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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 Friday, October 24, 2003 “Dick was against it
then because Dick was pure projectionist —
period, and he fought against the economy that,
in fact, grew America ...,”
said John
Kerry rebutting Gephardt’s claim that he is the
architect of the 90’s economic boon. “I’m very disappointed
that Howard Dean has gone back on his own word
and is conducting a negative attack that is
politics as usual,”
said John
Kerry regarding Deans new TV ads that say,
“politicians in Washington” have failed, he has
succeeded in Vermont. "Big mistake… terrible
miscalculation… Iowa is a key state. It's a
swing state. It's a state where someone can show
what kind of appeal they have and how well they
can organize and motivate people. That's what a
president is about,"
said Iowa Sen.
Tom Harkin in response to Clark and Lieberman’s
pulling out of Iowa’s caucuses. “'For a guy with
laryngitis, he sure yelled a lot,”
said a
reporter about Wesley Clark’s economic speech
yesterday. "I must say that since
Wes Clark joined the Democratic Party and became
a Democratic presidential candidate, I haven't
heard many people referring to me as Bush-lite,"
said
Lieberman. “Congressman Gephardt
was among the first to bring his pet skunk to
the party. Gephardt launched his first attack on
Dean back on September 12 criticizing him for
supporting cuts to Medicare back in 1995. He has
since expanded his offensive into NAFTA, and now
prescription drug coverage is in the mix,"
from ABC News
Gephardt campaign reporter Sally Hawkins “There's a difference
in me challenging Dean to do what he says and
them saying, 'you're disingenuous, you're a
liar," said Al
Sharpton regarding his calling on fellow
candidates to keep focus of attacks at Bush. “Clark may have a case,
but Lieberman's ‘I don't think we're in Iowa
anymore, Dorothy’ strategy is far from McCain-esque,”
said John DiStaso at the Union Leader regarding
skipping Iowa. “It doesn’t matter how
much money George Bush spends on television ads,
he is never going to convince Americans who have
lost their jobs that they have a job, or the 43
million without health insurance that they have
it,” said DNC
Chairman Terry McAuliffe at New Hampshire
Jefferson Jackson Dinner. "I think this is a big,
long-term challenge. Whether you agree or
disagree with the policy in Iraq, we are where
we are, and I take it that almost a hundred
percent of Americans believe we have to pursue
the action against al Qaeda and any other
terrorist cells that are or may in future plan
to attack us in the future here in the homeland,
and that we ought to be helping our allies to
deal with some of the problems in their
countries. In that sense, it was candid."
Clinton,
responding to Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld’s internal memo questioning direction
in Iraq. “Like his fellow
Arkansan Bill Clinton, Clark may need a “Sister
Souljah” moment to define himself.”
Unattributed
quote in article by Tom Curry, MSNBC on-line
regarding Clark’s campaign and the need to
define himself. Clinton criticized Jesse Jackson
for hosting Sister Souljah regarding comments
she made. "Do you really think
the presidential candidates are going to ignore
Florida?" asked Maddox. "Any candidates who
ignore Florida do so at their own peril,"
said Florida
Democratic Chairman Scott Maddox in response to
DNC’s letter threatening Florida not to hold a
straw poll. What’s with Florida? Can’t we all just get
along? The hope is that the Marlins
will have won the World Series when Democratic
presidential contenders stride on stage at the
historic Fox Theatre in Detroit at 8 p.m. Sunday
for yet another televised debate. Otherwise fewer
people than normal will be tuned to the final game
between the Yankees and Marlins. It is doubtful
that you can get any of the candidates to say they
are rooting for Marlins with Bob Graham now out of
the race. Debates are frequently questioned as to
their worth. Today’s debates are more staged
controlled events than spontaneous interchanges
between candidates. This is due in part to the
rehearsal process candidates go through prior to
the debates. Debates are also questioned because
very few, except party activists, watch the
debates. These points and more are covered in a
USA Today article:
"They're not a complete waste of time," a top aide
at one campaign says. "But ... they take up more
time than they're worth."
Beside the above assessment in USA Today, the
following quote from Al Sharpton -- who has gained
the most in the debates -- is on the mark:
"My strategy is to get the most said in the least
amount of time, and with enough passion or wit to
make people remember it," said Sharpton. One
has to wonder about the Democrat National
Committee and the scheduling of this event. After
all, these are the same people who had the first
debate the same night as opening game of the
football season complete with a gala on the
Washington Mall. DNC spokesman Tony Welch said he
doesn't believe schedulers were aware of the
timing conflicts with the games. The Democrats
largely were focused on candidates' schedules and
the preferences of the debate sponsors in drawing
up their calendar. As reported in an
Associated Press article. Sunday's debate will
be carried on Fox News Channel. But the drive for
ratings may be even tougher than usual. Another
televised event just may be starting at 8 p.m. DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe
exercised party discipline over his nine
candidates yesterday. He achieved a unanimous
letter to Florida telling them that candidates
will not show up if they hold the straw poll. The
letter conveys the following:
“We urge you not to organize, or conduct, a straw
poll at your December 5-7 State Party Convention
in Lake Buena Vista, as it would violate National
Party rules. Should a decision be made to hold a
straw poll, it would make it impossible for us to
attend the state convention and any potential
straw poll therefore would not be competitive.” Dean
wound up signing the letter a week after he sent
e-mails to his supporters in Florida urging them
to gear up for the straw poll. Wednesday, his
campaign stressed it's behind the boycott. Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson
who is at the center of several conflicts with the
Bush administration endorsed Sen. John Kerry’s
candidacy Thursday. He made the announcement in a
conference call with reporters in New Hampshire.
Kerry is in second place in New Hampshire, but
polls have him gaining ground against first place
Howard Dean. Wilson cited his and Kerry’s
experience of challenging the government as
central to the reason for his endorsement. In a
conference call with New Hampshire reporters,
Wilson said he and Kerry have shared the
experience of challenging their government —
Wilson when he questioned the "rush to war" with
Iraq, Kerry when he challenged America's role in
Vietnam -- according to an
Associated Press story. Sen. John Kerry in an article in
the
Quad City Times recounts Kerry’s visit to
eastern Iowa where he criticized Dick Gephardt’s
claim that he was the chief architect of the
Clinton economic boom. Kerry claimed that NAFTA
was a key component in creating jobs and economic
prosperity. He also criticized Sen. John Edwards made an appeal
to Iowa’s elderly offering more money to cover
nursing homes care and said he favored encouraging
state’s experimentation in elder care. Campaigning
in Iowa Thursday, Edwards proposed stricter
enforcement of care standards at nursing homes,
doubling of funds for programs offering home
respite care from $500 million to $1 billion, and
better wages and working conditions for nursing
home employees. The Quad City Times article offers
the following exchange of charges between the two
campaigns: The Gephardt campaign dismissed the
criticism. “There’s a way to do trade right. The
difference between Dick Gephardt and John Kerry is
Dick Gephardt knows a good trade deal from a bad
one,” said Bill Burton, Gephardt’s Iowa press
secretary. He said the NAFTA pact has cost Iowa
10,000 jobs. . Kerry said that jobs, in fact,
increased and incomes rose during the 1990s. Since
then, he said, the trade agreements have “slipped
into an unfairness.” Kerry said he would review
every trade agreement if elected president. “We
made life better for those union folks,” he added.
Clark not only continues to lose
his footing in the campaign but also his voice.
According to ABC News online, late last night
members of the press were contacted by the
campaign with news that The General has again lost
his voice. His Concord, New Hampshire, event has
been officially postponed and New Hampshire
Political Director Steve Bouchard told ABC News he
was looking to schedule a replacement campaign
stop for Clark where he wouldn't have to use his
voice. Clark told his staff he still wanted to
campaign today in New Hampshire as scheduled.
Clark did find a way to get his message out by
using the Op Ed page of the Wall Street Journal to
publish his economic speech with the title,
"Bullish on America." In response to the proposal
the Wall Street Journal 's Jake Schlesinger
notes that The General's economic plan, according
to a former OMB official, "would save at most $28
billion over a decade."
Inside Politics by Greg Pierce in the
Washington Times believes that Clark is getting
preferential treatment by the nation’s press. He
points to the differences between various other
candidates and Clark. The Associated Press spent a lot
of time with Joe Lieberman and the story is
running in the important New Hampshire
Union Leader. Here are some of the positions
revealed in the article:
* Lieberman sided Wednesday with Republican Gov.
Jeb Bush of Florida for ordering a feeding tube
reinserted into a brain-damaged woman, saying
government must "honor life."
* "The day I walk into the Oval Office, the first
thing I'm going to do is rescind the Bush
administration restrictions on stem-cell
research," the Connecticut senator said. "They're
not compassionate. They block work that will save
lives and extend lives."
* The United States should not pressure Israel to
remove the wall it says is needed to block suicide
bombers. Palestinians say the barrier is a land
grab.
* He will seek to extend the life of the
independent commission on Sept. 11 unless the
White House begins cooperating with the panel.
* Lieberman said Bush's economic policies have
left the nation "bleeding jobs," and he criticized
Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan for backing the
president's tax-cut policies. Joe Lieberman has lost his lead
in New York over his Democratic presidential
rivals, according to a poll released Thursday.
Lieberman had led in September with 23 percent to
Dean's 13 percent. The current results of the
percentages of the poll are: Dean-18;
Lieberman-16; Clark-14; and Gephardt-10. The poll
of 417 registered Democratic voters was conducted
Oct. 8-20 and had a margin of error of plus or
minus 5 percentage points. Upping the ante for Campaign
2004, the members of New York’s 1199/SEIU health
care union are launching a $35 million campaign
"to drive George W. Bush out of the White House
next year," reports the New York Daily News. And
while the SEIU parent union will not vote on an
endorsement until Nov. 6, a meeting in Baltimore
meeting provided a glimpse into 1199’s thinking:
Presidential candidate Howard Dean headlined the
event and was greeted with huge cheers. The Sierra Club is running a
30-second television spot, which is running in New
York City. It accuses Bush of misleading the
public about the safety of the air in lower
Manhattan following the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks. With images of a teddy bear coated in
dust and residents fleeing the city carrying their
pets, it also appeals to Bush to clean up
remaining dust from the collapse of the World
Trade Center. An 18-hour lay over in Hawaii
included gathering in $600,000 at a fund-raiser
there. Bush also met with local dignitaries and
visited the Pearl Harbor memorial Arizona. In his
speech to the fund-raiser, Bush prodded Congress
to complete work on a Medicare prescription drug
bill and while there he chastised Democrats for
blocking class action reform legislation. A New York Times article
explores the turn-around of Wall Street’s
relationship with President Bush. Much of the
estrangement seems to be the result of the Bush
team creating economic policy without including
Wall Street. Like not inviting them to the
Economic Summit in Waco. Also contributing to the
distance with the White House was the financial
scandals rocking Wall Street. Now they have moved
closer together because they support Bush’s
policies on the economy, terrorism and they are
not impressed with the Democrat field. The
New York Times, shows that the financial
community has surpassed all other groups,
including lawyers and lobbyists, as the top
industry among Mr. Bush's elite fund-raisers. The
list of those generating $100,000 and $200,000 now
includes chief executives like Henry M. Paulson of
Goldman Sachs, John J. Mack of Credit Suisse First
Boston and Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch, whose
firm has already raised twice the amount for Mr.
Bush's re-election that it did during the entire
2000 campaign cycle. Executives say the support is
fed by patriotism and other factors, including the
administration's actions to fight terrorism after
the Sept. 11 attacks, which struck the country's
financial nerve center. Financial executives are
also providing money for the Republican
convention, which is scheduled for New York next
summer and will bring hundreds of business leaders
to the city. Can’t we all just get
along? President Clinton is offering
advice again to the other candidates on how to run
their campaigns. To some, it might look like he is
covering Wesley Clark’s campaign from criticism
that Clark is not a true Democrat. Part of the
reason for this is that many of Clinton’s former
staff is now employed in the Clark campaign. I
don't believe that either side should be saying
'I'm a real Democrat and the other one's not,' or
'I'm a winning Democrat and the other one's not,'"
Clinton said in an interview in the November issue
of American Prospect, a liberal magazine, Clinton
is quoted as saying in an
Associated Press story. "We can't win if people think
we're too liberal. But we can't get our own folks
out if people think we have no convictions. So the
trick is to get them both," said President Bill
Clinton regarding his advice to the Democrat field
of presidential candidates.
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