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Iowa Presidential Watch's IOWA DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today">
Iowa
Presidential Watch's IOWA
DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.
PAGE 2
Monday,
September 15, 2003
“Bush poll
ratings flagging” – Headline on column by Noelle
Straub in today’s
BostonHerald.com. Excerpt: “Two years after the
country rallied around President Bush in the wake of
the devastating Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he no
longer can rely on that surge of patriotism to boost
his political fortunes, polls are showing. Bush's
job approval rating soared to 90 percent after the
attacks, but fell last week close to the lowest
levels of his presidency, to between 52 and 58
percent in several national polls. ``I think we
are back to where we were before Sept. 11 as far as
the president's standing is concerned,'' said Thomas
Mann, an expert on politics at the Brookings
Institution. ``After two years, I don't think there
remains any rally effect, any political advantage to
the president by virtue of our patriotic reaction.''
Mann noted that Bush's approval rating has been
falling ``on a fairly steady basis'' since the Iraqi
war began and continued dropping last week despite
Bush's speech to the nation defending his war
planning. … “Those problems on the ground (in Iraq)
have now led the (Democratic) opposition to begin to
speak out in a very critical way.'' Allan J.
Lichtman, professor of history at American
University, noted that Bush's job approval rating is
shored up by support for foreign policy and that the
president scores much lower on his handling of the
economy. ``He'll obviously try to play up whatever
patriotic feeling he can to shore up his poll
numbers,'' Lichtman said. ``It's obviously
not going to be as effective as it once was.'' If
another terrorist attack were to occur on American
soil before the 2004 election, most political
analysts say it's impossible to predict whether
voters would unite around Bush again or if they
would blame him for failing to do enough to protect
the homeland. ``That's the $64,000 question,''
Lichtman said, adding that it would depend on the
severity and type of attack. ``It either could be
the ruination of Bush or his salvation.''
In today’s,
WashingtonTimes.com /Inside Politics,
writer Jennifer Harper files this report
titled “Why,
Bill, why?”
Excerpts: “Former
President Bill Clinton is bustling
around the country on behalf of one candidate
or another, and handicapping the race to
unseat President Bush next year. But
why does he keep praising his wife, Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, and
retired Gen. Wesley Clark? Neither is
running for president, the Albany Times Union
pointed out yesterday. "What Mr. Clinton has
done by oohing and aahing over two Democrats
who aren't running is a slight to those who
are. It has become too easy for him, and
others, to collectively dismiss the current
field of contenders. The truth is that with
the election still 14 months away, the
Democratic field is taking shape. Mr. Clinton
might pay a bit more attention to these
candidates." The Times-Union continued, "What
would Mr. Clinton have said if this sort of
star-based handicapping were applied to him
when he ran? Bill, Part 2 Mr.
Clinton was also busy yesterday shoring up
the reputation of California Gov. Gray
Davis as he faces the Oct. 7 recall
election. Mr. Clinton spoke on his behalf
during a church service yesterday in Los
Angeles, with the accompaniment of organ
music. Bill Simon isn't buying any of it.
"This is all window dressing," Mr. Simon, who
ran against Mr. Gray in the California
gubernatorial race last year, told CNN
yesterday.
… “Branstad:
Tuition hikes Vilsack’s fault” – headline
from Friday’s Daily Iowan (University of
Iowa). Excerpt from coverage by the DI’s
Jeffrey Patch: “Former Iowa Gov. Terry
Branstad told a crowd of 50 people in
Schaeffer Hall on Thursday that double-digit
increases in tuition would have never been
approved during his governorship.
‘I want to be
real careful about criticizing another
governor. But, if you have 90 priorities, you
really don't have any priorities,’ Branstad
said about setting education as a priority.
In a 50-minute
lecture, Branstad, a Republican, faulted
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, for not
exercising enough control over the state
Legislature and failing to send a signal to
the state Board of Regents -- whom the
governor appoints -- to keep tuition under
control.
‘We never increased tuition by double
digits,’ said Branstad, referring
to three straight double-digit increases --
the latest a 17.6 percent jump -- under
Vilsack's tenure.
The life-long
Catholic, who said the issue was personal
to him because he didn't pay his student loans
off until he sat in the governor's office,
said he increased tuition by 9 percent
three-consecutive times in the '80s to retain
quality faculty.
Branstad
placed minimal blame on the Legislature and
said the governor has ‘significant control’
over the process, adding that blaming partisan
problems in the Legislature ‘doesn't cut it.’” … Novak:
Carville – not McAuliffe – signing letters to Dem
contributors. Excerpt from report in this
morning’s Chicago Sun-Times: “Democrats received
in the mail this week another appeal for
contributions to the Democratic National Committee (DNC)
that was not signed by Chairman Terry McAuliffe.
This letter bore the signature of consultant and
television commentator James Carville. When this
column reported surprise by donors that recent DNC
appeals did not contain the controversial
McAuliffe's name, he demanded a ‘retraction.’ His
aides contended the chairman had signed more such
letters than any predecessor. However, last week's
appeal for ‘the Democratic Party's 2004 victory
campaign’ was signed by Carville, who holds no party
position. The letterhead consists of ‘James
Carville’ in bold letters, with this small-type
disclosure at the bottom of the letter: ‘Paid for by
the Democratic National Committee.’ The reply
envelope is addressed to the DNC.” This morning’s headlines:
Des Moines
Register, top front-page headline: “Israel
won’t rule out killing Arafat”
Quad-City Times, featured online heads: “Gephardt,
Dean out in front in poll”… “Bush asks for
more subpoena power” … “Israel’s No. 2 hints at
killing Arafat”
Nation/world online
stories,
Omaha World-Herald: “Court blocks California
election” …a federal appeals court postpones
California’s Oct. 7th gubernatorial
recall election, ruling the historic vote cannot
proceed as scheduled because some votes would be
cast using outmoded punch-card ballot machines.
Main headlines,
New York Times online: “Court Delays Recall
Vote in California; Faulty Ballots Cited” …
“Powell, in Iraq, Visits Memorial to Kurds Gassed in
’88” … “China Sends Armed Forces to Monitor North
Korean Border”
Sioux City Journal, top online heads:
“Democratic hopeful
Dean rouses crowd at Sanford Center” … “U.S. troops
arrest suspected Saddam loyalists thought to be
babnkrolling attacks”
Chicago Tribune online, featured reports:
Estrada – “Court delays Calif. recall”
“Move to
put campaign data online lags,”
headline in today’s
Des Moines Register. In an article by
DSM Register staff writer Bert
Dalmer, the goal of making campaign
reports reachable online is still
misses the mark. Excerpts: “Iowa has spent
more than $1.2 million to make campaign
reports accessible on the Internet, but the
system still fails to provide the public - and
state regulators - with all of the most basic
information on political fund-raisers.
Leaders for the Iowa Ethics and Campaign
Disclosure Board grilled the state's
technology officials for nearly an hour last
week about a host of computer problems that
have persisted for months. Almost two
years after political committees began filing
their campaign reports electronically, the
ethics board still cannot post organizational
information about some committees - or make
printouts. "We have been promised time and
again a fully functional system. We still do
not have a fully functional system," said
ethics board Chairman James Albert,
a Drake University law professor. State
programmers promised a fix in the coming weeks
that will allow the ethics board to filter
campaign data to check for irregularities. The
general public, however, will have no such
capabilities. The ethics board said it has
neither the money nor the authority to make
its online campaign records searchable. That
means curious information-seekers must sort
through strings of scanned paper documents -
often hundreds of pages per report - to look
for particular donors or donations.
Open-records advocates said the million-dollar
system is impractical, especially for the
price. "It's a plain rip-off," said
Joan Lucas of Money and Politics Iowa,
a nonprofit group that tracks campaign
spending online. "Unless we get a searchable
database so people can make sense of the
campaign disclosure, this project will not be
finished. That has always been a primary
function of this project." The ethics board
insisted last week that talk of a searchable
database was a wish - not a requirement. …”
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