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Iowa primary precinct caucus and caucuses news">
Iowa 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.
PAGE 1
Thursday,
September 4, 2003
GENERAL
NEWS:
Among
the offerings in today's update:
Let the
games begin – Boston Herald reported
yesterday that Kerry is ready for “a
breakneck fight to reclaim New Hampshire
from an upstart fellow New Englander”
The Union
Leader, in an editorial, says Kerry’s
rhetoric doesn’t match reality
Heavyweight
battle: Dean and DeLay square off over
Ashcroft’s patriotism
With
Albuquerque wannabe debate tonight targeted
toward Hispanics. Lieberman jumps first with
an immigration “reform” plan
Stop the
political presses: Clark announces that
he’s a Democrat. Iowa Pres Watch question
of the day: Was ever been any doubt
that the Little Rock native and Rhodes
scholar would want to grow up to be like
Bill Clinton?
On Iowa
State University campus, Kucinich
quotes George Bernard Shaw and commits to
put U. S. on a course toward peace, jobs and
justice
Kerry
begins TV commercials in Iowa with familiar
theme – citing the “astonishing failure” of
GWB’s policies
Harkin
vows to be key player in opposing Bush’s new
overtime rules
In Boston
Globe, columnist Kuttner reports that “this
election will rouse the base constituencies
of both parties like no election in recent
memory. Democrats are in a state of rage
about the stolen election of 2000, the
gutting of public services, the assault of
liberties, the economic damage, the
environmental pillaging, and the foreign
policy calamity. Republican conservatives,
meanwhile, view Bush as Reagan redux, only
better.”
The Union
Leader, in an editorial yesterday, responds
to Rush Limbaugh – says, in headline, that
“RNC chief rejects GOP traditions”
Washington
Times columnist Blankley dismisses Kerry’s
South Carolina strategy, suggests his
proposals won’t play well at The Swamp Fox
Boston
Globe’s Lehigh says that the fight for the
“hearts and minds of Democratic voters” is
just beginning with Kerry’s kickoff
Congress
returns – so it’s time to check on the
wannabe voting records again
Issue:
Washington Times says GOP will force “gay
marriage” issue in congress
Quad-City
Times’ Obradovich reports that Kucinich
is engaged in a “balancing act” to attract
Iowa caucus support – his message hits the
right buttons, but he’s “too liberal or too
quirky” to win All these stories below and more.
… Kerry
dominates today’s Report as reporters and
columnists weigh in with day-after
observations about the Mass Sen’s announcement
– and prospects. The problem for Kerry: It
sounds like they are preparing for a political
wake. From David R. Guarino’s report in
the Boston Herald – “Kerry returns to
hometown turf -- where allies admit they worry
a primary loss to Howard Dean could be a death
knell.”…From Washington Times columnist
Tony Blankley – “Politically
speaking, Sen. Kerry is campaigning while
dead. Johnny boy, we hardly knew ya.”…From
Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh – “The
names on the tombstones from campaigns past
should be a warning. Names like Edmund Muskie
and John Glenn and Bob Kerrey, men who also
looked like strong presidential prospects on
paper but who left voters cold.”…From
Lehigh again – “Now, there's no doubt an
element of whistling past the political
graveyard in Kerry's profession of optimism.”…From
Lehigh once more – “The notion that Kerry
is already in some sort of political death
spiral misjudges the very nature of
presidential politics.”
…
Albuquerque Debate Preview: Wannabes rally
tonight to focus on Hispanic issues – and
voters. Headline from CNN.com: “Debate
gives Democrats chance to court Hispanic
voters” Excerpt from advance report by
AP’s Leslie Hoffman in Albuquerque: “The
Democratic presidential debate is providing
the party with a high-profile opportunity to
deliver a simple message: ‘Queremos tu voto,’
which translates to ‘we want your vote.’
Hispanics represent the country's largest and
fastest growing minority group and securing
their votes in the 2004 election is crucial
for both political parties. In recognition of
that political reality, Democrats are
holding Thursday night's televised debate
involving the nine candidates in a state with
a large Hispanic population - about 42 percent
- and a Hispanic governor. Beyond
location, the debate will include questions in
English and Spanish. It is being co-produced
by the country's largest Spanish-language
network, Univision, which will air a
translated version of the debate on Saturday.
Public television will broadcast the debate
live with a second audio track in Spanish…New
Mexico Democrats hold their presidential
caucus Feb. 3. President Bush has long courted
Hispanics, often injecting Spanish into his
campaign speeches and television ads. While
previous Republican presidential nominees
failed to break 30 percent among Hispanic
voters, Bush secured 35 percent in 2000.”
… Lieberman –
pretending to be a viable candidate like Dean
– tries to steal show before tonight’s
Albuquerque debate by calling for immigration
reform. The real question: Will any Hispanics
– or Dem voters – notice or care? Headline
from this morning’s The Union Leader: “Lieberman
offers plan for immigration reform”
Excerpt from report by AP’s Sam Hananel: “Courting
Hispanics, Democratic presidential candidate
Joe Lieberman pledged on Wednesday to overhaul
immigration laws and offered a plan to grant
legal status to some undocumented workers.
The Connecticut senator announced his
proposals ahead of Thursday's debate among the
nine Democratic presidential hopefuls in
Albuquerque, N.M…Lieberman's proposal would
grant legal status to undocumented workers --
many of them Mexicans-- who have lived in the
United States for five years and can pay their
taxes, as long as they do not pose a security
risk. ‘This is an important initiative to
me because it is part of what defines us as
Americans,’ Lieberman said in a
conference call with reporters. ‘I think
America gains strength from new Americans in
every way, culturally and economically.’
The senator criticized President Bush for
failing to resume immigration talks with
Mexican President Vicente Fox that broke off
after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
‘Nobody believes that Mexican immigration is
part of a terrorist threat to America,’ he
said. Lieberman wants to create a temporary
work visa program for unskilled and
semiskilled workers to fill labor shortages in
the construction and service industries.
Lieberman said such a program would not
take jobs from Americans but would reduce
illegal immigration and stop the exploitation
of undocumented workers. ‘The first reality
that I want to address is that immigrants,
particularly from Mexico and from elsewhere
who are risking their lives to come to America
are coming for economic opportunity and they
are finding it,’ Lieberman said. ‘They
are doing jobs that are otherwise unfilled.’
The grandson of immigrants, Lieberman said
he wants to reduce the backlog of people
waiting to join family members who are already
legal residents in the United States.
Lieberman said he would raise the cap on
the number of spouses and minor children of
lawful residents who are granted visas.
Currently, a legal permanent resident must
wait five years or longer to be reunited with
family members from overseas. Lieberman
promised to reduce government bureaucracy that
has slowed the process of issuing immigrant
visas, saying homeland security is being
used as an excuse to slow down lawful
immigration for refugees, spouses and
children. Lieberman said greater
protection is needed for undocumented
immigrants unfairly swept up in the search for
terrorists. He cited a Justice Department
report criticizing the abuse suffered by many
aliens imprisoned for months without access to
lawyers or family members. He also proposed
a public-private partnership that would raise
money to create programs to teach English as a
second language and expand existing ones in
areas with the greatest need.”
… Boston report:
Kerry’s candidacy announcement signals start
of another round of Dean-Kerry encounters.
Anticipation grows as the wannabes rally for
today’s debate in New Mexico, but Dukakis –
remember him? – downplays the Dean phenomenon.
Headline from yesterday’s Boston Herald: “Kerry
heads back to thwart Dean’s regional challenge”
Report – an excerpt – by the Herald’s David R.
Guarino: “Suddenly an underdog in his own
backyard, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry today begins
a breakneck fight to reclaim New Hampshire
from an upstart fellow New Englander.
Fresh from a campaign kickoff in front of a
warship in South Carolina, Kerry
returns to hometown turf -- where allies
admit they worry a primary loss to Howard Dean
could be a death knell. Dean strategists,
relishing the latest poll that shows the
former Vermont governor beating Kerry by 21
points, want a quick TKO. ‘Kerry
has a huge advantage here. If he can't turn
that into something, that will mean
something,’ said Dean New Hampshire
adviser Debbie Butler, a prominent Democrat.
‘If he's not catching on with the people who
know him second best, that's trouble.’
Kerry allies said they're not writing off New
Hampshire - despite the buzz about Kerry's
South Carolina announcement. On the
ground, they're exuding confidence and saying
Dean loses because he can't win in the
long run. ‘Gov. Dean is striking a chord.
He's stirring up a lot of interest that we'll
enjoy having in our campaign when we win,’
said William Shaheen, a Kerry adviser,
longtime Democrat and husband of former Gov.
Jeanne Shaheen. ‘Democrats are now looking at
the guy who dislikes George Bush the most. In
the end, that's not enough. You need the guy
who will beat George Bush.’ Former Bay
State Gov. Michael S. Dukakis downplayed the
Dean phenomenon and said Kerry can still win
the nomination - even with a Granite State
loss. ‘With two other New Englanders in
the race, he has to do well but he doesn't
have to win,’ Dukakis said. ‘This one is a
long-distance race. You want to do well in
Iowa and New Hampshire, but it's what happens
afterwards that's critical.’”
… Must read.
DeLay calls Dean “an embarrassment to the
democratic process and the Democratic Party.”
Under the subhead “DeLay vs. Dean,”
Greg Pierce reported yesterday in his “Inside
Politics” column in the Washington Post: “House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay yesterday condemned
the comments of presidential candidate and
former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean for saying
‘John Ashcroft is not a patriot.’…’Howard
Dean is a cruel and extremist
demagogue,’ Mr. DeLay said in a
statement. During a campaign appearance in New
Hampshire last weekend, Mr. Dean said Mr.
Ashcroft ‘is not a patriot’…’John Ashcroft
is a descendant of Joseph McCarthy," he said,
in a reference to the communist-hunting
senator of the 1950s. ‘John Ashcroft loves
America more than Howard Dean could ever
know.’ Mr. DeLay said. ‘John Ashcroft has
sacrificed for his country, and devoted his
life to serving it. He is as kind, generous,
and patriotic a man as I've ever met. And
Howard Dean is as ignorant on John Ashcroft as
he is on national security.’ The Texas
Republican added: ‘Howard Dean's
comments are an embarrassment to the
democratic process and the Democrat Party.
If this cruel, loudmouth extremist is the
cream of the Democrat crop, next November's
going to make the 1984 election look like a
squeaker.’ Mr. Dean's
communications director, Tricia Enright, fired
back, the Associated Press reports. ‘The
narrow ideological agenda of the DeLay-Ashcroft
wing of the Republican Party threatens basic
American freedoms that have been enshrined in
the Constitution for over 200 years. Those
policies are not only extreme, they are cruel,"
she said.”
… Kerry begins TV
spots in six Iowa markets. Excerpts from
report – dateline, Des Moines –
by AP caucus watcher Mike Glover: “One day
after the official launch of his presidential
candidacy, Democrat John Kerry unveiled ads
for Iowa television that criticize President
Bush's economic record. The commercials that
will be broadcast in six major media markets
in the state include excerpts from the rally
Kerry held in Iowa Tuesday night as part
of his four-state, two-day swing announcing
his bid. Iowa holds its precinct caucuses Jan.
19. ‘Three million jobs lost, too many of
them in the heartland,’ Kerry says in one ad.
‘That is an astonishing failure.’ Recent
polls in Iowa show Kerry trailing rivals
Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt.
In one ad, Kerry focuses on his differences
with Dean and Gephardt on repealing Bush's tax
cuts. The former Vermont governor and
Missouri congressman favor eliminating the
cuts; Kerry would preserve some of the
reductions. ‘If I am president I will roll
back the tax cuts for the wealthy so we can
invest in education, health care and the
skills of our workers,’ the Massachusetts
senator says in the ad. ‘We need to be on the
side of America's middle class and a tax cut
for them is the right way to strengthen our
economy.’ Kerry, one of nine candidates
seeking the party's nomination, formally
announced his candidacy Tuesday in South
Carolina and then traveled to Iowa for a
series of campaign events. He planned
appearances in New Hampshire and Massachusetts
Wednesday. ‘I believe the resolve of
Americans can break the grip of special
interests and bring back jobs and finally open
up health care to all,’ Kerry says in one spot
that shows Kerry making his announcement to a
cheering crowd in downtown Des Moines.
Kerry is the fourth Democratic candidate
to launch television commercials in Iowa.
Dean, Gephardt and Sen. John Edwards of North
Carolina have already aired spots in the state.”
… OK, Wes Clark
decides that he’s a Democrat – but who’s going
to tell him it takes more than being an
Arkansas guy and Rhodes scholar to become the
Dem nominee? Headline from today’s The
Union Leader: “Retired general pledges
allegiance to Democrats” Excerpt
from report by AP political staffer Will
Lester: “Wesley Clark still won't say
definitively whether he will seek the
presidency, but the retired Army general
finally revealed his political affiliation
Wednesday: Democrat. ‘As I looked at where
the country is now domestically and look at
our policies abroad, I have to say that I'm
aligned with the Democratic Party, I like the
message the party has. I like what it stands
for,’ Clark said in an interview on
CNN's ‘Inside Politics.’ For months, the
former NATO commander has said he belongs to
no political party and is not raising money,
though many expected him to enter the
Democratic presidential primary. In recent
days, Clark has said he is getting closer to a
decision and will make his intentions clear
before a speech in Iowa Sept. 19. ‘I'm
closer to working my way through it, I'm
closer to understanding what partisan politics
is about,’ he said Wednesday. ‘My family and I
are moving toward closure on this issue.’ If
Clark enters the race, he would be the
10th Democratic candidate. He would be far
behind his rivals in organization and fund
raising at this stage in the process, although
he would bring an extensive military
background and national security credentials.
The 58-year-old Clark is a Rhodes
scholar who graduated first in his class at
West Point and served as NATO commander during
the 1999 campaign in Kosovo. Clark now
works as a businessman and consultant in
Arkansas. Clark said he has talked to
potential staffers and held discussions about
money, but has not made a final decision. He
said he hopes his announcement on party
loyalty ‘helps clarify the situation,’ adding:
‘I am proud to be a Democrat.’”
… As if
Kerry didn’t have enough trouble getting his
campaign moving forward – not to mention
possibly being steamrolled by the Dean
bandwagon – the Union Leader editorialists are
after him, too. Headline on editorial in
yesterday’s Union Leader – “Kerry’s
courage: The reality, rhetoric don’t match”
Editorial excerpt: “Announcing his
candidacy for the office of President on
Tuesday, Sen. John Kerry wasted no time before
mentioning that he was a Navy combat veteran
in Vietnam. In fact, his service, as
usual, was the first thing about himself that
he highlighted. Kerry made his
announcement in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., with the
retired World War II aircraft carrier U.S.S.
Yorktown as his backdrop, for two reasons:
to be sure that no one who watched the speech
live or on television could miss the
connection between John Kerry and the U.S.
Navy; and to collect votes for the South
Carolina primary. The central buzzword of
Kerry’s address, which seems destined
to be the focus of his campaign, was
‘courage.’ He began by noting his courageous
service in Vietnam, and segued to the courage
that a President needs to deal with national
security and the economy in today’s world.
The unmistakable message: I am the right man
for the job because I am the most courageous.
This would be a good message for Kerry if his
political courage were as undaunted as his
physical courage. Unfortunately for him, it is
not. Kerry was a courageous
warrior, but he is a notorious political
coward. His long history of equivocation makes
him appear irresolute and wishy-washy. He
loves to try to please everyone, and he has
yet to realize that this indecisiveness has
cost him a great deal of credibility and
support. Much of that support has been
shifted to Howard Dean, who gives the
impression that he is nothing if not decisive.
If Kerry wants to win this nomination, he must
begin living up to his own rhetoric.”
… “Kucinich wants
new direction for America” – headline from
yesterday’s Iowa State Daily. Coverage – an
excerpt – of Kucinich’s stop on the ISU
campus in Ames by the Daily’s Jennifer Martin:
“Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis
Kucinich campaigned on campus Tuesday and
promised that if elected, he would take
America in a new direction toward peace, jobs
and justice. Kucinich, who is
campaigning under the slogan of ‘The
Progressive Vision,’ said this presidential
campaign presents not just something new, but
the possibility of reclaiming what the
Founding Fathers had in mind for this country.
Quoting playwright and essayist George Bernard
Shaw, Kucinich asked, ‘Why not peace,
education and jobs for all?’ Kucinich, who
spoke to a crowd of approximately 125 in the
Sun Room of the Memorial Union, said the
Pentagon and the Department of Defense's
budgets and policies are being driven by a
fear of war and terrorism. He said he
intends to implement a plan that would bring
peace to the United States. ‘Americans should
reject the lies that brought us into Iraq,’ he
said. ‘America shouldn't be a home to fear.’
Kucinich questioned whether America was
any safer, even with the amount of money being
spent on defense. ‘We can't be secure by being
an aggressor of the world,’ he said.”
… Kerry’s
Demise? – I: Washington Times columnist
Tony Blankley writes that “politically
speaking Kerry is campaigning while dead.”
Blankley says Kerry’s “South Carolina strategy
is nuts.” Headline from yesterday’s Times:
“The trouble with Kerry” Excerpt: “Over
a month ago (when John Kerry was known as
the frontrunner), I predicted on the
McLaughlin Group television show that by
September, Mr. Kerry's campaign would
be in crises. And here we are in the first
week of September with Sen. Kerry in third
place in Iowa (Dean-Gephardt- Kerry) and
behind Howard Dean in almost home-state New
Hampshire by 21 points…One of Mr.
Kerry's Boston aides said that ‘We're in
this no matter what happens in Iowa and New
Hampshire.’ All but writing off New
Hampshire by Kerry must be spooking his
troops. After all, as recently as a month
ago, New Hampshire was considered both safe
and a must-win state for Mr. Kerry. Mr.
Kerry explained Mr. Dean's lead
in New Hampshire by claiming that Mr. Dean
had ‘been out there, very visibly spending
money on TV and elsewhere.’ But, according to
pollster John Zogby, Mr. Kerry has visited
New Hampshire 38 times, has eight regional
offices there and flooded the state with TV
ads during his recent Senate re-election
campaign…If his supporters were spooked by
the bad numbers in New Hampshire, they must
be jumping out of the windows at the
Post-Modern Literary Deconstructionist
Department at Harvard once they heard the
South Carolina strategy. I understood
Nixon's and Mr. Reagan's southern strategies.
I even understood father and son Bush's South
Carolina firewall strategy. But Mr. Kerry's
South Carolina strategy is nuts. (And he
accuses President Bush of not being a good
strategist.) I've been to South Carolina. In
fact, I was there just a few weeks ago at a
barbecue stand. There was a young man
waiting for an order, dressed in full
Confederate uniform. Inside, they were
selling beautiful color tee shirts which
portrayed General Robert E. Lee in battle
uniform on his fierce white horse leading a
magnificent confederate charge against the
Yankee intruders. Down the road a piece
from that stand was a restaurant named The
Swamp Fox — which I believe invokes the fond
memory of Confederate guerrillas sneaking up
on Yankee encampments to deliver justice to
the blue bellies from Maine, Michigan and
Massachusetts. If ever their was a figure from
Massachusetts, it is John F. Kerry. The
Senator is a man who doesn't look all that
comfortable dining at the Four Seasons in
Georgetown. The thought of this quintessential
moralizing, haughty, Boston Brahmin
campaigning over drawn pork down at the Swamp
Fox could persuade even a cheapskate to pay
the price of admission. And what on Earth
would he say to the South Carolina voters? Perhaps
he would repeat a line he used on Meet the
Press last Sunday regarding Iraqi policy: ‘I
think this administration has made an
extraordinary, disastrous decision not to
bring the United Nations in in a significant
way. I have said repeatedly that we must go to
the United Nations, we must internationalize
this effort’…South Carolinians only
begrudgingly recognized the command authority
of the U.S. Army. Somehow, I don't think
calling, yet again, for the grand old dream of
liberal internationalism is going to be a
winner in South Carolina — even amongst its
Democratic voters. Or perhaps he could repeat
his support for Bill Clinton's affirmative
action policy, or his equivocation on Bush's
tax cuts? South Carolina is not going to be
John Kerry's firewall — but a firestorm. A
strategy for a New England liberal to lose in
New Hampshire and win in South Carolina is not
a strategy at all. It is a delusion.
Politically speaking, Sen. Kerry is
campaigning while dead. Johnny boy, we hardly
knew ya.”
… Edwards
takes a North Carolina hit for his missed
Senate votes, but he’s not even the worst
culprit. Headline on AP report that
appeared in yesterday’s The Union Leader: “Edwards
misses third of summer’s votes” Excerpt: “North
Carolina Sen. John Edwards returned Tuesday to
Washington as Congress reconvened after a
monthlong summer recess in which he campaigned
without needing to balance his presidential
ambition with representing the state.
Edwards, like other presidential hopefuls
who serve in Congress, regularly misses
roll-call votes as he campaigns. Edwards
skipped 38 votes of the 119 tallies cast
during June and July, Senate records show.
That's a better attendance record than most of
his Democratic rivals for the White House.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry missed nine
out of every 10 votes during the two summer
months that Congress was in session, the
News & Record of Greensboro reported.
Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman did
slightly better by missing about eight in 10
votes. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., was
away for half of the votes. Edwards
was similarly better at attending Senate
voting sessions earlier this year. Kerry
missed nearly four out of every 10 votes
between January and mid-April, not
counting the two that came when he was
recuperating from prostate surgery in
February. Lieberman failed to vote on 22
percent of the 134 Senate roll-call tallies
during that period. Edwards missed 16
percent. Graham missed 2 percent, but the
total didn't include the 16 votes he failed to
cast during his heart surgery and recovery in
February. So far this year, Edwards has
missed 69 votes out of 321, or 21 percent of
the time, spokesman Michael Briggs said…In the
House of Representatives, the two members who
want the presidential nomination have
different voting records. Missouri Rep. Dick
Gephardt skipped almost every tally during
July, when his chamber held about the same
number of votes as did the Senate during that
month and June combined. Ohio Rep. Dennis
Kucinich, considered one of the long-shot
candidates, missed no votes. The other
three Democratic candidates - the Rev. Al
Sharpton of New York, former Vermont Gov.
Howard Dean and former Illinois Sen.
Carol Moseley Braun - do not hold
elective office.”
…
Kerry’s
Demise? – II: Boston Globe columnist Scot
Lehigh writes that Kerry’s announcement “signals
that after long months of skirmishing, the
struggle for the hearts and minds of
Democratic voters has begun in earnest.”
Headline from yesterday’s Boston Globe: “Kerry’s
battle just beginning” Excerpt: “It’s
hardly the sort of send-off a candidate wants
as he begins his grand announcement tour. John
Kerry has failed to connect, says The
Washington Post. The Massachusetts senator is
sinking from the top tier in the Democratic
field, judges The New Republic. He's only a
distant fourth nationally, notes CNN. The
surging Howard Dean is the next Jimmy Carter,
declares the Economist. Yesterday evening
found Kerry denying that a shake-up of
his campaign staff might be imminent. And, as
any number of interviewers have reminded
Kerry, a new poll shows Dean, the
former Vermont governor, leading him by 21
points in New Hampshire, a must-win state for
the senator. So how does Kerry feel?
‘Absolutely spectacular,’ he said on Monday.
‘As we go into the next month, you are going
to see a lot of things change’ in the
campaign's dynamic, he predicted. Now,
there's no doubt an element of whistling past
the political graveyard in Kerry's profession
of optimism. The names on the tombstones
from campaigns past should be a warning. Names
like Edmund Muskie and John Glenn and Bob
Kerrey, men who also looked like strong
presidential prospects on paper but who left
voters cold. Still, the notion that
Kerry is already in some sort of political
death spiral misjudges the very nature of
presidential politics. It's true the last
month has not been a particularly good one for
Kerry…Meanwhile, it's been Dean who
has spoken to the passions of the party's
liberal base with his vehement opposition to
the war in Iraq and his call for repealing the
entirety of the Bush tax cuts. But credit
Kerry with this: He has largely resisted a
panicked impulse to slide leftward to contest
Dean, preferring instead to stake out
defensible general election ground…In his
announcement speech, Kerry also served
not-so-subtle notice he will go after Dean for
his leave-it-to-the-states stance on gun
control. Now, one can occasionally read
commentary counseling the Democrats not to
criticize each other. That's unrealistic.
Primary campaigns are ultimately about
defining, explaining, and debating differences
between candidates of the same party. And
until that debate occurs, the primary campaign
hasn't begun in earnest. Thus early leads
have to be greeted with considerable
skepticism. None of that is to say that
Dean hasn't been impressive, nimble, and
creative. He has. Just two months ago the
Kerry campaign could say with some confidence
that the senator had secured a spot in the top
tier and that the real question was who would
emerge as Kerry's chief rival. Today it's Dean
who appears to have a lock on a top-tier spot.
Yet the battle ahead still looks to be
between Dean and Kerry. To count
Kerry on a troubling trajectory before
fall's first shot is fired is to forget that
nominees are chosen not in the lazy days of an
inattentive summer but in the intense combat
that comes as the weather turns cool. And
that, more than anything he said yesterday, is
why Kerry's announcement is important: For all
the predictable anti-Bush boilerplate, it
signals that after long months of skirmishing,
the struggle for the hearts and minds of
Democratic voters has begun in earnest.”
… Kucinich’s
Great Iowa Odyssey. The Quad-City Times’
Kathie Obradovich recounts Kucinich’s
campaign effort, noting that he’s still
engaged in a balancing act to attract caucus
support. Headline from yesterday’s Times: “Kucinich
has knack for beating the odds” Excerpt:
“To the audience at the Iowa Federation of
Labor’s first presidential forum of the year,
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich was
putting on a table-pounding show of union
solidarity. Kucinich, who had only recently
begun to introduce himself to Iowa Democrats
as a presidential contender, was making a
strong first impression on the union
leadership. He held up his membership card
for the Camera Operators Union and declared he
would make the White House ‘the address of
Workers Local No. 1.’ Speaking louder and
faster than any of the other candidates in
attendance, he shouted, ‘This election is
about your right to have a government that you
can call your own — a people’s president. A
workers’ White House!’ Iowa Federation of
Labor President Mark Smith, sitting behind the
podium, could see that more than union spirit
was driving Kucinich’s almost manic
performance. After learning that the
Adventureland Inn was ill-equipped to download
and print his speech, Kucinich had
perched his laptop computer on the podium.
Smith said he could see that the diminutive
congressman was struggling to balance the
computer and that the screen kept him from
adjusting the microphone. To make matters
worse, the battery alarm had begun to beep,
forcing him to speed-read before losing his
text. ‘I think he yelled because he was
further from the mike than was comfortable,’
Smith said. Six months later, Kucinich is
still engaged in a balancing act. Democratic
activists say he’s hitting the right buttons
on issues such as peace, economic opportunity
and health care, but they’re having trouble
juggling concerns that he’s too liberal or too
quirky to win the nomination, let alone wrest
the presidency from Republican George W. Bush.
Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack admits that
her first impression of Kucinich was
formed by his antics at her husband’s annual
fund-raising picnic. ‘I will always think of
him as like, Rumpelstiltskin, because he was
just waving his arms around and carrying on,
because he really just got so emotional up
there, so much that he burst into the Star
Spangled Banner,’ she said. His campaign is
as creative as it is low-budget. He’s known
for handing out baseball cards featuring
photos of himself and campaign issues that
have become collectible memorabilia. His
campaign office in Des Moines has corn stalks
growing outside. Since he’s a vegan who
doesn’t consume animal products, he held a
campaign dinner with a vegetarian group.
Some of those images have hurt Kucinich,
political observers say. ‘In general, I think
he’s among the best-loved of all the
candidates, yet he is among those who they are
least likely to caucus for. That’s kind of a
conundrum,’ said David Loebsack, a Democratic
activist and political science professor at
Cornell College.”
… A Report
from the Iowa Front Lines: Headline
from The New York Times – “In Iowa, the
Field of Democratic Hopefuls Is Just a Blur”
Excerpt from coverage – dateline,
Marshalltown – by the Times’ Randal C.
Archibold: “The rib-eyes sizzled on the
grill, and Mark Ohrt fumed. The Democratic
Party, Mr. Ohrt said, has lost its way.
Not enough empathy for the farmer and workers.
Adrift from ‘family values.’ And with the
first voting in the presidential race less
than four months away, Mr. Ohrt is not certain
where to turn. ‘There are too many
candidates out there,’ he said, grilling
steaks at a softball tournament in this small
city a 45-minute drive northeast of Des
Moines. ‘I wait till they get weeded
out. Everybody who thinks about running is
running. And whether they're saying what we
want to hear or whether they're saying what
they mean, heck, I don't know, either.’ All
the talk is hard to sort out, Mr. Ohrt and
other voters said in conversations over the
weekend here [in Marshalltown] and in
Indianola, Oskaloosa, Ames
and other towns in this state in which the
Jan. 19 caucuses are the first step in the
nominating process. Not one of the nine
Democratic hopefuls seems like a runaway hit,
voters said, even though most hopefuls have
been campaigning here for months. Iowans say
they like to keep a studied detachment before
opinions harden with the cornfields in winter.
Few bumper stickers or lawn signs can be
found. Two hopefuls have broadcast
commercials, but it is difficult to find
anyone who has seen them. ‘At this point, we
like to listen,’ said Clay Benton, a grocery
store clerk taking in a college football game.
‘We are like a jury.’ Even some people who
closely follow the campaigns have had trouble
distinguishing the candidates. ‘It's
pretty homogenous’ Mick Stohr, a consultant
who is active in the Democratic Party here,
said. ‘The top six seem pretty similar.’
Mr. Stohr said he leaned to Senator John
Edwards of North Carolina, but struggled
to explain why, in part chalking up his
leaning to having met Mr. Edwards.
‘It's a presence,’ Mr. Stohr said. ‘I guess it
comes down to intangibles. I don't know. His
tone, as opposed to what he was saying.’ But
as they begin focusing more on the candidates,
Iowans say the war in Iraq and, even more
so, the economy weigh heavily, especially with
a drought wilting corn and soy and making
things tougher for farmers. For Rhonda
Schwarzkopf, the men she lumps together as
‘the Southern candidates’ — Mr. Edwards,
Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri
and Senator Bob Graham of Florida — might be a
draw because ‘they care a lot about
agriculture.’ But Mrs. Schwarzkopf
hastened to add, ‘They are more geared to
Southern crops than corn and beans.’…"My
father is a small family farmer with 160
acres,’ she said. ‘The insurance premiums he
has to pay are incredible, because he is
self-employed.’ Mrs. Schwarzkopf said she
found the Democratic field ‘all pretty equal
right now.’…’It's kind of scary none of
them are way out in front,’ she said. ‘After
Hillary Clinton's book came out, people said
they would rather vote for her than the
candidates who are actually running. To me,
that's a scary thought." Suffice to say, Mrs.
Schwarzkopf is not a fan of Mrs. Clinton.
But with or without Mrs. Clinton, who has said
she does not plan to join the field, Mrs.
Schwarzkopf and her husband, Dan, said they
believed that Democrats had a shot at
unseating President Bush because of the
economy and the war. ‘It's time to do
something,’ Mr. Schwarzkopf said about Iraq.
‘We can't let these poor guys get killed over
there by these nuts with a gun in their hand.
Of course, I don't know what the answer is.
You don't know who to trust.’”
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