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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 Thursday, October 23, 2003 "I mean I'm a guy that
didn't make it to Iowa, so how the hell do I
know," said
Sen. Joe Biden in an AP article criticizing the
Democrat presidential wannabes. "Our endorsement is
largely in recognition that Governor Dean has
done what we've all asked Democratic candidates
to do, and that is to find the base of the party
and mobilize it — and don't rely on labor to be
the sole ground troops,"
said Union
spokesman Bill Anderson for the International
Union of Painters and Allied Trades. "It is awfully early in
the year for negative ads, even for the most
negative campaign in the race. The only
plausible explanation is they're seeing their
poll numbers heading south,"
Kerry
spokesman Robert Gibbs said regarding Dean’s
airing of new ads. "John Kerry should not
stay in a glass house and throw stones at an
11-year governor of one of the most rural states
in the country,"
said Sarah
Leonard, Dean spokeswoman about Kerry’s
criticism of Dean allowing large Canadian
chicken-raising corporation into Vermont. "His press office is
definitely a work in progress, and so is his
relationship with the press. He's not used to
such sustained contact with reporters,"
said USA Today
correspondent Jill Lawrence regarding her
experience with Clark’s campaign. In the District, the
unofficial rule is the same as it is for high
school boys at the prom: "You can dance but you
can't look like you're doing it,"
says Donna
Brazile, an old hand in the local and national
Democratic parties regarding Democrat
presidential candidates’ response to Washington
D.C.’s Jan. 13th unofficial presidential
primary. “That's exactly what
bin Laden and al-Qaida want to do, and these
remarks unfortunately give material, give fuel
to the fire that bin Laden wants to start all
around the world against the rest of us,"
said Joe
Lieberman, in calling for the reprimand of Army
Lt. Gen. William Boykin. Iowa City for Bush? King’s effect? Wannabes need to grow up
Sen. Joe Biden (Del-D)
indicated that his party’s candidates don’t have
an adult approach to foreign policy in an
Associated Press story. Sen. Joseph Biden, who
once flirted with the idea of seeking the party's
nomination, said the candidates have to
"demonstrate that they have a foreign policy, a
security policy, that is coherent and is grown up,
that we can handle the bad things out there in the
world." "If it's only 'I voted to go in (to Iraq)'
or 'I thought we should've gone in, but now we
shouldn't spend any money there,' that is not a
particularly coherent policy. And I think it will
maybe work well in the primary, but I don't think
it works very well in the general (election)," the
Delaware lawmaker told reporters. Biden’s
criticism comes at a time when Dean is once again
trying to gain more distance between his campaign
and the Washington insiders of Kerry (in New
Hampshire and Gephardt (in Iowa) –see Dean
adds ad below. Grandparents volunteer for
college tuition Kerry, visiting the University
of Iowa Wednesday, pushed a plan that would allow
seniors/grandparents who completed a two-year
service program to donate four years worth of
in-state tuition stipend to their grandchildren.
The plan would also give students who complete a
two-year service program a stipend equivalent to
four years worth of in-state tuition. Kerry also
proposed $4,000 tax credits for students to use at
public or private universities and a proposed $25
billion aid package for states to offset tuition
increases at public universities. "Would I bet
money on whether I'll see it if he's president in
2005? No," he said. "There's very few things I
expect a Democratic president to get through a
Republican Congress facing a deficit of billions
of dollars," said Cary Covington, a UI associate
professor of political science, according to
The Daily Iowan. The Florida factor Terry M. Neal’s
Talking Points in the Washington Post today
provides great insight into why Florida’s “Straw
Poll” will be the first real test of the Democrat
presidential nominating process. Iowa Presidential
Watch predicts that three or four of the
candidates will go flat out to gain votes among
Florida’s 3,000 delegates to Florida’s Democrat
State Convention, held Dec. 5-7. Dean has already
begun defying the National Democrat Party’s pledge
to not participate, Edwards is campaigning in the
state on Friday and Lieberman cannot afford to sit
it out in Florida. The other candidate that IPW
is not sure about is the bungling campaign of
Wesley Clark. Given that campaign’s performance,
it is not sure that they have the good sense to do
a survey of the delegates and find out where he is
at in the number of delegates (probably 4th)
and announce that they are not participating and
will abide by the DNC’s wishes. This is what
Gephardt has wisely done already. The Florida
Democrats are pressing for the straw poll for a
couple of reasons. First and foremost they are
still painfully hurting from what they feel is the
Florida “rip-off’ of the election. Second, they
want the attention, and they are willing to use
their big givers to blackmail candidates into
coming. Dean spokeswoman Tricia Enright said:
"What we said [on the conference call] was that
we'll abide by the rules, but we want to go to the
[Florida] convention. We just want to go and take
our message there, and we'd like to for this issue
to just not be an issue." Dean adds ad Dean’s lead in New Hampshire is
causing him concerns and he is going back up with
television ads. The newest commercial is critical
of the other candidates’ record on the Iraq War,
according to an
Associated Press article. The front-runner
hasn't been on the air in the first primary state
for nearly two months and one recent opinion poll
showed the race tightening between Dean and Sen.
John Kerry of Massachusetts, with a margin of 6
percentage points. Other surveys show Dean with a
double-digit lead. In the 30-second spots, the
sweater-clad former Vermont governor talks
directly into the camera, highlighting his own
record on each issue and assailing the positions
of his foes, which he does not name. Dean says:
"The best my opponents can do" is question the
wisdom of the Iraq war only after supporting it
and talk about fixing the prescription drug
problem instead of actually changing the system.
Dean also has another ad that is on prescription
drugs and a Dean campaign aide said that the two
ads would rotate and the Iraq ad would phase out.
As Iowa Presidential Watch predicted, Dean has
come out with an ad on his performance in Vermont
with prescription drugs. The ad states: "For
years, the politicians in Washington have talked
about health insurance and a prescription drug
benefit, and all you got was talk," he said. "But
we did it in Vermont." However, Dean should
understand that you should not brag about
something that leaves you open to criticism. This
is just where the Gephardt campaign is launching
their rapid response, according to a Gephardt
quote in today’s
Des Moines Register: "I have continually led
the fight for a prescription drug benefit under
Medicare," Gephardt said. "While Governor Dean
counts the Vermont prescription drug program as an
accomplishment, the truth is he put it on the
chopping block four separate times." In Iowa the
media buys have heated up With Gephardt buying
another $200,000 to Dean’s $170,000 in the last 11
days. John Edwards remains the biggest purchaser
of television spots by nearly $200,000 over Dean
and Gephardt in Iowa with a total of around a $1
million with the purchase of $250,000 in the last
couple of weeks contributing to that total.
Edwards is at 7 percent in the latest poll. Dean blinds opponents
Inside The Beltway, in the Washington Times,
gives an account of Dean’s Deal with
Vermont’s archivist to keep much of Dean’s
correspondence secret for 10 years. "Opposition
researchers have been frustrated by the discovery
that more than half his gubernatorial papers have
been placed off-limits. Now we know why," said
Holman W. Jenkins Jr. writing at
www.OpinionJournal.com. Tax increases In an effort to gain vote,s the
Democrat candidates continue to emphasize their
differences on key issues. How much to raise
Americans taxes joins the Iraq War and health care
as one of the central battle grounds between the
top contenders. John Edwards campaigning in
Elkader, Iowa, emphasized his difference in not
wanting to raise taxes on middle income Americans
according to a
Des Moines Register article. All agree that
they want to soak the rich. North Carolina Sen.
John Edwards, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman are
proposing to repeal only those tax cuts for the
top income brackets, saying repealing the cuts for
all incomes would raise taxes on the middle class.
Candidates proposing to repeal all of them,
including former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and
Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, say the tax cuts have
failed to spark the economy. They argue the cuts
have cost middle-income earners more by shifting
the burden to state and local taxes and forcing
higher fees for service. Edwards claims that
taxing the middle class would add a $2,000 tax
burden on a family earning $40,000. He challenges
Dean’s statement that the Bush middle class tax
cut was wiped out by increased costs at the state
and local level. He called Dean wrong on the
issue. Edwards is in Iowa this week on what he is
calling his "National Check-up Tour." He is
supposed to be discussing health care. Obviously,
he got off point in Elkader. Staying on point Edwards did stay on point about
his National Check-up Tour" in the Radio Iowa
coverage. In the
story Edwards calls for: speeding up generic
drugs; getting prescription medications from
Canada and Mexico; get the Justice Department and
the Federal Trade Commission go after the major
drug companies for alleged price gouging; and
crack down on Internet sites which sell
prescription drugs for exorbitant prices. Edwards
says the price of prescription drugs is crippling
many families, and it's time for a President
who'll stand up to the powerful drug companies.
Clark’s Press shield? The
Washington Post has a story about Clark’s
relationship with the press or lack there of. It
certainly shows the candidate and his campaign as
naïve novices. In defending that they are not
trying to shield, Clark's top strategist Mark
Fabiani said: "We've certainly seen our share of
'gotcha' stories. Some of that is inevitable
because the campaign literally started from
scratch. There was no research, no vetting of the
candidate, nothing." Clark appeared mystified in
the story that he was still being pressed about
his apparent wobble on the Iraq war. "There's no
story there. . . . I don't know why they keep
doing it," he says. "Just about anything's fair in
this business. . . . I guess I have to answer each
reporter." Lieberman: “Reprimand
General” In an Associated Press
story Lieberman calls for the reprimand of
Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin. In an interview with
Associated Press reporters and editors, Lieberman
said Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin should be held
to account for casting the United States' fight
against terrorists in religious terms with
comments that were "wrong theologically" and "very
bigoted." Kerry gets union
endorsement Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry picked up his second labor
endorsement Wednesday, receiving the backing of
the 50,000-member Utility Workers Union of
America. The union represents U.S. workers in the
gas, water, nuclear and electric industries. It
joins the International Association of Fire
Fighters in backing the Massachusetts senator. Dean gets Union endorsement It was announced that Dean would
receive the endorsement of the International Union
of Painters and Allied Trades. The union
represents about 140,000 painters, drywall
finishers, wallpaper hangers, glass workers, floor
covering installers, sign makers and convention
and show workers in the United States and Canada.
D. C. Primary The
Washington Post has a great story on the
District pushing hard for statehood with its
unofficial Jan. 13 Presidential Primary. The
Democrat National Committee does not recognize the
primary officially but says they are not directing
the campaigns to stay out. The event is scheduled
before both Iowa’s caucuses and the New Hampshire
Primary. The story shows that this is not quite
the case as Mark Plotkin, a commentator on D. C.
politics, recently had lunch with Democratic
National Committee Chairman Terence McAuliffe.
Plotkin said McAuliffe stood up at the table
"looking agitated and screamed, 'We told every
single candidate not to come into this primary!
And if you report it, I'll deny it.' " Part of the
problem for the candidates is that Sean Tenner,
director of the D.C. Democracy Fund, has made
participation in the Primary tantamount to
endorsing the District’s statehood. He has also
made it into a race issue, as the Washington Post
article insinuates: "How can you just sit here and
say you don't want to spend time with
disenfranchised minorities in D.C.?" says Sean
Tenner, director of the DC Democracy Fund, "so you
can go up there and spend time instead with those
. . ." (Pauses here. Should he say it or not?
Settles for racial euphemism) ". . . those New
Hampshire people. We aren't going to put up with
that." In response to this problem, Sen. John
Kerry has the trickiest position. Kerry volunteers
have shown up at ward meetings, showing videos,
handing out fliers, asking for votes. But when
asked to elaborate, spokesman Leonard Joseph says:
"The senator intends -- and let me say this
carefully -- to campaign in D.C. He intends to
campaign for delegates," which is a sly way of
saying he is campaigning for the Feb. 10 caucus,
according to the story. As the page 2 of the
on-line story sub-headline says, D.C. Primary
Puts the 'Pain' In Campaign for Democrats. Iowa City for Bush? While it is not likely that Bush
will do well in Iowa City -- a place some refer to
as the socialist zone of Iowa -- some discussion
followed in the University of Iowa’s newspaper,
The Daily Iowan following the announcement of
high profile sports figures from the community.
Local Republicans on the 58-person committee,
including famed ex-UI coaches Hayden Fry and Dan
Gable, acknowledge they will face a much tougher
task wooing Johnson County voters to Bush's camp
than their counterparts across Iowa. "I'll give my
best for what I feel are good ideas about how to
get him re-elected," said Gable, who considered a
run for governor in 2001. "A lot of these issues
[Bush faces], I think they're going to need
another term to get solved." Tim Hagle, a UI
associate political-science professor who chairs
the Bush leadership committee's Southeast Iowa
region, said the president cannot afford to
overlook the UI and Iowa City - traditionally
liberal bastions. King’s effect?
Iowa Congressman Steve King (R) is back from
inspecting Iraq, and he is on the warpath against
Democrat candidates for President. He accuses them
of giving aide and comfort to the enemy. It is not
evident what his criticism will do given the fact
that a recent poll showed that Iowa Democrats
prefer a candidate who first voted for the war and
then had reservations. The Sioux City Journal has
a story on King’s criticism and a report on his
trip. The following are two paragraphs from the
criticism story:
“Iowa's 5th District Congressman Steve King said
Democrats who bitterly criticize the Bush
administration for pursuing the war in Iraq are
essentially giving "aid and comfort to the
enemy" and said he believes the naysayers will
pay a political price for their stance.
Recapping his weekend trip to Iraq, King spoke
about how many Iraqis have satellite dishes
broadening their world via the ability to hear
international news. He said his "nightmare" is
that the comments by Democratic Party
presidential candidates, particularly Howard
Dean, describing a "failed policy in Iraq," will
be heard by Iraqis and other terrorists in the
vicinity, giving them encouragement. You may
want to go there and checkout Dean’s
spokeswoman’s response.
Congressional investigation of leak? A former
CIA agent is calling for a congressional
investigation of the alleged White House leak
concerning Wilson according to
Fox News. Jim Marcinkowski, a case officer
from 1986 to 1989, said a congressional
investigation will be needed to demonstrate the
credibility of an investigation now under way by
the Justice Department that KBR's costs are
higher because the company's contracts for
gasoline, transportation, depot storage or labor
cannot last longer than 30 days.”
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