Bob Graham

excerpts from the Iowa Daily Report

September 16-30, 2003

… Report from Florida says Graham gets polite applause – a “welcome respite from the underwhelming reception” he gets on campaign trail.  Headline in yesterday’s The Union Leader: “Graham comfortable coming from behind” Report – from Tallahassee – by AP’s Brent Kallestad: “About 100 people turned out for a recent Bob Graham fund-raiser near the state Capitol, where the presidential hopeful served as governor and lawmaker for more than a decade in the 1970s and 1980s. The inside of the Governor's Club, a private hangout for lobbyists and politicians, looked more like a reunion of longtime Graham loyalists than a campaign appearance. Most of those in attendance were around the age of the 66-year-old U.S. senator. They applauded politely when he told the crowd he was in the race to stay. For Graham, it was a welcome respite from the underwhelming reception he's received in other states. His campaign has struggled to garner attention among a crowded field of Democrats and has been hearing calls to drop from the race and seek to return to the Senate. ‘To this point, Graham has not connected,’ said University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato, who specializes in presidential and Southern politics. ‘Not in Iowa, not in New Hampshire, not anywhere outside his home state.’ And while former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is on the cover of Time and Newsweek, Graham has found himself reading unfavorable pieces in The New York Times and The Washington Post. A major home state paper, the Orlando Sentinel, has urged him to give up his presidential ambitions and run again for the Senate. Even the news events of the day seem to conspire against his campaign. He was in Oklahoma the same day former WorldCom chief executive Bernie Ebbers was arraigned there on criminal charges of violating the state's security laws. But in Florida, Graham loyalists are legion. No one at the $500 a person fund-raiser last month talked about Graham leaving the race. But some loyalists are getting jittery. Raising money can be a problem for candidates trailing in the early going.” (9/16/2003)

… Miami Herald report: Although Graham is viewed as a “political oddity,” he’s going to start attacking Dean and the rest of the Dem wannabes. Headline from yesterday’s Miami Herald: “Graham decides to go on the attack…The presidential candidate and Florida senator is targeting Democratic frontrunner Dean.” Coverage, from Graham’s Phoenix stop, by the Herald’s Peter Wallsten. “Sen. Bob Graham, Florida's nice-guy senator and cellar-dweller in the presidential campaign opinion polls, is finally on the attack in his quest to win the Democratic nomination. It's not a shock-and-awe assault like Sen. Joseph Lieberman's aggressive questioning in recent days of front-runner Howard Dean's flip-flopping and fitness to serve, but for a get-along guy like Graham, it's about as vicious an attack as he'll ever deliver. ‘Frankly, the Congress gave this president a blank check,’ Graham said last weekend. He was speaking about the resolution authorizing President Bush to use military force in Iraq -- a resolution he voted against. While his remarks sound like a dig at Bush, they are in fact aimed squarely at his fellow Democratic rivals who voted for what is now a highly unpopular war among primary voters: Sens. Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts, John Edwards of North Carolina and Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri. The senator's new website, www.stoptheblankcheck.com, carries the attack directly to his rivals, quoting the resolution that allowed Bush to ‘use the armed forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate,’ and adding: ‘Those who voted for this resolution need to be held responsible.’ In Graham's own way, it's also a slap at Dean, the former Vermont governor who has fueled his rise to the top of the Democratic candidate pile with his own opposition to the war -- essentially undermining Graham's whole reason for running. Graham's new message about Dean: I voted against the war, he's just against it. In a news conference in Arizona on Monday, Graham honed his aim on the front-runner, quoting Dean claiming he was the only candidate to propose a plan to trim the deficit. ‘That's not true,’ Graham said ‘I've had a plan out now for two months to do exactly that.’ Asked whether he has a problem with Dean's apparent penchant to misspeak and shift positions, Graham at first said he would not be ‘induced into the type of negativism that is sometimes tempting.’ Apparently the temptation was too great. Reeling off his own résumé as Florida's two-term governor and the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Graham said: ‘If Gov. Dean had had the kind of background as governor of a large and complex state and service that would put him in direct contact with international issues, then he wouldn't have to backtrack.’ The new attack mode is timely for what has been so far a campaign struggling to be taken seriously by the pundits and donors who anoint front-runners and losers. Nothing else has worked so far for Graham, who maintains he is a serious candidate in a crowded field despite hovering near 1 percent in key primary states and struggling to raise money. He has sponsored a NASCAR truck, taken his family on ‘vacation’ through Iowa, performed his campaign song across the nation, even signed autographs with baseball great Fergie Jenkins -- but through it all Dean has emerged carrying the anti-war mantle while Graham is viewed as an oddity.” (9/17/2003)

…New York Times report this morning says that Clark, Edwards and Graham getting hard look as No. 2 on the Dem ticket. Lieberman discounted because he’s done that already. Headline: “Looking out for No. 2…If You’re Baffled by the Presidential Race, Consider This” From report by Times political ace Adam Nagourney: “These days, there is plenty of action in the Democratic presidential nomination fight: 10 candidates as of noon on Thursday, when Wesley K. Clark joined the show, ensuring one of the most mixed-up nomination battles either party has produced in years. But just in case that is not enough for Democrats who enjoy a good fight, a new contest is rising out of the mist of this one. It is the race within the race, an unstated competition for the No. 2 spot on the ticket. No one running for president would ever say, at least right now, that they are actively campaigning to be vice president. As an aide to one of them noted, the candidates in question probably do not recognize that they are conducting what might eventually turn into dual campaigns: one for the presidential nomination, the other for vice president. But at least three presidential candidates are being increasingly measured by competing campaigns and party leaders for their vice presidential talents, a trend that seems certain to continue. This reflects both an early assessment of their presidential prospects (generally speaking, perhaps not so good) as well as an appreciation of the geographic and biographical assets they would bring to a ticket. No one is writing off anyone for the presidency yet. That said, the emerging vice presidential field includes General Clark, who would fortify a Democratic ticket with a military uniform and a Southern background; Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, another son of the South who has impressed Democrats with his keen campaign skills, and Senator Bob Graham, who comes from Florida (if you have to ask). ‘They are all in their heads running for president -- you don't get in this game to be No. 2,’ said Paul Costello, a longtime Democratic consultant. ‘But that has got to be the hidden context for a lot of these people.’…‘I think that it is very likely that one of them will be the vice presidential nominee,’ he said, referring to Mr. Edwards, Mr. Graham or General Clark. Two other Democratic presidential candidates -- Howard Dean of Vermont and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts -- are, as liberal Northeast Democrats prone to the campaign misstep, not exactly what party officials would describe as attractive vice presidential candidates. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut has done his time in the vice presidential candidate seat. Since there are actually some Democrats in the land who are not running for president, the speculation about No. 2 possibilities extends beyond the field. Some names being mentioned are Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, for example (though Mr. Richardson said in an interview he would not accept the position); Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. But as of today, Democrats think the No. 2 nominee will come from the cast seeking the No. 1 job — speculation that, not surprisingly, does not delight the candidates. General Clark scoffed at the No. 2 position, saying that he is not embarking on a career in politics to win a post that has no discernable authority. But asked if that meant he was ruling out the vice presidency, General Clark shook his head no. ‘I'm not saying that,’ he said. ‘I'm saying for me there was only one decision, and that was whether I would run for the presidency or not. This is not about positioning.’ Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for Mr. Edwards, said, ‘Anybody who thinks that John Edwards is running for vice president doesn't know him very well.’” (9/21/2003)

… “Graham Aides Fret Over Poor Fund Raising” – headline posted this afternoon on latimes.com (Los Angeles Times). Report – by AP political ace Ron Fournier – says the FL Sen has lost fundraising coordinators in California and New York. Excerpt: “Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham is experiencing serious fund-raising problems that have put his campaign in peril, officials close to the Florida senator said Thursday.  Published reports had suggested Graham would raise $4 million to $5 million in the fund-raising quarter that ends Sept. 30, but he will raise less than that, said three campaign officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. His fund-raising coordinators for cash-rich California and New York quit the campaign in the last week, officials said. One of them has signed on with former Gen. Wesley Clark, who entered the race Sept. 17 as the 10th Democratic candidate. The Democratic candidates were meeting here Thursday for an economic debate. Graham's political team is more pessimistic than the candidate, who is still peppering aides with long-range ideas for an aggressive campaign, officials said. But Graham may soon have to decide whether to overhaul his campaign or even drop out, they said. No decision will be made before the fund-raising period ends, officials said, because there is still hope for a rush of money at the end. One of the officials said there won't be serious discussions about the campaign's future until the first or second week of October. Graham has one of the best resumes in the race: former governor and one of the most popular politicians in Florida, a key battleground state; moderate Democrat, and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He has specialized in intelligence matters and the war on terrorism in the Senate, becoming one of President Bush's most fervent critics on Iraq. But his low-key, grandfatherly style has yet to grab the attention of Democratic voters in key states. He consistently places near the bottom in Iowa and New Hampshire polls, and has not significantly raised his national standing as a candidate.” (9/25/2003)

September 1-15, 2003

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