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Iowa 2004 presidential primary precinct caucus and caucuses news">
Iowa 2004 presidential primary precinct caucus and caucuses news, reports
and information on 2004 Democrat and Republican candidates, campaigns
and issues Iowa
Presidential Watch's
IOWA DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.
... QUOTABLE: "I think Americans
deserve straight talk. I think they ought to know
who Howard Dean is,"
said John Kerry
claiming Dean has flip-flopped. "It's become increasingly
clear that John Kerry is a heck of a lot better at
formulating negative attacks than formulating a
straightforward position on Iraq,"
said Tricia
Enright, Howard Dean’s spokeswoman.
She walked away
shaking her head "Just like Clinton, he
made me think I was the only person in the room,"
Ramos-Spooner
said after an encounter with Wesley Clark.
"It should be clear to
all that Islam, the faith of one-fifth of
humanity, is consistent with democratic rule,"
Bush said.
"A religion that demands individual moral
accountability and encourages the encounter of the
individual with God is fully compatible with the
rights and responsibilities of self-government,"
President Bush
said in a speech marking the 20th anniversary of
the National Endowment for Democracy.
Wall Street
Journal
column, Al Hunt
says, "More than ideology or issues, there
are three qualities voters look for would-be
presidents to convey: competence, strength and
optimism. Dr. Dean, … instead exudes inexperience,
anger and pessimism." "The Governor moves
faster in more different directions, tells more
stories than anyone I've met in politics. This is
not a straight talker; this is a guy looking for
the new angle every time he can." --
John Kerry is
quoted in ABC’s The Note talking about Dean. "I think that it is about
time … And I think that if he had done it from the
beginning, he wouldn't have given the people the
perception that he was false to do it or was in
some way pushed to do it. But I think the apology
is the right thing. I told him that last night —
that he must apologize — he said he wouldn't …
Maybe at midnight the Lord spoke to him,"
said Al Sharpton
about Dean’s flag apology. “I own a pickup truck,
but it has an American flag. Most people embrace
America. Don’t separate us just because of
ethnicity,” said
John Edwards in response to a student’s question
in New Hampshire about the flag flap. “His clumsy formulation,
however, was what you might expect from the
governor of a precious little boutique named
Vermont,” --
wrote Wesley Pruden about Howard Dean in his
column in the Washington Times about the flag
flap. "Two-thirds of the
electorate hasn't woken up yet and his history
indicates he's a late closer,"
said University
of Massachusetts pollster Lou DiNatale, a longtime
Kerry watcher. "It literally requires his
life to pass before his eyes for him to come
alive." "There has been a lot of
talk about Senator Edwards since the debate,"
New Hampshire
Democratic Party chairwoman Kathleen Sullivan said
Friday concerning Edwards taking on Dean. “Simply put, Dean doesn’t
want to bother even paying lip service to the
oft-violated but still on-the-books spending
limits in the early primary states. He wants a
blowout, and wants it fast. If you were in Dean’s
Birkenstocks, you’d want that too”
-- written by
Howard Fineman of MSNBC. “And the ultimate
Democratic nomination fight question remains: will
the qualities and weaknesses that Hunt's Democrats
think will make Dean a disastrous general election
candidate turn out to, come January, stop him from
even being his party's nominee?”
-- From ABC’s
The Note. "As the economy changes,
as technology changes, the slowest part of the
change is the work force,"
President Bush said in S. Carolina.
Sen. Rick
Santorum of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate
Republican Conference, said that if Democrats
expect cooperation from the White House in the
investigation of intelligence failures that
preceded the war in Iraq, "they've got to
stop the politics." "I'm going to go to more
Iowa games," the
Waterloo native said Wednesday after announcing
his retirement from the network where he has spent
the past 12 years. "I knew five years ago
that I would probably retire when I turned 60."
Iowa native Bill
Bolster, called the "king of financial news," has
announced his retirement from NBC. His last day
will be Feb. 1.
… TODAY’S
OFFERINGS:
New approaches
Sarah slaps Dean
Not on board
Cheers and jeers
Flimflam artist
Kerry crashes
Kerry’s ad in New Hampshire
Clark: Use Bosnia model
General marching in S. Carolina
Edwards in New Hampshire
Sioux City heard from
Iowa Dem’s new method
Tough room
It’s the economy stupid
Gay Marriage
* CANDIDATES &
CAUCUSES: Front runner Howard Dean is
being attacked by his opponents at a more
fundamental level that tries to emphasize his
personal traits as basic flaws. Sen. John Kerry is
pushing the image of Dean pandering. The response
came from Dean campaign spokeswoman Tricia Enright
according to the
Associated Press story:
Enright said "To quote John Kerry's favorite
philosopher, Yogi Berra, I guess when John Kerry
came to the fork in the low road, he took it." Kerry is rolling several attacks
on; gun policy; social security, Medicare, trade,
public financing of elections and the flag flap
into a general theme that Dean panders to the
group of the moment. "It's not enough just to
switch your positions in the presidential race,"
Kerry said. "These are issues of principle." John
Edwards who became Mr. Prosecutor in a debate with
Dean over the flag is pushing the attack line that
Dean doesn’t have the temperament to be President.
Dean’s stubborn refusal to apologize is one such
trait being emphasized. Dean himself is quoted as
acknowledging the trait in the AP story: "You
know how I am, if somebody comes at me, my
tendency is to go right back at them and worry
about it later," he told reporters. The Manchester Union Leader
story shows Dean’s propensity to have his mouth be
his weapon of self-destruction: Sarah
Brady, chairman of the Brady Campaign to Prevent
Gun Violence, slapped Democratic Presidential
candidate Howard Dean last night for what she said
was his false contention that the shipment of guns
across state lines is no longer a crime problem.
But Dean campaign spokesman Matthew Gardner said
Brady misinterpreted a statement Dean made about
cross-border gun trafficking on a Web chat
yesterday sponsored by The Washington Post and the
Concord Monitor. Dean’s
statement was: “The
cross-border issue has been resolved in the one
case I know of where it became a big issue.
Virginia now limits the availability of gun
purchases because so many Virginia guns were
turning up in New York City illegally.” Howard Dean’s endorsement by
Service Employees International Union and the
probable joint announcement with American
Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees is a giant shift on several fronts.
First, it demonstrates the decline of industrial
and building and trades within the AFL-CIO. This
is the second time the service unions have moved
to shape the outcome of the Democrat presidential
nominee. AFSCME President Gerald McEntee was
crucial in Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign by
providing early support when other unions were
backing Iowa’s Sen. Tom Harkin. In a symbol of the
two unions’ newfound cooperation -- the two unions
compete to organize workers among health care and
public employees -- Dean met with McEntee before
meeting with SEIU board of directors. AFSCME is
holding an early meeting of its board to consider
a presidential endorsement. Consideration is being
given to a joint endorsement appearance by the two
unions. The rule in politics is to dance
with the one that brung ya. No one has done more
on traditional union issues of NAFTA or any other
issue than Dick Gephardt. His call for repeal of
Right to Work this week demonstrated his strident
stance and appeal for union help in blocking
Dean’s endorsement. If these two unions unite
behind Dean and are successful, it will signal a
decline in traditional union’s strength. This
shift will change the emphasis of legislation
pushed in Congress on behalf of unions as well. It
will bring to the forefront service workers’
issues. Sen. Joe Lieberman can’t get his
own state’s liberal wing to endorse him. Lieberman
campaign Wednesday pulled out of the Caucus of
Connecticut Democrats when it became clear that
the senator’s local constituents would not endorse
him, the Hartford Courant reports. As Democratic
State Party Chairman George Jepsen told the
Courant, "[CCD members] are nice people but
they’re parked out on the far left and they’re
very out of touch with mainstream Democratic
politics." The
Miami Herald carries a story about how Joe
Lieberman received cheers and jeers while visiting
a senior citizens center where Lieberman reception
has been positive during the 2000 campaign. The
jeers came concerning the Senator’s stance on
Iraq: ''We
need help for our troops,'' Lieberman told the
crowd of about 60 mostly black West Indians at the
Sadkin Senior Center in Lauderhill. That got him
some jeers. ''Bring our troops back home,'' one
woman stated. ''We need the money over here,''
another said.
Lieberman was wrapping up a two-day Florida
fundraising tour. The Manchester
Union Leader story has Kerry name-calling
Dean: Sen.
John Kerry charged yesterday that Democratic
Presidential primary rival Howard Dean is proving
himself to be an unprincipled “flimflam artist” on
gun control, as well as campaign finance, Social
Security and Medicare. The
story relates how Kerry and Dean’s campaign
entered into a debate about parsing whether Dean
was or wasn’t for a federal waiting period.
Kerry’s spokesman responded according to the Union
leader: Later,
Kerry spokesman Mark Kornblau said Kerry did not
base that charge on any questionnaire answer, but
on Dean’s “illogical argument. You can’t be
against a federal restriction before state
restrictions. If you’re for background checks
nationally, for instance, but not against them for
Vermont, you know the federal law supersedes the
Vermont law. How does that make sense?” The NY
Daily News has a story about how Kerry has
fallen: He doesn't lead in a single
primary state. In New Hampshire, his own backyard,
he trails Howard Dean by double digits. In South
Carolina, a state he considers so key that he
staged his formal campaign announcement there, his
numbers are so bad that he's being beaten by the
Rev. Al Sharpton. Sen. John Kerry, in an attempt
to climb back in the game in New Hampshire, is
running the ad he has up in Iowa. The ad portrays
Kerry taking on President Bush and his cozy
relations with corporations. Kerry uses the ad to
push for rolling back Bush's tax cuts for the
wealthiest Americans and cracking down on
corporate corruption. Wesley Clark in his speech in S.
Carolina urged following the Bsonia model
according to the
Washington Times: "The
Coalition Provisional Authority, by which America
controls Iraq today, should be replaced. But it is
simply unrealistic to have the United Nations take
over this daunting task — it's not able and it's
not willing," he said. "We must create a new
international structure — the Iraqi Reconstruction
and Democracy Council — similar to the one we
created in Bosnia with representatives from
Europe, the United States, Iraq's neighbors, and
other countries that will support our effort," he
said. Clark was the Supreme Commander
and has been accused of supporting a false
statement that indicated that the United States
would be out of Bosnia in a year to gain
Congressional support for the Clinton
administrations policy. We are still in Bosnia. Wesley Clark used the crash and
deaths of American soldiers in the latest Black
Hawk down to pile on President Bush’s Iraq policy
-- a theme he has been pounding for most of the
week. Here are excerpts from an
Associated Press story: "I
think before you go to war, you've got to have
exhausted all the diplomatic possibilities. He
didn't," Clark told a Georgia Tech audience. "...
I think you have to have a realistic plan for what
happens after you turn loose the bombers and send
the armored columns in. He didn't." Former South Carolina Gov. Jim
Hodges will endorse retired Gen. Wesley Clark for
president, a Clark campaign spokeswoman said
Friday. A recent poll showed that Clark, who
jumped into the crowded Democratic race in
September, had surpassed North Carolina Sen. John
Edwards among likely voters in the South Carolina
primary slated for Feb. 3. Sen. John Edwards campaigning in
New Hampshire fielded tough questions from high
school students, according to the Manchester Union
Leader: Edwards voiced his support for smaller
schools and smaller classrooms, students not
smoking and helping tobacco farmers, college
tuition support, belief that Saddam Hussein was
dangerous and that he doesn’t believe in quotas
but supports diversity. The Sioux City
Journal’s Political Reporter Bret Hayworth has
an editorial that is worth reading here is a
teaser: I
thought Dean's discussion of economic policies at
the convention center stop was intriguing. But I'm
not sure I want to see it ad nauseam like those
elliptical workout machines infomercials. If
people don't like 30-second ads, why would they
want 30 minutes of it? But at least we can watch
it for the mental exercise of trying to pick out
friends among the 150 in the crowd that day. American Research Group,
Thursday, released a poll showing Howard Dean
leading with 38 percent to John Kerry’s 24 percent
with 21 percent undecided. The important third
place is up for grabs. The rest of the fields’
numbers are: Joe Lieberman-4; John Edwards-4;
Wesley Clark-4; Dick Gephardt-3; and Dennis
Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton had
1 percent or less. The
Des Moines Register is reporting on the Iowa
Democrat Party’s new method of reporting the
results of Iowa’s caucus night results. The
Democrats are taking a page from the Iowa
Republican Party and implementing a automated
precinct calling system, according to the
Register: "It's
a faster way of reporting," said Jean Hessburg,
executive director of the state Democratic Party.
She credited the Republican Party of Iowa's use of
an automated telephone system in 2000 as the
inspiration. The
Democrats will also use their old system of having
County Chairs collect the data from the precincts
in case something goes wrong with the new system.
* ON THE BUSH
BEAT: President Bush is heading to N.
Carolina, the home of “My Daddy was a mill worker”
Sen. John Edwards. The bigger problem is the lost
jobs in those textile mills. The state has lost a
fifth of its manufacturing jobs in the last three
years and has 6.4 percent unemployment. While
Republican Presidential candidates have won N.
Carolina since 1976, currently Republicans in the
state are not happy about the lack of attention
paid to the loss of textile jobs to places like
China. An
Associated Press story highlights the business
executives discomfort with the Bush
administration: John
Emrich, chief executive of Guilford Mills in
Greensboro, N.C., said textile companies may not
have a lot of money to lobby in Washington, but
they have another potent weapon… "We do have a lot
of people who vote," said Emrich, who plans voter
registration drives at his plants. The administration has recently
begun to address the unfair trade practices of
China. Secretary of Commerce Lane Evans recently
visited China. Bush can be expected to point to
tax cuts and new job figures out today to bolster
his appeal. Bush will also focus on job training,
according to the Associated Press story: In a
speech at a local community college, the president
was expected to focus on ways his administration
is trying to level the playing field globally for
American workers and their products, more
effectively train workers for jobs in a changing
economy, and invest in community college programs,
a senior administration official said on condition
of anonymity. Bush has proposed $3,000
re-employment accounts to help the unemployed with
job-search expenses. He also wants to transform
what he views as bureaucratic, ineffective
job-training programs into targeted flexible
funding to meet communities' and employers'
specific needs. President Bush signaled a new
approach to Islam in his speech marking the 20th
anniversary of the National Endowment for
Democracy. For years, America has held to the
principle of Islamic exceptionalism that holds
democracy incompatible with political reform and
modernity. Bush change was supported by his
argument for the necessity of action. "Sixty
years of Western nations excusing and
accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle
East did nothing to make us safe, because in the
long run stability cannot be purchased at the
expense of liberty. As long as the Middle East
remains a place where freedom does not flourish,
it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment
and violence ready for export. And with the spread
of weapons that can bring catastrophic harm to our
country and to our friends, it would be reckless
to accept the status quo," Bush said. The speech also marked a
departure from the policy of not naming allies and
pushing for the need to democratize their
countries when Bush named Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
If it’s the weekend, it is time
for more fund-raisers for the Bush/Cheney
reelection committee. While Bush is in N. Carolina
he is expected to pick-up another $1 million. Vice
President Dick Cheney is going to Austin and
Houston, Texas.
*NATIONAL: Sgt. Paul Fisher, a 39-year-old
Cedar Rapids electrician, died Thursday morning at
a hospital in Germany of injuries suffered in a
helicopter attack in central Iraq, Iowa National
Guard officials said. He was a flight engineer
aboard a CH-47 Chinook helicopter transporting
soldiers in Iraq when the aircraft was downed by a
surface-to-air missile Sunday. Democrats who hoped to run
against the economy were shot down with a 7.2
percent growth in the third quarter. So, they
switched to jobs. Now, jobs growth for October
turned out to be twice what was expected. It was
the third straight monthly gain in jobs according
to the Labor Department. The number of jobs
outside farm sector grew 126,000 and unemployment
fell from 6.1 percent to 6 percent. • First presidential debate:
Sept. 30, University of Miami, Coral Gables. • Vice-presidential debate:
Oct. 5, Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland. • Second presidential debate:
Oct. 8, Washington University, St. Louis. • Third presidential debate:
Oct. 13, Arizona State University, Tempe. The
Boston Globe features a story about gay
marriage being a wedge issue in the 2004 race: The
court could make Massachusetts the first state to
allow gay and lesbian marriages -- which other
states eventually might have to honor, opponents
say. Under pressure from social conservatives who
want President Bush to campaign against gay
marriage in 2004, GOP officials say they are
studying battleground states where same-sex unions
could be a wedge issue in national and state
races, and they are weighing endorsement of a
proposed federal constitutional amendment
sanctioning only heterosexual marriage.
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