.
He's returned to the issue of trade,’
political analyst Stuart Rothenberg writes in
Roll Call. ‘It's a smart move. The
question, however, is whether it will produce
the desired results,’ Mr. Rothenberg
says. ‘By attacking Sen. John Kerry and
former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean for
supporting the North American Free Trade
Agreement, Gephardt reinforces the idea
that Kerry and Dean are coming from the same
ideological corner and competing for the same
voters. ‘Gephardt's efforts to lump the
two New Englanders together, if successful,
could ultimately encourage Kerry and Dean to
turn their guns on each other. If that
happens, it can only help Gephardt.’”
… The Real
Deal – or the Real Dean? Unlike the other
wandering wannabes – whether it works or not –
Dean is different and has a formula for
winning the Dem nomination. He’s a nut, but
he’s their nut. Headline from yesterday’s
Boston Globe: “The Dean of surprises.”
Excerpt from columnist Brian McGrory,
reporting from Manchester, NH, in yesterday’s
Globe: “He is sitting in his shirtsleeves at a
particleboard table in a corner of a barely
converted warehouse that is teeming with
campaign workers half his age. And Howard
Dean, the irascible Howard Dean, the impatient
Howard Dean, always stern, suffering no fools,
the guy who tosses insults like a B-52 drops
bombs, is smiling. He is smiling when he
is asked if he's surprised by his
extraordinarily good fortune -- the early
surge, the sustained success, the gush of
Internet donations -- in this, his first
presidential campaign. He pauses for a long
moment, perhaps recalling his vow of honesty a
few minutes before, and replies, ‘Yes, I
am.’ And seriously, how could he not be?
Polls show the Vermont governor emerging in
Iowa and in a pull-and-tug with John Kerry
in New Hampshire. Disaffected voters and
liberal students are swarming around him.
He is the red-hot candidate in a field of
somber gray. But questions nag, some of
them whispered by the operatives of his
closest rivals: Does Howard Dean have the
demeanor to be president? Has he peaked too
early? Does his candidacy go deeper than his
opposition to war? The early line isn't
good. Word from the field is that the
impetuous Dean makes Bob Dole look soft and
cuddly, that he's little more than a fad, and,
worst of all, that he's a one-trick pony who
doesn't have the legs for a long presidential
run …To be sure, there's little of the
backslapping and two-fisted handshaking that
send the message that he deeply cares.
Nobody's ever going to mistake him for Jerry
Seinfeld or, for that matter, Bill Clinton,
especially when an elderly man called out,
‘Can I ask one more question?’ Dean
said, ‘No, I want to give others some time.’
Then he turned away. Later, sitting back at
his state campaign headquarters, Dean
seemed more relaxed. There was no blood on his
lips. When asked whether he worried that his
candidacy might be relegated to that of a
flaming meteor, much like Gary Hart's or John
McCain's in elections past, rather than choke
me, he merely shrugged. ‘Everyone else is
so afraid to lose that they tailor their
message so tightly and don't say anything,’
he says. ‘If we turn into a fad, it's the
American people that will decide.’ Asked how
he'll avoid that, he makes the point that has
other candidates worried most. ‘This is the
first time I remember the national press
identifying the insurgent before picking the
front-runner,’ he says. ‘This is uncharted
territory. Normally, the insurgent peaks right
before Iowa and New Hampshire, then runs out
of gas because of the money that the
front-runner has.’ Indeed, his opponents
are hoping that his early surge will attract
greater scrutiny and that the scrutiny will
diminish him. Dean, on the other hand, is
looking at an autumn where his insurgent
campaign is better funded than any nonexistent
front-runner. At that point, momentum is
the rule of the day. In the meantime, he says
he'll talk about the war, health care, and the
economy with a combination of New York
brusqueness and Vermont common sense. He
pegs the 2004 election this way: 25 to 50
percent about national security; 50 to 75
percent about economic security. It's the
middle of summer, too early for any sane
person to pay a dime's worth of attention to
the campaign. And yet there's one candidate
in a boring group providing a reason to care.”
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Quotable I:
“This will go over with most Americans, and
with Edwards’ own constituents in North
Carolina, like sushi at a pig-pickin’.”
– From editorial, suggesting Edwards
needs a new strategy, in yesterday’s Union
Leader
Quotable II:
"Too many Democrats in Washington have become
so afraid of losing that they have remained
silent or only halfheartedly fought the very
agenda that is destroying the democratic dream
of America."
– Dean, in remarks scheduled for
delivery in Des Moines today
Quotable III:
“Never has a president talked so much about
jobs while doing so much to destroy them.”
– Dean,
more from today’s planned remarks.
…
Today’s question: Is Kucinich for real?
Excerpt from item on James Taranto’s “Best of
the Web Today” rant on OpinionJournal.com: “Is
This Guy for Real? Rep. Dennis
Kucinich called for a $60 billion effort
to provide universal preschool and proposed
paying for the plan with a 15 percent cut in
Pentagon spending,’ the Associated Press
reports from Ottumwa, Iowa. OK, we've
gotta ask: Is Dennis Kucinich a real
person? Sure, Democrats take some pretty
loopy positions at times, but the idea of
compromising our national defense in order to
waste $60 billion on nursery schools, of all
things, is just too over the top to be
believable. Could it be that some
conservative satirist -- Chris Buckley? P.J.
O'Rourke? -- has taken up ventriloquism, and
Dennis Kucinich is his dummy? “
to read past Iowa Daily Reports