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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
* QUOTABLE: "At one point I
couldn't tell if I was at a revival or the World
Wrestling Federation,"
Hillary Clinton
said about the Iowa Democrat Party Jefferson
Jackson Day Dinner. "Iowa isn't about
money," Bill
Burton, a spokesman for Rep. Richard Gephardt
said. "You can only buy so many TV ads.
Somebody like Howard Dean needs as much money as
he can get because he has a horrible record on
Medicare and trade, and he's going to do
everything he can to paper over it." "I'm disappointed that
Gov. Dean led the way by reversing himself,"
John Edwards
said about Howard Dean opting out of campaign
finance, "But I don't think you can buy
Iowa caucus-goers." "I am here, Iowa
Democrats, to help you clean house, and when we
do, we will take the men-only sign off the White
House door,"
Carol Moseley Braun said. "Iowa should remain
first because someone with little recognition and
not very much money can make it,"
said Sen. Tom
Harkin, D-Iowa. "Clark made a terrible
mistake not campaigning here. I told him
personally, 'This has doomed your campaign.'" "So much of our
campaign is digital now,"
said Erik Smith,
spokesman for U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri.
“Four or eight years ago, having a strong online
presence was a luxury, he said. "Now it's one of
the nuts and bolts of a successful campaign." "If the Internet
re-energizes people, especially young people, it
will have performed a valuable service for our
national civic life,"
said Lee Rainie,
director of the Pew Internet & American Life
Project. "There's no question
that (Gephardt) had a very good October,"
said Dave Nagle,
a former Iowa state party chairman and former
congressman from Cedar Falls,IA, "Now the
question is, can he keep it going?" "In Iowa, you have to
shake the hand three times to get the vote. ...
I've shaken (Dean's) hand four times,"
said Jason
Stecklein, Dubuque County Democratic chairman and
still undecided. "Kerry's a really nice
guy and he's very bright, but his vibrations are
just not compatible with everyday people. It makes
them feel he's not one of them,"
said Ned Chido,
a longtime Des Moines activist and former
legislator.
* TODAY’S
OFFERINGS: Iowa Governor calls Dean
vulnerable Et tu, Hillary? Kerry: Dean weak on
foreign policy CPR for Kerry campaign Dean against
Washington’s energy bill Gephardt’s opposite Dean
appeal Gephardt emotional
appeal McCain supporters for
Lieberman Best economic plan Clark to testify Who is this guy? Catch Saddam Clark's stepbrother What’s a liberal to do? Debate Dec. 9 The Importance of S.
Carolina The political power of
the Internet Bush’s British visit With supporters like
this Retreat! Prescription Drugs
* CANDIDATES &
CAUCUSES: The
Washington Post is running a story revealing
to Iowans that their Democrat Governor probably
isn’t supporting Howard Dean’s campaign. Gov. Tom
Vilsack said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is
vulnerable to Republican attacks that he is not
tough enough to keep America safe in the age of
terrorism. Vilsack expressed concern
that Dean will have to prove that he can pull the
trigger against tyrants and terrorist.
“He’s going to have to overcome that, he’s going
to have to convince people by force of
personality, by his response in debates, by plans
he comes out with. I don’t know how he’s going to
do it. He’s going to have to reassure Americans
that he’s just as tough as George Bush, but he’s
tougher in a smarter way.” Vilsack did not cut Dean any
slack because the war isn’t working out the way
the Bush administration planned.
“Just because the war is going differently than
the Bush folks thought it was going to do doesn’t
mean Dean is out of the woods,” he said. “There’s
a larger issue here than just simply Iraq. It’s
the world, it’s terror in the world and threats in
the world and the insecurity Americans feel
because they’ve been hit by 9/11.” The Dean campaign continues
to try and mine the anti-war sentiment in Iowa and
the nation. Recently, the campaign mailed out a
flier attacking Congressman Dick Gephardt. The
mailer has a picture of Gephardt in the Rose
Garden with President Bush signing the Iraqi
resolution. The mailer states, Gephardt stood
“shoulder-to-shoulder with President Bush” on the
issue. The Dean campaign doesn’t agree with the
Governor’s view about their vulnerability.
Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi said his
candidate “feels strongly” that opposing the war
was the right decision. “We continue to believe
that this is a vulnerability of this president,
and we intend to make that case,” Trippi said. Gephardt’s response was to
point out the inconsistencies of Dean.
Speaking with reporters Sunday, Gephardt noted
Dean had said he would not make the war a
political issue against other Democrats and
accused Dean of inconsistency, saying that in 1997
the then-governor said he believed Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction. Is The Ultimate Democrat
pilling on Howard Dean too? The
Boston Globe reports that Democrats in Iowa
believe she made an unkind cut toward Dean:
"We have to do more than criticize," Clinton said
during her keynote address at the Iowa Democratic
Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner. "We
have to stand for the best values of the
Democratic Party. We have to have a vision of
where we want to lead this country." Among the Democrat powers
that be a consensus is forming that Dean is too
angry to win in November. Even the Liberal Nina
Totenberg on Washington Week in Review not only
attributed the propensity of anger to Dean but
also the lack of honesty as well. The Dean
campaign doesn’t see it that way.
"They don't understand our campaign," said Joe
Trippi, Dean's campaign manager. "No one who comes
to see Howard Dean walks away angry; they walk
away hopeful." Sen. John Kerry renewed
charges in a Des Moines Synagogue that Howard Dean
is not up to the challenge of foreign policy.
Kerry pointed to the previous problems of
Governors having to learn foreign policy on the
job. Kerry offered his harshest criticism of Dean
regarding his past statements over Israel and
Palestine, according to the
Des Moines Register article covering the
event:
"We are an ally of Israel. And when you say things
like "We don't take sides," you send messages that
have profound implications on people's
perceptions. I've never heard an American
politician call ‘Hamas’ soldiers, like Governor
Dean did," Kerry said. This push by Kerry was the a
continuation of his line of attack against Dean to
use Kerry’s military service and experience on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee to win back
Dean supporters to his camp. Dean also attended the forum
separately and was asked what role the United
States should take concerning Israel.
"The United States has a long-standing
relationship with Israel. But we have to be seen
as an honest broker at the bargaining table, as we
were under President Clinton and President
Carter," Dean said. The Iowa Jewish community is
in the process of choosing a different candidate
with the withdrawal of Sen. Joe Lieberman from the
Iowa Caucuses. The NY Daily News provided
the above headline regarding its analysis of
Kerry’s latest attempt to energize his campaign:
Sen. John Kerry, whose political obituary already
is being written, has launched a last-ditch effort
to compete in Iowa. Kerry, who lags behind
Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt and ex-Vermont Gov.
Howard Dean, took aim at the two in weekend
appearances designed to make it clear he won't
give up the state without a fight. Howard Dean continued his
angry anti-Washington themes and called for the
rejection of the House and Senate conference
committee on the energy bill will release its
conference report. Dean stated that preliminary
reports indicate it will include $16 billion in
subsidies and tax breaks for the fossil fuel and
nuclear industries while it contains little
meaningful support for renewable energy. The bill
does contain innumerable goodies for the corporate
allies of the Bush administration and the GOP
leadership including:
·
Providing Halliburton with an
exemption from certain parts of the Safe Drinking
Water Act requirements.
·
$800 million in subsidies and
immunity from lawsuits for producers of the
polluting gasoline additive MTBE. The largest MTBE
provider, Lyondell, is located in Tom DeLay’s home
district.
·
A reversal of long-standing US
policy against the reprocessing of nuclear waste,
thus creating an unnecessary new proliferation
threat.
"The energy bill released by the Republican
leadership today is a perfect example of crony
capitalism at its worst – and is just another
example of how our political system serves the
interests of those who fund the election process.
This bill is based on a policy written in the Vice
President's office by corporate lobbyists,
contributors and insiders like Ken Lay. There is
little wonder that the biggest winners in this
bill are companies like Halliburton. The biggest
losers are the American people," said Dean.
"Our over-dependence on fossil fuels means that we
continue to pump global warming causing greenhouse
gasses into the air at an alarming rate; it means
that we are letting other countries take the lead
in renewable energy—an industry that will create
millions of high paying jobs in the 21st century;
most important, it means our oil money will
continue to fund hatred and terror in the Middle
East. We should be enriching the American
heartland, not corporate interests and Saudi
princes.
"President Bush's allies rejected meaningful
support for renewable energy, despite urging by a
bipartisan group of 53 Senators. Apparently, if
it’s not a priority for Enron, Halliburton or
Lyondell, it’s not a priority for George Bush,
Dick Cheney or Tom DeLay. Incredibly, Republicans
have designated nuclear energy as an “alternative”
energy source, on par with wind and solar power,
and lavished it with tax incentives to renew
construction of nuclear plants. This will mean
more nuclear waste that will have to be stored in
our communities or transported through our towns.
"As president I will ensure that our energy
policy, and our democracy as a whole, will put the
interests of the American people before the
interests of corporate contributors, and I will
ensure our nation builds a new energy economy
based on efficiency and new energy sources like
solar, wind, and hydrogen. Congress should reject
the energy bill and start over when we have a
President who is serious about solving our
nation’s energy problems," said Dean. Dick Gephardt marked the
anniversary of Howard Dean’s supporting NAFTA in
the predominately German-Catholic-Democrat
community of Carroll Iowa yesterday:
"Ten years ago today, Governor Howard Dean
traveled to Washington, DC to participate in a
press conference with President Clinton to show
his support for NAFTA. I couldn't have disagreed
with Howard more on November 16, 1993 and I
couldn't disagree with him more today.
"Bad trade agreements like NAFTA and China, which
Governor Dean also supported, have resulted in the
loss of thousands of good paying jobs here in Iowa
and throughout the United States. As I predicted,
these trade agreements have resulted in a race to
the bottom where corporations in every sector of
our economy move around the globe looking for the
cheapest available labor, abandoning American
workers and manipulating workers abroad.
"I am the only candidate in this race who voted
against NAFTA. Senators Kerry, Lieberman, and
Moseley Braun all voted for NAFTA and Governor
Dean supported NAFTA, Fast Track, and permanent
trade relations with China. Howard Dean says he
supported NAFTA because he was the governor of
Vermont and he was doing what was good for his
state. Well, if you check the record on that, you
will see that as a result of NAFTA and the other
bad trade deals he supported, exports in Vermont
are down 38 percent.
"I will be a president who not only says the right
thing, but backs it up with a twenty-five year
record of accomplishment," Gephardt said. Rep. Dick Gephardt continued
to bring his campaign to western Iowa on Sunday.
The Sioux City Journal has a report of the
oft-told story of Gephardt’s son Matt being
diagnosed with terminal cancer when he was 18
months old. Gephardt’s campaign stop at
Morningside College touched an emotional chord
with his audience according to the Journal story:
Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt
tugged at the heart strings Sunday to bring home
his points on health insurance and education
policy.
After plumbing the depths of support for his
comprehensive health care plan at the expense of
repealing all of Bush’s tax cuts, Gephardt went on
to the subject of education:
From health insurance, Gephardt dived into
education, tackling the federally mandated No
Child Left Behind Act and said, "Crazy plan, this
Leave No Child Behind. The only way to fix it is
to leave George Bush behind."
Gephardt also brought this subject home with a
personal family story. Gephardt’s daughter Kate is
a teacher and he encouraged her to become one
despite the low pay teachers receive:
"I'll be the only person in the White House who
will still be paying college loans after I've left
the White House," Gephardt quipped. While Sen. Joe Lieberman
missed out on dinner in Iowa he was a busy little
boy in New Hampshire. The Lieberman campaign is
distributing a letter signed by several McCain
Town Chairs by past McCain supporters explaining
why they're supporting Joe Lieberman. The letters
are going out early next week to 25,000 NH
households and targets voters that supported
McCain in 2000. The effort comes as the result of
more than 40 former New Hampshire supporters of
John McCain endorsing Joe Lieberman. Lieberman has
frequently referred to his friendship with McCain
and recently they were co-sponsors of the fight on
a Global Warming Resolution in the Senate. The New Hampshire Primary is
an open primary allowing for party switching and
independents to vote for the Democrat presidential
candidates. Sen. Joe Lieberman website
highlights the Wall Street Journal survey of the
Democrat’s economic plans:
In a new survey of 50 of the country's leading
economists, the Wall Street Journal asked which
candidate's economic policies are best suited to
increase employment, incomes and growth.
Joe came out on top, with 29% of the economists
surveyed saying his plan is best. The
nearest competitor wasn't even close, picking up
less than half Joe's support (Wes Clark at 13%). Wesley Clark will testify in
Hague war crimes trial:
"The chief prosecutor in the trial of Slobodan
Milosevic has asked me to testify against
Milosevic on December 15th and 16th at The Hague
in the Netherlands. Because of the historic
importance of this proceeding - the first trial of
a head of state before a war crimes tribunal - I
have agreed to appear. The U.S. Government has
authorized my participation in the trial.
"As Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, I led the
alliance in its military campaign to stop the
brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing by Serbian
forces and prevent the possibility of a million
and a half Albanians facing death or further
persecution. That victorious military campaign set
in motion the events that brought the rule of
Slobodan Milosevic to an end in Serbia and
ultimately his transfer to The Hague for
prosecution.
"This historic trial is important not only for the
justice I hope it will bring to Milosevic's
victims but also for the powerful message it will
send to other leaders in other nations: that the
international community will not stand by in the
face of war crimes, crimes against humanity and
genocide," said Clark. The Boston Globe has an
in-depth story on Wesley Clark. If you read
yesterday’s story about Clark, you have to begin
to wonder about the serendipity of Clark:
When Wesley Clark arrived at Georgetown University
in November 1965 for a conference on international
affairs, a woman at the registration desk noticed
that the West Point cadet hailed from Arkansas.
“Arkansas?" she said. "Well, you have to meet our
class president. He's from Arkansas."
"What's his name?" Clark asked.
"Bill Clinton."
"Never heard of him," the 20-year-old Clark said.
"Are you sure he's from Arkansas?"
"Oh, yes, he talked about watermelons and things."
"OK, well, sure. I'd like to meet him." Retired general Wesley Clark
warned Sunday that the failure to capture Saddam
Hussein was likely to undermine any new Iraqi
government. And he said it was important to
capture Saddam alive so he could be tried for war
crimes. Clark didn’t make it to Iowa
but his campaign scored big on Meet the Press and
in an interview with
USA Today with the above quote. The only
question mark is the lost stepbrother. Clark’s best performance
clearly came on
Meet the Press with Tim Russert. He gave
cogent answers and did not stumble as was the
hallmark of earlier campaign appearances:
MR. RUSSERT: In one word, how would you describe
the current situation in Iraq?
GEN. CLARK: It’s a mess.
MR. RUSSERT: How would you describe the Bush
administration’s policy?
GEN. CLARK: They have not had a strategy for
success. I don’t think they have one yet. Kennard Clark learned to his
surprise that he has a stepbrother, and the guy's
running for president. The 71-year-old surgeon in
Arlington, Texas, said his father disappeared
shortly after Kennard graduated high school in
1950. Unbeknownst to Kennard, Victor Clark was
married again by 1954 and living with his wife and
her son, Wesley, in Little Rock, where Kennard
went to school until 10th grade. Wesley Clark, former NATO
supreme commander and current Democratic candidate
for president, said he knew that his stepfather,
whose name he took and who adopted him, had had a
previous family that had included a son. The
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported yesterday that
Kennard didn't know about his stepbrother until
the paper told him. The men say they want to meet
but haven't set a time or place. "I wouldn't want
it to be a public thing, but I would like to talk
to him about Dad," Kennard Clark said. Dennis Kucinich’s week is
going to be filled with taking up the mantle of
the ultimate-liberal in America:
Kucinich to Address National Congress of
American Indians - 60th Annual Session
Fundraiser with Ehrenreich, Gilliam, and
Schamus ABC News and ABC affiliate
WMUR (Manchester, NH) are announcing this morning
that we will produce a live, 90-minute debate
among the Democratic candidates for president in
Durham, New Hampshire on Tuesday, December 9,
2003. The debate is facilitated by the Democratic
National Committee on behalf of the Democratic
candidates. The debate is scheduled to begin at
7:00 pm ET. ABC News Nightline anchor Ted Koppel
will moderate the debate and WMUR anchor Scott
Spradling will join him in questioning the
candidates.
“I hope the people of New Hampshire will
understand," Wesley Clark told reporters Friday.
"I certainly mean no disrespect. You make
obligations. You can't move them. You can't get
out of them. People have to respect that." Clark has a previously
scheduled fund-raiser. Several candidates,
including Joe Lieberman, John Kerry and Howard
Dean, shifted fund-raisers to attend the debate,
aides said.
CNN/Time has an online a story from Time
Magazine that highlights Dean’s sitting in the
catbird seat. However, with the positioning for
Iowa and New Hampshire taking shape, there is now
a forward glance towards S. Carolina.” Excerpt:
A major obstacle to any of the other candidates
overtaking Dean is the simple fact that there are
so many of them. South Carolina, for instance,
will be closely watched as the first test of how
well the various candidates do in the South. But
with nine candidates dividing up the votes there,
someone might be able to win with as little as 20%
of the vote. Given these numbers and the fact that
40% of South Carolina Democrats opposed the war,
that someone could be Dean — a candidate, even his
own strategists admit, who wouldn't have a prayer
of winning a Southern primary in a smaller field.
"In a nine-person field, Dean is in the driver's
seat," says Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's
2000 campaign. Still, no one seems inclined to
drop out, because each sees himself as the
candidate who could ultimately beat George Bush.
This, of course, is why they all got into the race
in the first place. But as they have found out in
one way or another, thinking you can beat George
Bush is a lot different from winning that chance. The Des Moines Register
explores the use of the Internet in today’s
political campaigns. A recent Register poll found
that18 percent of likely Iowa Caucus attendees had
gone to the Internet for political information.
That was a significant increase from October 1995,
when 3 percent of likely caucus participants
reported in an Iowa Poll that they had gone online
for political purposes. The phenomenon of the Howard
Dean campaign has made political scientist and
operatives re-think the place of the Internet in
American politics. The Register reports that the
Dean campaign is the most sophisticated in its
staffing and approach to the Internet:
Dean's campaign staff includes three computer
programmers, two Web designers and two people who
work on Internet communications, said Zephyr
Teachout, the campaign's director of online
organizing.
* ON THE BUSH
BEAT: Many political observers find
it amazing that Tony Blair and President Bush are
meeting this week and are loathe to find anything
positive that can come out of the meeting. The
President’s security is of concern -- especially
since the Mayor of London has told all anti-Bush
demonstrators to show up. The
Drudge Report has a developing story about how
British newspapers are increasing their Bush
bashing.
* THE CLINTON
COMEDIES: The
Washington Post has a story about the Draft
Hillary divide that is just too comical. Go check
it out! Here are some excerpts:
How divided is the race for the Democratic
presidential nomination? Even the Draft Hillary
movements can’t stand each other.
"We're avoiding him," says Adam Parkhomenko, the
18-year-old leader of VoteHillary.org in
Arlington, talking about Bob Kunst, leader of
Miami Beach-based HillaryNow.com.
"I'm avoiding him," says Kunst of
Parkhomenko. "The kid is on a total ego trip."
Not true, says Parkhomenko. "We wouldn't be in
this situation if the guy had just returned my
e-mails. And when he finally did, all he wanted
was for me to help him to sell bumper stickers."
"I'm way too busy for this nonsense," Kunst
declares. Then there is the
Newsweek article that says the Clintonistas
are not giving up:
THE SCENARIO, as sketched by this hard-boiled
insider, calls for Clinton to make an entrance as
healer and unifier at the end of the primary
season in May or June in the unlikely—but not
impossible—event that none of the existing
contenders has amassed a majority of the
convention delegates. “You’d have to have Howard
Dean not wrapping it up, and being an angry,
wounded front runner,” this adviser said. “You’d
have to have two of the other challengers tearing
each other apart in primary after primary. Then
Hillary could come in, well in advance of the
convention, and say, ‘Look, somebody has to save
the party’.”
* NATIONAL: The
LA Times has a story about the Democrats’
continued retreat in the South. They also
highlight the hope that can be taken from the
Louisiana Governor’s race:
The win will probably avert a full-scale panic
among Southern Democrats unnerved when the GOP
captured governorships in Kentucky and Mississippi
two weeks ago.
The Hill reports that there will be efforts to
push a drug bill this week:
House and Senate lawmakers unveiled their Medicare
reform compromise Sunday and said they would seek
to pass the bipartisan legislation this week. But
even though the $400 billion prescription drug
bill has attracted the support of centrist
Democrats, passing the measure in both chambers is
expected to be extremely challenging.
At an unusual Sunday press conference in the
Capitol, House and Senate lawmakers said the new
bill would make the most dramatic changes to
Medicare since its inception.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a
former heart surgeon, called this week “a
historical” opportunity to add prescription drug
coverage to Medicare.
Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) said, “Today is the day
many of us have dreamed about.”
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who supports the
package, said he believes the bill can pass both
chambers with a significant majority.
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