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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.
THE DAILY
REPORT for Sunday, October 19, 2003 "We're going to have to
limit the growth of entitlement programs. We don't
have to cut,"
-- Howard Dean, during the taping of "Iowa Press
at Iowa Public Television. "You cannot make cuts,
slowdowns in growth or changes. They're all words
that mean the same thing. It winds up to be cuts
in benefits or increases in costs."
– Dick Gephardt,
responding to Howard Dean’s Medicare entitlements
statement (see above) "What entitlement is
Howard Dean going to reduce? What is he planning
to reduce to balance his budget? To balance the
budget today the way Howard Dean is talking about
it is to promise greater cuts than at the moment
he stood with Newt Gingrich."
– John Kerry
“…Clark represents the
fantasy candidate and I don’t think that he has
come down to earth yet,” --
Eleanor Clift,
regular panelist on “The McLaughlin Group,”
responding to the question of whether she is
surprised by Clark’s high standing in the polls. "As usual, Congressman
Gephardt's Washington insider's handbook has
steered him in the wrong direction,"
said Sarah Leonard, Dean's Iowa spokeswoman,
rejecting Gephardt’s claims that NAFTA has cost
the state of Vermont more than 1,600 jobs and had
caused a 38 percent drop in foreign exports. "Our economy can turn
around, and it will turn around, but we need to
put jobs back at the top of the nation's agenda.
For most people, a jobless recovery is just a
fancy term for recession."
– John Kerry "I think Kucinich is
attractive to some progressive voters, however, a
lot of us concluded a long time ago that Kucinich
doesn't stand a chance of receiving the Democratic
Party nomination. It's not going to happen, so why
bother." --
David Larson, a Green Party spokesman from
Waterloo. "I get the feeling that
some Democrats had so much hatred for Bush that
they had no hatred left over for Saddam,"
David Brooks,
former Weekly Standard writer who recently became
a New York Times columnist.
Dean campaign
hit by elderly quake
Gephardt starts
Democrat Trade War
Bad news for
Democrats
Kerry focuses
on jobs
Arab’s prefer
Dean
Dean vs.
Gephardt
Dean as
Schwarzenegger?
Kucinich
remains out-there
Sharpton
profiled
Bush corner Dean campaign hit by
elderly quake A major fault line developed
over the weekend between Dean and the unholy
alliance of Gephardt and Kerry. (Iowa Presidential
Watch has reported in the past regarding the
unacknowledged agreement to gang up on Dean.) Dean
touched the third-rail of American political fault
lines and stated that he would consider slowing
the rate of growth of entitlements. Can you say
Social Security cuts? He did so while discussing
balancing the budget this weekend on Iowa Public
Televisions program, “Iowa Press.” "We don't know
what numbers are going to fall where," Dean said
in an interview Saturday. "The only thing I can
tell you is we'll balance the budget faster than
any other candidate, and we will not make any cuts
in any major programs." Rival presidential
candidates Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Sen.
John Kerry of Massachusetts were quick to reframe
Dean as being wrong not to take Medicare off the
table. Dean said he wants to balance the federal
budget within five years and admitted disagreement
within his campaign staff over whether it can be
done as quickly as he would like, he said. "We're
having a big internal fight about it. I want to do
it as soon as possible," Dean said during "Iowa
Press." "My goal is five years. Some people say it
can't be done for six. Some say seven." Dean has
already been taking flack on Medicare because as
chairman of the National Governors Association in
1995, Dean endorsed a Republican-led effort in
Congress to reduce Medicare spending in order to
balance the federal budget and save the federal
health insurance program. His current statement
can only be causing huge internal. Dean did
receive some cover from the AARP political
director Mike Naylor. Reducing Medicare's rate of
growth doesn't necessarily mean cuts in benefits,
said Naylor. When you talk about cuts and slowing
the rate of growth, there are a lot of ways you
can do that," Naylor said. "In fairness to Dean,
leaving Medicare on the table covers an awful lot
of options." Iowa Presidential Watch predicts
Gephardt will pull ahead of Dean in the next Iowa
Caucus poll. We also predict that Dean will very
soon be running an add showing that seniors in
Vermont have prescription health coverage. Gephardt starts Democrat
Trade War James Q. Lynch reporter for
the
Cedar Rapids Gazette said that Dick Gephardt
touched off a trade war among Democrats running
for president Saturday when he lumped his rivals
with President Bush for failing to stand up for
American workers by supporting NAFTA and other
trade agreements that have cost Iowa and the
nation jobs. Gephardt singled out Senator John
Edwards for the first time in the speech in Cedar
Rapids Union Hall. Gephardt cited Senators
Edwards, Lieberman and Kerry’s vote to normalize
trade relations with China. "Most disappointing on
this issue was Sen. Edwards," Gephardt said. "The
Carolinas have been devastated by our current
trade policies." "Rep. Gephardt's misleading
attack is clearly a response to Sen. Edwards'
rising popularity in Iowa," said Edwards' campaign
spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri. "Textile workers in
the Carolinas will tell you no one has been a
stronger advocate for them than Sen. John
Edwards." Edwards did seem to be making strides in
Iowa and has been running an effective campaign ad
on Iowa television stations. His new ad doesn’t
reference the fact that his “daddy was a mill
worker.” Gephardt actions on NAFTA are seen as
continuing to position himself as the union
candidate. He is the one candidate in the field of
nine who knows how to speak the union language.
"When a worker loses his job in the Square D plant
in Cedar Rapids because his plant closed and moved
to Mexico, it hurts all of us," he said. "When
workers lose their jobs in the high tech sector --
the jobs of the future -- to low-wage workers all
across the world, it hurts all of us.” "And when
Mexican families live in cardboard houses next to
open polluted drain age ditches, it also hurts all
of us." Bad news for Democrats Opinion Dynamics Corporation
conducted the national telephone poll of
registered voters October 14-15 and found that
over half of voters are still clearly unfamiliar
with most of the contenders and have no opinion of
them, according to
FoxNews.com, "This race is still wide open,"
comments Opinion Dynamics President John Gorman.
"While Clark has a resume advantage and Dean has a
money advantage, the majority of Americans and of
Democrats simply does not know these people well
enough to make a choice." Kerry focuses on jobs
AP story today highlights Kerry’s newest try
to bring attention back to his campaign. Kerry, a
Massachusetts senator, toured a community college
job training site in Waterloo, Iowa, as he spelled
out what he would do to support job training and
education and invest in high-tech industries
likely to create jobs. He put no price tag on the
idea. His proposal includes giving $25 billion to
the states in each of two years to help avoid
soaring college tuition that have blocked many
from higher education and tax credits for college
tuition and vocational training. Kerry said the
help to the states is needed because a sour
economy and deep tax cuts pushed by President Bush
have left them with cumulative budget shortfalls
of up to $90 billion. Arab’s prefer Dean While the Arab community
booed and hissed Lieberman they clearly are
backing Dean in the presidential horse race
according to
The Washington Post. An assemblage of
politically active Arab Americans gave former
Vermont governor Howard Dean repeated ovations
Saturday at the windup of a two-day meeting that
marked a clear shift of allegiance from President
Bush to his Democratic rivals. Dean got by far the
warmest response of any of the seven presidential
hopefuls who addressed the 300 people attending
the national leadership conference of the Arab
American Institute (AAI), a Washington-based
advocacy group. But every Democratic speaker was
applauded for criticizing the administration's
policies in the Middle East and especially for the
anti-terrorism tactics of Attorney General John D.
Ashcroft, condemned by participants in a morning
panel as targeting immigrants from Muslim
countries and routinely violating their civil
liberties. The political tilt of the nominally Dean vs. Gephardt The
Washington Times is predicting the race is
already winnowed to two. "This race is still wide
open," comments Opinion Dynamics President John
Gorman. "While Clark has a resume advantage and
Dean has a money advantage, the majority of
Americans and of Democrats simply does not know
these people well enough to make a choice." There
is unexpected agreement in this prediction from
Pat Buchanan who knows first hand about Iowa
Caucuses. Dean as Schwarzenegger? Des Moines Register feature
cartoon shows Dean imitating the “Terminator.”
Check it out:
http://desmoinesregister.com/duffy//. Kucinich remains out-there Planet Kucinich was heard
from again. Lee Enterprise reporter Kathie
Obradovich reported on Kucinich’s performance. "I
think he says all the right things for a lot of
the groups that matter, especially labor and peace
activists, but clearly there are not enough folks
at the moment who are willing to caucus for him,"
said David Loebsack, a Democratic activist and
political science professor at Cornell College.
While Dean likes to say he's from the Democratic
wing of the Democratic Party, Kucinich argues he's
the rightful tenant of that turf. Instead of
merely opposing the war in Iraq, Kucinich says
he'd cut the Pentagon budget 15 percent and
establish a Department of Peace. While many
candidates call for expanding access to health
care, Kucinich pushes for a government-run,
single-payer system his opponents say can't pass
Congress. While all candidates talk about
improving trade and workers' rights around the
globe, Kucinich pledges to scrap the World Trade
Organization and NAFTA. Sharpton profiled The controversial
Presidential Candidate Al Sharpton is profiled in
the
Des Moines Register. The article by Lynn
Okamoto begins with a photo of Sharpton being
arrested in St. Louis, Mo. While the article
highlights Rev. Sharpton’s controversial civil
rights career, the interesting quotes are
regarding Sharpton’s effect on potential black
voters. Register quotes: “If Al Sharpton were not
in this race, I don’t know if some of the issues
that candidates are forced to deal with would be
dealt with,” said Kwesisi Mfume, a former Maryland
Congressman who is president of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Iowa State Rep. Wayne Ford co-chairman of the
Brown and Black Presidential Forum, predicts there
will be more blacks participating in the Iowa
caucuses than ever in light of the recent election
of a black man, Ako Abdul Samad to the Des Moines
school board. He [Ford] also pointed out that two
blacks – Sharpton and Sen. Carol Moseley Braun –
have stayed in the presidential race, while
Florida Sen. Bob Graham has dropped out. But
Abduhl-Samad, the Muslim imam who founded the
Creative Vision social services agency in Des
Moines is not optimistic about a black candidate’s
chances in the race for president. He instead is
leaning toward supporting Ohio Congressman Dennis
Kucinich. “It’s unfortunate that this country is
not ready for an African-American candidate, nor a
woman,” said Abdul-Samad. “We have to say, ‘This
is the beginning, this is a process.’ It’s
unfortunate, but it’s reality. Sharpton has raised
$272,705 this year. He is ranked last among the
nine candidates. A recent Des Moines Register poll
taken in late July showed that 55 percent of
Iowans had an unfavorable impression of him. Ten
percent had a favorable impression, while 35
percent weren't sure. Bush corner Recent articles have begun to
examine liberal left’s downright hatred of Bush.
Mainstream journalism, with its traditional
parameters, has somehow failed to connect with the
notion that there are lots of Americans who walk
around sputtering about Dubya -- despite fairly
healthy approval ratings for a third-year
incumbent. The press was filled with stories about
Clinton-haters, but Bush-hating is either more
restrained or more out of control, depending on
who's keeping score.
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