Bob Graham

excerpts from the Iowa Daily Report

August 1-15, 2003

… More on Dean Vs. Kerry Tax Feud from the sidelines and front row seats – Lieberman and Graham join Gephardt as interested bystanders. Coverage in yesterday’s The Union Leader by AP Iowa caucus-watcher Mike Glover. An excerpt: “Jumping into the fray, Kerry strategist Chris Lehane said the tax issue was a question of ‘whose side are you on,’ and added that Dean ‘needs to be straight and explain that he intends to increase the unfair tax burden on working families.” Before Kerry arrived for his speech in Portsmouth, N.H., Dean’s New Hampshire spokeswoman, Dorie Clark, said, ‘It’s unfortunate that Senator Kerry has decided to launch an attack against Governor Dean. It also is probably not a coincidence that in the last several days two polls have shown Governor Dean in the lead.’ A Franklin Pierce College Poll this week had Dean at 22 percent and Kerry at 21 percent, while a Boston Herald poll showed Dean at 28 percent and Kerry at 25 percent. A spokesman for Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut also criticized Dean’s plan. ‘While the Bush economic plan has been a disaster for the middle class, raising taxes on the middle class would just be piling on,’ said Lieberman spokesman Jano Cabrera. ‘That’s not only the wrong path for economic recovery, but the wrong path for the Democratic Party.’ Another rival, Bob Graham, chastised both Dean and Kerry, calling their economic plans ‘empty rhetoric’ without any details or numbers. ‘Instead of attacking each other, they should be providing real details on how they plan to balance the budget, create jobs and provide middle-class tax cuts to the American people, as my plan does,’ the Florida senator said in a statement.”(8/1/2003)

… While most political news yesterday focused on Lieberman’s comments – and Bush criticisms – about sending 12 Cubans back to the island, it turns out he also decided to take on Graham in Florida. Excerpt from Miami Herald report by Peter Wallsten: “Florida Sen. Bob Graham's opposition to the war in Iraq came under fire Tuesday from Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, who said war critics make their party appear weak on defense. Lieberman's comments came one day after he delivered a foreign policy address accusing his antiwar rivals of sending out a message that they ‘don't know a just war when they see it.’ He repeated those exact words during a Hollywood press conference, citing by name former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and the Rev. Al Sharpton as his targets. When a reporter asked, Lieberman reluctantly said Graham was a target, as well. But the Connecticut senator said in an interview later that he put Graham in a ‘separate category’ because of Graham's reasoning: that the war in Iraq took the nation's attention and resources off the broader war on terrorism. ‘I disagree with his conclusion, respectfully,’ Lieberman told The Herald. ‘I think we're strong enough to do both. And in fact, a victory over Saddam has helped us in the war against terrorism.’ Graham, the only senator in the race to vote against the resolution giving President Bush the authority to go to war with Iraq, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the positions taken by Lieberman and other war advocates have let terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, al Qaeda and the Islamic Jihad flourish. Graham, the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had unsuccessfully sponsored an amendment allowing Bush to take military action against the terrorists, as well. ‘My objection to the resolution to go to war was not that it was too strong but that it was too timid, and took our focus off the principal enemy of the American people,’ Graham said. ‘I don't understand what Joe's motivations are,’ Graham added. ‘I understand that politics is an issue of competition, but it should be a reasoned competition.’” (8/1/2003)

… In Sioux City: Graham wants somebody’s head for State of Union intel flap, criticizes Bush tax cut approach. Headline from yesterday’s Des Moines Register: “Graham: Bush should assign speech blame…’There should be some heads rolled,’ he says” Excerpt from coverage by the Register’s Lynn Okamoto: “President Bush's taking responsibility this week for incorrect information in his State of the Union speech isn't good enough, Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham said Friday. ‘If he's as mad as he says he is, he ought to be determining who was responsible for misleading the American people,’ Graham said. ‘There should be some heads rolled. If you are outraged, you need to impose accountability.’ Graham, a U.S. senator from Florida and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made his comments in Sioux City during the first of a three-day visit to Iowa. He joins Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean in saying that someone should be fired over Bush incorrectly saying in his January speech that Iraq was seeking materials from Africa to build nuclear weapons. The White House has acknowledged that the information was wrong. Also Friday, Graham promised that millions of dollars more would be spent in Iowa under his plan for the economy. The plan includes $160 million more each year for Iowa highways, $128 million more a year for Iowa school buildings, and $31 million more a year to expand high-speed Internet access.”… Headline from yesterday’s Sioux City Journal: “Democrat Graham blasts Bush tax cuts; says consumers afraid to spend” Excerpt from report by the Journal’s Bret Hayworth: “U.S. Sen. Bob Graham said he believes tax cuts can be a valuable tool, but not when used as the Bush administration recently did. The Democrat from Florida was in Sioux City Friday, speaking to folks at The Daily Grind downtown about his plan to right the U.S. economy. The 60-minute stop turned into something of a status report on the Sioux City business climate, as local Democrats were chagrined at the loss of jobs. Graham said the economy is stagnant because Americans are afraid to spend money for cars and furniture, because when they consider the unemployment rate, the highest in 11 years, they are fearful of being laid off. ‘This is not a supply-side problem, it is a demand-side problem,’ the senator said. Saying ‘tax cuts have a role to play,’ in laying out his economic plan, Graham said the chief piece would ‘eliminate all the tax cuts that Bush has promoted, except for those that go to the middle class.’ He specified a multi-year stimulus package and middle class tax cuts that would total $134 billion in 2005 alone, amounting to $1 billion in Iowa. Graham said tax cuts should go to the middle class, since ‘they are the ones who will spend it.’”(8/3/2003)

… Graham says if Dems fail to challenge Bush with credible message on national security issues “everything else in irrelevant.” Headline from Friday’s Chicago Tribune -- “Graham: Democrats must beat Bush on U. S. security” Excerpts from report by the Tribune’s Jeff Zeleny: “Democratic presidential hopeful Bob Graham said Thursday his party would lose the White House in 2004 if primary voters selected a candidate who failed to credibly challenge President Bush on national security. ‘If you can't meet that test,’ Graham said, ‘then everything else is irrelevant.’ The Florida senator, fighting to improve his standing in the presidential race, declined to criticize his rivals directly. But during a hourlong interview, he suggested that he was the only candidate who combined security credentials with Southern roots, a historically winning factor for presidential hopefuls. ‘The last three Democrats elected president came from Texas, Georgia and from Arkansas,’ Graham said, speaking to reporters at the Tribune Media Center in Washington. ‘To get to 270 electoral votes, it's very difficult for a Democrat unless you can make some breakthrough in the Sun Belt states. I think I am the Democratic candidate to make that breakthrough.’ In the last two elections, Democrats have suffered stinging losses in several Southern states. Graham and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina are the two Southern Democrats in the race. Of the nine candidates in the field, Graham has the most elected experience but ranks near the bottom in fundraising. This year, the senator has raised $3 million compared to $16 million for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, $12 million for Edwards and $11 million for former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. Still, Graham argues that he is ‘the kind of Democrat the American people will be comfortable with,’ moderate and independent-minded. ‘The American people have shown a preference to elect non-ideologues,’ said Graham, 66. ‘I define myself as being a pragmatic Democrat.’ In the wide-ranging interview on Thursday, Graham conceded that it was ‘unlikely that we will win’ the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary, the launching points for the presidential nominating season. Even so, Graham said he planned to spend nearly two weeks of August campaigning in Iowa with his family.”(8/3/2003)

… Graham in Fort Dodge and Mason City. Headline from yesterday’s Fort Dodge Messenger: “Graham campaigns in Fort Dodge…Speaks out against President Bush’s policies” Coverage by Messenger’s Mike McIlheran: “Anyone coming to Bloomers on Central to hear presidential candidate Bob Graham walked away knowing there was no love lost between him and President George W. Bush. Graham singled Bush out personally several times as being the reason that he sought the presidency for the first time in his life. ‘I think he is the worst president we have ever had,’ said the U.S. senator and former governor from Florida. ‘I have never felt the passion to run until the first year of George W. Bush’s presidency.’ Graham told the 40 assembled Sunday afternoon at the Fort Dodge coffee shop that he was the grandfather of 10. ‘We are handing a credit card bill to our children and grandchildren,’ he said. Graham said his position as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee gave him an inside look at ‘a pattern of this administration toward secrecy. That is why I voted against sending troops to Iraq. I felt we should concentrate on our biggest adversary, Osama Been Forgotten.’ He pointed to the fact that no weapons have been found while risking American lives. ‘The people of America have lost respect and trust for our government.’…The candidate continued to remain outspoken on his feelings of the current administration. In answer to the problems of allowing large corporations to own all of the media outlets, Graham said he would first fire Attorney General John Ashcroft, citing a trend toward a lack of antitrust prosecution not only in the media, but also in large scale agriculture… Headline from Mason City Globe Gazette: “Graham targets deficit in area visit” Presidential hopeful Bob Graham attended Sunday worship services at the First Congregational Church…After the service, Sen. Graham, D-Fla., quietly visited with church members and stopped briefly in the fellowship hall for coffee. On his way to meet with party activists for lunch, he stood on the church steps, talking economics. ‘One of the concerns I heard mentioned three times this morning and several times yesterday, is about what we're doing to our children and grandchildren,’ he said. ‘We continue to run up this red ink deficit,’ Graham said. ‘We are using our government credit card and we're not paying for it ... it will be left for our children and grandchildren. That's immoral and it's not the tradition of America.’ Graham, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, pointed to the $455 billion being added to the national debt this year and said his plan for America's economic renewal is a solution. The plan outlines school construction and repair, as well as support for transportation infrastructure, homeland security, technology and renewable energy - including ethanol. In the plan, Graham said, he intends to reverse the Bush fiscal priorities with tax fairness and balance the budget within five years. Commenting on recent Iowa poll numbers, which have former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean leading the pack, Graham said he can gain ground. ‘We think we can do very well in Iowa,’ he said, ‘as people get to know us.’…’Dr. Dean had been campaigning in Iowa nearly a year before we started our campaign. We're very pleased with our organization here in Iowa and the support we've received," said Graham.” (8/5/2003)

… Bush stronger in Florida than Graham – which may not mean much since the FL Sen’s popularity numbers have dropped below 50% for first time since he was elected to the Senate. Headline from yesterday’s Orlando Sentinel: “Graham’s popularity plunges” Excerpt from report by the Sentinel’s political ace, Mark Silva: “As Sen. Bob Graham seeks to boost his presidential campaign by leading his entire family on a weeklong summer tour of Iowa, a new survey back home in Florida shows his personal popularity sliding to a record low. Challenging President Bush on the war in Iraq has cost Graham support among Floridians who traditionally have backed the Democratic senator but support both Bush and the war, the statewide survey for the Orlando Sentinel, WESH-NewsChannel 2 and other Florida media shows. For the first time in the more than 16 years Graham has served in the U.S. Senate, his popularity has fallen below 50 percent at home, the poll shows. ‘Historically, Graham has always appealed to a certain number of Republican voters in Florida,’ pollster Brad Coker said Tuesday. ‘Running against the president, he certainly is driving away some of the Republicans who used to support him.’ Graham's slide in popularity is not enough to undermine prospects for re-election, should he decide to seek a fourth term to the Senate next year, Coker said. But the implications for a struggling presidential campaign are more severe. In Iowa, and in other early-nominating states, Florida's senior senator is campaigning as the one Democrat who can defeat Bush in the Sunshine State, a major electoral prize that only narrowly elected the Republican president in 2000. But Bush, whose popularity in Florida stands significantly higher today than it did after the disputed presidential election, maintains a comfortable lead over Graham in a theoretical Florida matchup. The survey by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. shows Bush favored among 51 percent of Florida voters, Graham 39 percent, with 10 percent undecided. Graham has paid a price for heated and repeated criticism of Bush, the survey suggests. Few Floridians agree, as Graham argues on national television and the campaign trail, that Bush misled the public about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. ‘A lot of what he's doing now is to try to boost him in Iowa and New Hampshire, and unfortunately that runs counter to the people back home,’ said Coker, Mason-Dixon's managing director. ‘The voters he says he can bring to the table, at least in Florida, are sort of leaving the table right now.’ The telephone survey of 625 Florida voters conducted July 29-31 carries a possible margin of error of 4 percentage points…’Bob Graham is still the best candidate to take on George Bush in Florida,’ said Jamal Simmons, Graham campaign spokesman. ‘You have a popular president, and people are starting to think about things they didn't have to think about. On Election Day, people will decide who is best prepared to lead the country.’”(8/7/2003)

… Headline from this morning’s Des Moines Register: “Graham likens Bush administration to Nixon’s” Coverage – an excerpt – by the Register’s Thomas Beaumont: “Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham on Thursday compared the Bush administration's reluctance to release information about terrorism and war intelligence to Richard Nixon's White House. Graham, a U.S. senator from Florida, said Bush was on track to eclipse Nixon as the most secretive president. ‘There's not been a president since Richard Nixon who has practiced secrecy, withholding from the American people important information,’ Graham said while campaigning at the Iowa State Fair. ‘Most recently that has been in the area of terrorism.’…’It may, at the end of the first term, have even surpassed Nixon,’ Graham said later. Graham, the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been the leading critic among the 2004 Democratic presidential candidates on the Bush administration's handling of intelligence before the war with Iraq and the handling of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.Graham chaired the joint intelligence commission that investigated federal agencies' handling of pre-Sept. 11 information. Thursday he said the Bush administration was wrong to keep confidential parts of the report that linked officials in the Saudi government to associates of the hijackers who carried out the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. ‘Those are just some of the more recent chapters in a thick book of using secrecy to deny the American people the right to know,’ Graham said at the official opening of his Iowa campaign headquarters on Locust Street in Des Moines. Republican National Committee spokesman Chad Colby said Graham's comments were ridiculous. ‘Those kinds of statements are eroding his credibility every single day, not only in Iowa, but in his home state,’ Colby said. Joined by his family, Graham toured the Iowa State Fair Thursday morning and participated in The Des Moines Register's Political Soapbox, where presidential candidates can address fairgoers.”(8/8/2003)

… Under the headline “Turning Left,” the DSM Register reported yesterday that former Iowa House Dem Leader Dave Schrader will drive Graham-sponsored car in Iowa State Fair race Tuesday. Excerpt of sports page coverage by the Register’s Lisa Colonno: “Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham is bringing his name to the Iowa State Fairgrounds - via the hood and sides of a local race car. The U.S. senator from Florida formed a unique relationship this summer when he chose to sponsor former Iowa House Minority Leader Dave Schrader's late model race car. Graham is the lone presidential candidate campaigning in Iowa to sponsor a race car this season - locally or nationally. ‘One of the goals is to use it to send a message,’ Graham said. ‘And the message is that we understand, care about, come from, rural values.’ Schrader, who retired from the Iowa House in 2002, likes that Graham is willing to support the sport he became involved with more than 30 years ago. ‘The idea is to get people's attention, and I think it will,’ Schrader said. ‘Of course, I believe in racing - but I've won a few political contests too.’ The 50-year-old Schrader spent 16 years involved in politics. He started racing in 1971 and now competes weekly in the IMCA's top division at the fairgrounds. The Monroe native's worlds of politics and racing will mesh Tuesday when he races his freshly-painted car for the first time with Bob Graham decals. Schrader will compete in a Deery Brothers Summer Series special at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, starting at 5:30 p.m. with hot laps. ‘If I can get in the middle of the pack I feel pretty good,’ Schrader said.”(8/10/2003)

… Too good to pass up. The Grahams in Iowa: Graham takes in Iowa scenery, exudes confidence and optimism, and gets questions on “hog lots” – but has a tough time finding supportive caucusgoers. Weekend headline from the Orlando Sentinel: “Graham works hard, but few voters seem impressed” The Sentinel’s political ace Mark Silva joins the Graham family on their Iowa “vacation.” Excerpt: “Adele Graham, silhouetted in the shade of a long and fabled covered bridge, strolls through one of Madison County's flat-roofed river-crossings popularized in a sentimental best-seller about middle-aged romance. ‘Don't we have a pretty country?’ Graham asks a granddaughter clutching a purple alfalfa flower from the cornfields along the Middle River, where the Holliwell Bridge has stood since 1880. ‘Iowa is a park . . . so beautiful.’ Yet Iowa is no walk in the park for her husband, Bob Graham, one of nine Democrats in search of his party's 2004 presidential nomination. Graham, Florida's senior senator and former governor, has his entire family in tow as he tours the state where so far he has a mere sliver of support. Six other Democrats are running stronger in Iowa, which on Jan. 19 will take the first measure of presidential candidates, according to a poll here. But that hasn't dissuaded Graham from embracing the challenge with a single-minded fervor. ‘My father can be elected,’ Graham's first-born daughter, Gwen, assures a roomful of elderly Iowans at lunch on the tree-lined courthouse square of this village. Winterset, where five historic covered bridges survive, served as the setting for the 1995 film based on Robert James Waller's weeper about a brief love affair between a photographer and a married woman. There is something aggressively wholesome about this campaign. The sun is setting one breezy evening by the shore of a lake, as Graham, 66, and his wife start singing their campaign song to 50 people who turn out for barbecued bratwurst and sweet corn on the cob. ‘You've got a friend in Bob Graham,’ sing the candidate, his wife and four grown daughters, the women all dressed in matching, embroidered white overalls. Hearing the familiar refrain, 10 Graham grandchildren scramble across the grass to join in the chorus. ‘When you elect a president, you elect a family,’ says Adele Graham, wife of 44 years to the man who predicted when she was 18 that one day he would be elected Florida's governor. He will be elected president, Adele Graham passionately tells crowd after crowd with a confidence that conveys a guarantee of truth. The candidate's own spirits are lifted even higher by a hot-air balloon ride Friday at the Indianola Balloon Classic. Yet the political landscape below offers little support for unbridled optimism. The newest statewide survey ranks Graham's support at 1 percent among likely caucus-goers. Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont riding a summer wave, has advanced to equal standing here with Dick Gephardt, the congressman from Missouri who carried Iowa's caucuses in his last presidential campaign 15 years ago. Graham confronts the reality of Dean's growing support as he tours the Iowa State Fair, a Midwestern Disney World where butter-carved sculptures of an Ayrshire dairy cow and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle are on display and ‘pork on a stick’ is consumed with a passion. This year's concession to good health: ‘salad on a stick.’…Graham's family tour started with the fair, where the Floridian was the first presidential candidate to stand at a ‘soapbox’ sponsored by the Register and make a pitch. His grandchildren, seated on hay bales in a semicircle, listen intently as their ‘Doodle’ explains why Bush must be retired, but never more than a half-dozen fair-goers at any one time pause and listen to grandpa, and then move on. ‘President Bush has clearly established what his vision is,’ Graham tells his restless audience. ‘His vision of the future is one in which the rich get the most attention in which America uses its power as an arrogant bully.’ Bush has cast ‘a veil of secrecy’ over the war, Graham complains, a secrecy unknown since Richard Nixon was president. When he finishes, Graham asks for questions. It's about ‘hog lots.’ Sue Droessler wants to know what Graham will do about the hog lots cropping up around the Kossuth County town where her family lives. The smell is so bad, she complains, that they can't open their windows. It's a problem of unchecked corporate power, Graham replies. The Justice Department has not enforced antitrust laws, he says, adding: ‘One of the first things I will do as president is to fire [Attorney General] John Ashcroft.’”(8/11/2003)

… So, where are they doing well? Senator-wannabes Edwards and Graham can’t crack the Wannabe Top Four – and now the Washington Times reports they are fading in home states too. Headline from yesterday’s Times: “Home support falls for hopefuls Graham, Edwards” Excerpts from report by the Times’ Stephen Dinan and Charles Hunt: “The two Democrats running for president next year who are also up for re-election to the Senate are losing support back home because of positions they have taken on the national campaign trail. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina have cast votes and made statements unpopular back home, and polls suggest both could be vulnerable if they choose to run again for their Senate seats. A Mason-Dixon poll last week showed Mr. Graham with his lowest approval rating in more than a decade, while in North Carolina, Rep. Richard Burr, a Republican running to unseat Mr. Edwards, has steadily closed the gap between himself and Mr. Edwards in Raleigh News-Observer polls during the last six months. Mr. Edwards and Mr. Graham have time before public pressure or, in the case of Mr. Graham, state law, forces them to choose between their presidential or Senate bids. And with the election more than a year away, they have time to rebuild from what they say is a natural dip in the polls at home anytime a senator from a moderate state campaigns among the country's more liberal Democratic primary voters. But Republicans are tallying up the votes and public statements and awaiting their campaigns. ‘[Bob Graham] has given so many 30-second ads we wouldn't know what to do with them,’ said Chris Paulitz, spokesman for Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican who is running for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat. He pointed to Mr. Graham's support for a filibuster to block the confirmation of the first Hispanic federal appeals court judge and the senator's opposition to the Medicare bill that passed the Senate. And then there are Mr. Graham's rhetorical attacks on President Bush, in which he questioned the president's honesty and suggested he should be impeached for misleading the nation into war. ‘The people of Florida are starting to realize that the man running for president is not the same guy that was a two-term governor and a sitting senator that a broad cross-section of Floridians were voting for,’ said Paul Seago, political director for Bill McCollum, another Republican seeking the seat. Last week's Mason-Dixon poll showed Mr. Graham with 53 percent job approval — down from 63 percent last year. For his part, Mr. Edwards faces similar poll numbers and the same questions about votes and rhetoric. Visiting the site last week of the shuttered Pillowtex Corp. textile mill in Kannapolis, N.C., where 4,000 jobs were lost, Mr. Edwards had to defend his vote made several years ago to grant permanent normalized trade relations with China. Workers blame free-trade agreements for sending textile jobs overseas in recent years. Mr. Edwards said he stood by his vote and urged that federal money be expedited to the laid-off workers. But few episodes more clearly show the divergence between the national and local audiences than when Mr. Edwards told the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual convention last month he was ‘tired of Democrats walking away from President Bill Clinton, who did an extraordinary job of lifting up and reaching out to all of the American people.’ Ferrell Blount, the new chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, said Mr. Edwards can expect to see that used in a campaign: ‘Bill Clinton — I don't know if I'd go so far to say despised, but he certainly is not a revered individual in the state.’”(8/13/2003)

… Graham’s Creative Accounting 101: In Davenport, Graham says the Bush tax cuts should be used for national infrastructure improvements – which, including health care and education proposals, is probably the 250^th way the wannabes have found to spend the tax cuts. Even if they had the tax cut money, it wouldn’t be enough for all their collective ideas. Headline from yesterday’s Quad-City Times: “Graham touts economic plan during his first visit to Q-C” Excerpt from report by the Times’ Ed Tibbetts: “Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., pressed a four-point economic recovery plan at a Quad-City forum Monday, arguing that billions of dollars dedicated to tax cuts should be spent instead on the nation’s infrastructure. Graham met with about a half-dozen people at the Downtown Deli, his last public stop on a two-day swing through the Quad-Cities that included meetings with party activists and labor unions. Graham is touring Iowa with his family in a caravan of recreational vehicles. He says his plan would create jobs and restore the government to a balanced budget within five years of him being elected president. In addition to spending billions on school buildings, roads, bridges and high-speed rail connections, he would help cities upgrade their sewers. Graham likened the approach to the construction of the federal highway system in the 1950s. Citing the age of the country’s infrastructure, he said the spending is necessary. ‘Just like human beings, once you get past 50, you need a little rehabilitation,’ he said. Graham’s emphasis on infrastructure spending won praise from forum participants such as Bettendorf Mayor Ann Hutchinson. ‘That’s the best place we can spend our money right now,’ she said. But Graham also proposed an incremental approach to extending health care to the 41 million Americans who do not have it, which contrasts with the preferences of many in the party’s liberal base. Graham said he would expand Medicare to help near-retirees, Medicaid to help the working poor and state-federal children’s health programs to help youngsters. That is not as ambitious a plan — nor as expensive — as some of his rivals have pitched. Hutchinson called Graham’s health-care approach ‘practical.’ But it differs from the national health-care system she believes is a necessity. Graham’s moderate credentials have left some political observers wondering how he will do during the Iowa caucuses in January, which traditionally draw heavy numbers from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. To the contrary, Graham said he believes caucus-going Democrats reflect the party mainstream in Iowa, and he argued that, as a southerner from Florida, he is electable. Graham said he expects to do better in polls, which show him significantly trailing other candidates.”(8/13/2003)

… In Iowa – where pro-trade policies are pushed by farmers and commodity groups – Edwards and Gephardt brag about leading the fight against trade. Headline from this morning’s The Union Leader: “Democrats court key labor vote” Excerpts of coverage from Iowa Federation of Labor convention in Waterloo by AP’s Mike Glover:   “Six Democratic presidential candidates sketched out differences on health care and trade Wednesday as they competed for the backing of organized labor, which is key to securing the party's nomination. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt bragged that they've led the fight against trade deals, saying the deals resulted in American jobs being shipped overseas and declining wages. The two men criticized their rivals who have supported trade pacts in the past. ‘Most of them were for those treaties when they were before Congress,’ said Gephardt, wagging his finger. Added Edwards: ‘There are a lot of Democrats have never seen a trade agreement they didn't like.’ Trade is a key issue for organized labor because an effort to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement is pending before Congress. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry conceded that he had voted for trade agreements during the Clinton administration, but argued that he now opposes expansion of those agreements. ‘During the Clinton years I voted for trade, but we have seen a sea change over those years,’ Kerry said. Florida Sen. Bob Graham said he would push for protections in any trade agreements negotiated with other countries. ‘If we have a level playing field, we can win,’ he said. Kerry, Graham and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman all voted in favor of the original NAFTA, but Kerry and Graham argued that it is now time for additional protections. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said he supported NAFTA because it was good for his state. Dean now wants labor and environmental standards added to it. Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he would pull out of the World Trade Organization and cancel NAFTA altogether. ‘Anyone who talks about changing it doesn't know what he's talking about,’ he said. Kerry and Graham argued that Gephardt's $200 billion-plus plan to expand the nation's health care system was too expensive, although all of the candidates have their own plans to fix the system.” (8/14/2003)

… Lost in space – or at least New Hampshire? Graham becomes involved in “valley” vs. “region” controversy. Excerpt from yesterday’s “Granite Status” column by John DiStaso, the Union Leader’s senior political editor: “Memo To Graham Camp. Last week, we took a light-hearted jab at the Graham campaign for calling southwestern New Hampshire the ‘Monadnock Valley’ Region when, in fact, it is the Monadnock Region.  Graham state campaign chief Steve Bouchard didn’t like it a bit and let us know that he’s lived in the state all his life and it’s not wrong to refer to the area as the Monadnock Valley. He said there are several references to the Monadnock Valley region on the Internet and even sent us three stories from this very newspaper referring to a Monadnock Valley.  Although we’ve lived here nearly 25 years and never heard of the Monadnock Valley, we checked. First, we checked the state’s official Web site, where it’s officially called ‘the Monadnock Region.’ Then, the Monadnock Travel Council’s Web site, which welcomes visitors to ‘the Monadnock Region.’ The state Office of Travel and Tourism Development assured us it’s the ‘Monadnock Region.’ Just to be sure, we checked with Union Leader columnist John Clayton, the connoisseur of everything New Hampshire, who confirmed it’s ‘the Monadnock Region.’”(8/15/2003)

… Without Snow White, seven Dem dwarfs show up at Drake University to discuss their health care plans (for probably the 4,850th time) and attack the president (for probably the 629,382nd time). Headline from this morning’s Union Leader: “Democratic rivals joust on health care” Coverage – an excerpt datelined Des Moines – by AP’s Mike Glover: “Seven Democratic presidential nominees used an Iowa political forum Thursday to offer deeply personal pitches for revamping the nation's health system and to bash President Bush and large pharmaceutical companies. Most of the major Democratic candidates have offered plans to expand the nation's health care system, and would finance their efforts by repealing various portions of the tax cut the president pushed through Congress. ‘America has a choice, it can have tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans or health care for all Americans,” Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry told the gathering of health care advocates. Kerry used his recent bout with prostate cancer and the expensive treatment he got for the disease as an example of why the system needs to be changed. ‘We must stop being the only industrial nation in the world that does not understand that health care is not a privilege, it is a right,’ he said. Florida Sen. Bob Graham has health issues of his own, undergoing major heart surgery before he entered the race. ‘Clearly one of the challenges facing America is making health care affordable and accessible to all,’ Graham said. ‘That is a goal to which we all should be committed.’ Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt pointed to his son's bout with cancer, and called health care a ‘moral issue.’…’It is immoral in this country to have people not have health care,’ Gephardt shouted. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a doctor, said he wanted the whole country to have health care like Vermont, which has health coverage for all youngsters and subsidized care for the working poor. ‘It can pass,’ Dean said. ‘I'm tired of having Democrats tilt at windmills.’ Dean later had one of his more colorful days on the campaign trail, as 200 people packed a local blues club to watch him play harmonica and guitar. Dean accompanied two other performers on two songs, including one written specifically for his campaign. He quietly sang along with lyrics like ‘Dean for America’ and ‘losing my mind from being left behind.’ Former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich offered their pitch for a single-payer, government-run health care system, where health coverage isn't tied to the workplace…North Carolina Sen. John Edwards touted his $53 billion plan to offer tax credits to help pay for insurance costs and argued that Bush's health care plans are likely dictated by political adviser Karl Rove…Gephardt also complained that giant pharmaceutical companies influence Bush's health care plans. ‘They put $70 million into the campaigns only of Republicans,’ Gephardt said. ‘It's time to kick the moneychangers out of the temples of government.’” (8/15/2003)

… Graham gets cameo with Garrison Keillor this weekend in New Hampshire, but central question remains: Will he – or both of them – break out in song? Headline from yesterday’s Miami Herald: “Graham’s ‘Wobegon’ workday…He’ll have cameo on New Hampshire’s ‘Prairie’ show” Coverage – an excerpt – from report by the Herald’s Peter Wallsten: “Florida Sen. Bob Graham will make a cameo appearance this weekend in a special nonbroadcast edition of A Prairie Home Companion, the National Public Radio program hosted by his friend, Garrison Keillor. Sunday's show, part of the program's traveling ‘Rhubarb Tour,’ will be useful for Graham's presidential campaign: It takes place in Gilford, N.H., the state that is home to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary in January. Graham will appear as part of his patented ‘workday’ gimmick, possibly as a character in the regular Guy Noir, Private Eye sketch. He said he has known Keillor for years, ever since the NPR star began going to Washington to lobby for public radio. Keillor's assistant, Debra Beck, said Tuesday that a role for Graham had not yet been chosen…While there is no indication that Keillor's invitation is an endorsement, the appearance on the show will be only the latest taste of stardom for Graham's campaign. Graham, who often breaks out into song on the campaign trail (‘You've got a friend in Bob Graham…’) if given the chance, predicted he will likely do so with Keillor, as well. ‘Do you think that Garrison's audience should be denied that once-in-a-lifetime experience?’ Graham said with a smirk.”(8/15/2003)

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Graham Aug. 16-31, 2003

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