|
 John
Kerry
 excerpts
from
the Iowa Daily Report
September
16-23,
2003
… Kerry
continues attack on rival wannabes who want to
repeal tax cuts, but this time he actually
identifies the culprits – Dean and Gephardt.
Headline from this morning’s Union Leader:
“Kerry criticizes Dean by name over tax
cuts” Coverage – an excerpt – by
AP’s Iowa caucus watcher, Mike Glover:
“Presidential hopeful John Kerry on Monday
criticized his Democratic rivals who favor
repealing President Bush's tax cuts -- and
this time, he named names. The Massachusetts
senator has assailed primary foes such as
Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt for favoring a
rollback of Bush's tax cuts from 2001 and this
year, but as recently as Friday in South
Carolina, Kerry declined to single them out.
That wasn't the case in Iowa Monday, and it
reflected a weeklong concerted effort by the
Democratic candidates to challenge
front-runner Dean on issues from the
Middle East to Medicare, from race to Social
Security. ‘Unfortunately some in my party,
including Howard Dean, want to repeal the tax
cuts Democrats gave middle class families,’
Kerry said. ‘This would mean that a family
of four -- with two parents working hard on
the job and at home -- would have to pay about
$2,000 more a year in taxes.’ Dean, the
former Vermont governor, argues that a repeal
of the tax cuts is necessary to pay for
universal health care, homeland security and
job creation, particularly in a time of
increasing budget deficits. During a speech
on corporate responsibility in which he
criticized President Bush, Kerry said that in
the event of a wholesale repeal of the tax
cuts, ‘Democrats will be no better than George
W. Bush if we also turn our backs on the
middle class.’ Kerry has called for
repealing that portion of the tax cut that
benefits those making more than $200,000 a
year, leaving in place the child care tax
credit and the elimination of the marriage
penalty. Gephardt, the Missouri
congressman and former House Minority leader,
also favors repeal of Bush's tax cuts to
finance health care coverage.” (9/16/2003)
… “Kerry’s
tears: We’d rather vote for Mrs. Woodman”
– headline from yesterday’s The Union Leader
opinion page on reprint of Pennsylvania
editorial. The editorial: “Sometimes the
media can miss a story even when they're right
in the room. Democratic Presidential
candidate John Kerry made national
headlines when he wiped away a tear after an
encounter with an unemployed mother during a
campaign stop in New Hampshire. A slew of
stories followed detailing how Kerry finally
showed his softer side and how the incident
might boost his sagging campaign. Some even
compared Kerry's tears with an incident that
sank Ed Muskie's Presidential chances in 1972.
But the focus in this story shouldn't be on
Kerry; it should belong to the unemployed
mother, Concord native Barbara Woodman.
She told the senator that she was recently
laid off from a publishing company and how the
loss of income was making life hard for her,
her husband and their two teenage boys. But
despite her ordeal, she wasn't asking Kerry
or anyone else in the government for help. She
isn't seeking a program from Washington, D.C.,
to put her back to work or to take care of her
children. ‘We're not about to let our sons pay
the price for whatever we're dealing with,’
Woodman said in words that caused Kerry
to tear up. ‘I don't care how many jobs I have
to work; those kids are going to college.’
Woodman's spirit of self-reliance and personal
responsibility are the qualities that have
kept America strong for more than 200 years.
And her determination to do the best for her
family is repeated millions of times across
the country, especially in difficult economic
times such as these. These stories are
worth much more than the tears of a
politician. Kerry, meanwhile, desperately
needs to find something to excite voters.
An early favorite for the Democratic
nomination, he trails badly in recent polls in
Iowa and New Hampshire, two early key
political tests. But that's fine with us.
Given the choice, we'd cast our vote for Mrs.
Woodman. — The Valley Independent
Monessen, Pa.”
(9/16/2003)
… Just after
Kerry spent days denying possibilities of a
major campaign shakeup, his communications
director exits. Headline from this
morning’s Union Leader: “Communication
director quits Kerry campaign”
Report – excerpt – by the AP political warrior
Ron Fournier: “John Kerry's communications
director has resigned over differences in the
direction of the Democrat's presidential
campaign. Chris Lehane's departure comes amid
speculation of a wider shake-up in the Kerry
campaign, which has been torn by internal
fights and a lack of public support from the
candidate. Kerry, a Massachusetts
senator once considered the leading contender
in a nine-person field, has seen his campaign
eclipsed by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
‘John Kerry is a great American,’ Lehane
said in a statement confirming his
resignation. ‘He has assembled a great
team to take on George W. Bush and I wish him
the best of luck as the campaign goes
forward.’ Lehane was a key adviser and
spokesman for the campaign, though he was not
on the payroll. That move was planned later
this fall. He resigned last week. Campaign
officials, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Lehane told them he was leaving over
philosophical differences with Kerry.
They said Lehane, who was Al Gore's
press secretary in the 2000 race and worked
for President Clinton, was among a cadre of
Kerry aides who believed that Kerry
ran too cautiously against the threat posed by
Dean. Campaign strategist Bob Shrum and
others urged Kerry to remain above the fray in
an attempt to look presidential. Kerry avoided
confrontation with Dean in the first two
debates, but his rhetoric on the campaign
trail has become more critical of the former
governor. Dean leads Kerry
in the latest polls in New Hampshire, an early
voting state that neither candidate can afford
to lose. His front-runner status lost,
Kerry recently dropped out of contention
for at least one key union endorsement and is
scrambling to shore up support in Congress and
among party donors. Though Kerry has
insisted he's satisfied with his team, his
less-than-firm denials of a shake-up have
fueled rumors and created angst among his
staff.” (9/16/2003)
… “At UI,
Kerry slams Bushonomics” – headline from
this morning’s Daily Iowan (University of
Iowa). Excerpt from report by the DI’s Jeffrey
Patch: “Approximately 200 people welcomed
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to Hubbard Park on
Monday afternoon, as the candidate for the
Democratic presidential nomination continued
his effort to sow grass-roots support on
campuses and in Iowa. Tuition increased
17.9 percent at the UI this year, and Kerry,
who attends approximately eight events per
day, took note and struck a chord. ‘No family
income went up 15-20 percent,’ he said. ‘Every
family is struggling.’ Speaking to the
mostly student audience, he outlined his
higher-education plan, which includes a $4,000
tax credit to households for each college
student and a proposal to offer four years of
free tuition at a public, instate university
in exchange for two years of community
service. ‘Campuses have always been a big
part of his politics,’ said David Wade,
Kerry's national spokesman. ‘It's in his
blood.’ Kerry also criticized Rep.
Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., and former Vermont Gov.
Howard Dean for plans to scrap the entire Bush
tax cut to pay for social programs. ‘Some
of my opponents -- Mr. Gephardt, Mr.
Dean -- want to get rid of the whole tax
cut.’ Kerry said. ‘I want to fight to
help the middle class, because the last time I
looked, the problem wasn't that the middle
class had too much money.’ Mark Lucas, a UI
freshman and Republican city councilor from
Wilton, Iowa, said Kerry cannot have it
both ways. ‘He was talking about how the
tax code was bloated, yet he wants to offer
targeted tax cuts,’ Lucas said. In the
30-minute speech, Kerry noted his role
as an activist after he returned from fighting
in the Vietnam War. ‘I learned what it was
like to be an instrument of American foreign
policy,’ he said. ‘I watched what happened
when we lost the consent and legitimacy of the
American people.’” (9/16/2003)
… “In a
shift of strategy, Kerry takes on Dean” –
headline from Sunday’s Boston Globe. Excerpt
from report by the Globe’s Michael Kranish: “During
an early July weekend of Cape Cod kiteboarding
and campaign strategizing, Senator John F.
Kerry gathered a dozen of his top aides on the
porch of his Nantucket home to debate a key
question: Should they respond to Howard Dean's
surprise early airing of television
commercials in Iowa? Kerry's
advisers concluded that Dean was
foolishly frittering away precious campaign
cash at a time when few voters were paying
attention. The Massachusetts senator waited
until 10 days ago to launch a commercial
counterattack, finally airing spots in New
Hampshire and Iowa. The July decision
wound up costing Kerry and helping
Dean, as the former Vermont governor rose
in the polls over the summer, followed his
Iowa blitz with similar ads in New Hampshire
in early August, appeared on the covers of
Time and Newsweek, and collected millions of
Internet dollars. Dean also hinted that he
might break the federal spending cap necessary
to get public funds, posing even more of a
threat to Kerry. With the beginning of
primary season just four months away, Kerry
-- once considered the Democratic front-runner
-- has faced woes extending beyond just
advertising decisions and Dean's surge
in popularity. The Massachusetts senator's
message is criticized by some as muddled and
by others as too oriented toward a general
election against President Bush. Some liberal
activists continue to question his vote to
give President Bush the authority to go to war
in Iraq, a matter that has dogged Kerry in his
race against the antiwar Dean. Now
Kerry, who insisted earlier this month
that he planned ‘no changes’ in his staff,
said he plans to add people to ‘plug holes’
and is demonstrating a new willingness to
challenge Dean. Significantly, when asked
about a simmering dispute between his
Washington and Massachusetts campaign staffs,
he told the Globe he is working to ‘find a way
for the people not there every day to weigh in
more effectively…We are making changes every
day.’…’What's important is someone was unarmed
for a period of time,’ Kerry said, in a
revealing comment referring to his lack of
television ads, ‘and we're now there.’
While the ads don't attack Dean, Kerry was
especially tough on his opponent during an
interview last week with the Globe.
`Somebody who wants to be president ought to
keep their word,’ Kerry said. ‘I think
somebody who wants to be president shouldn't
run around the country breaking their policies
on a daily basis, going backwards on foreign
policy, backwards on Cuba, backwards on taxes,
changing around, and now possibly on a
campaign finance pledge. I think it goes to
the core of whether you are a different
politician or a politician of your word or
what you are.’ Dean campaign manager Joe
Trippi, asked to respond, said: ‘I'll just
let it stand. He wants to say that, he can say
that.’” (9/16/2003)
… Birds of a Feather 102: CA Sen Feinstein joins Kennedy in
“Senators for Kerry” movement. From FOXNews.com – Associated
Press report from San Francisco: “Democrat John Kerry's
presidential bid got an influential endorsement Tuesday from
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who praised him for having the
‘strength, experience, leadership and judgment to be an excellent
president.’ Feinstein is the state's senior senator and arguably
the most popular politician in vote-rich California. She is one of
only two senators to endorse Kerry's presidential bid so far
-- the other being his Massachusetts colleague, Sen. Ted Kennedy.
In a statement, Feinstein said she was supporting Kerry for his
leadership on a number of issues, including health care, tax policy
and the environment. She also singled out his support for gun
control and, specifically, a ban on assault weapons, which Feinstein
wrote and is trying to extend over Republican objections. ‘The
assault weapon ban will expire next year,’ Feinstein wrote. ‘We need
a president who will actively urge Congress to extend it, and John
Kerry will do just that.’ The endorsement comes at a
critical time for the Massachusetts senator, who has seen his
presumed front-runner status eclipsed in recent months by the surge
of rival Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor. A decorated
Vietnam veteran who has tried to position himself as the best
candidate to challenge President Bush on national security issues,
Kerry faces competition Wesley Clark, the former
supreme NATO commander who is poised to enter the Democratic race on
Wednesday. Other Democratic senators in the field include Bob
Graham of Florida, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and John
Edwards of North Carolina, who formally launched his campaign
Tuesday.” (Iowa Pres Watch Note: For those not paying attention,
the gun control issues looms large with the anti-Dean contingent
because the former VT Guv advocates state – vs. fed – regs on
firearm restrictions.) (9/17/2003) … Kerry’s criticism of Dean for possibly
abandoning campaign spending limits sounds pious now, but it ignores
the reality of ’96 campaign – when Kerry “pulverized” a deal in his
Senate campaign. Headline from column by Brian McGrory in
yesterday’s Boston Globe: “Hard to pull for Kerry” Excerpt: “John
Kerry was asked recently about the possibility that Howard Dean
might forgo public matching funds in his bid for the nomination,
thereby avoiding spending limits. Dean had indicated that
he would accept the funds, but now is considering reversing his
strategy, much like George W. Bush. And here's what Kerry
said: ‘Somebody who wants to be president ought to keep their word.
I think it goes to the core of whether you are a different
politician or a politician of your word or what you are.’…if I'm
interpreting him correctly, [Kerry] is accusing Dean of not being
a man of his word, and a man who doesn't live up to his word, Kerry
is essentially saying, is unqualified to be president. So let's
go back to 1996, to Kerry's reelection campaign against
then-Governor Bill Weld, specifically to the night Weld met Kerry at
the senator's wife's Beacon Hill mansion. They finalized an
unprecedented agreement to limit advertising spending to $5 million
apiece, and to limit the use of personal funds in the campaign to
$500,000 apiece. Good government types hailed the agreement as a
major breakthrough. Kerry and Weld basked in the plaudits of
editorialists the nation over. Kerry described the pact as ‘a
model for campaign reform across the country.’ But a funny thing
happened on the way to Election Day. Kerry didn't just violate the
deal, he pulverized it. Running out of money in the waning days
of October, Kerry mortgaged and remortgaged the Louisburg
Square house, ultimately pouring $1.7 million in personal funds into
his campaign. For those of you keeping track at home, that's $1.2
million more than the agreement allowed. As he made a mockery of
the pact, he did something else distinctly distasteful. He accused
Weld of violating the agreement, a charge that seemed specious at
best, an outright lie at worst. At issue was a discount Weld
received from the standard fee his media consultant would reap from
all ad spending. It allowed Weld to buy about $400,000 more in ads
for his $5 million. Every good campaign negotiates a discount, and
the written agreement did not preclude them. Kerry claimed it
was a violation of a rule that, well, was never written down. Still,
yesterday, he repeated the charge. ‘The Kerry campaign took
appropriate action to level the playing field,’ said spokeswoman
Kelley Benander, adding, ‘The situation with Howard Dean is much
more serious.’ Sure he did, and sure it is. I've had my fair
share of exposure to Kerry, having spent time covering his policies
and politics…The unvarnished truth is, I want to like him. I want to
write positively of him. I want to highlight his great potential,
his uncanny ability to grasp the human plight. But then he whines
or haplessly hollers or passes blame as he feels every bump, every
conceivable slight, along an uncommonly gilded path. In this
campaign, his answers on the famous Iraq vote aren't nuanced,
they're ridiculous. His overall message isn't muddled, it's
nonexistent. Dean, it appears, entered the race because he
wanted to win. Kerry is running because he thought he could win. The
thing is, I know for a fact that Kerry can do better, and hopefully,
eventually, he will. But unless and until he does, the voters of
Iowa and New Hampshire can do better as well.”(9/17/2003)
… Dean vs. Kerry moves closer to Kerry’s doorstep
– Dean to hold fundraiser tomorrow in Kerry’s neighborhood and
return for a Boston rally next week. Headline from
bostonherald.com this morning: “Dean plans to storm Kerry turf”
Coverage by the Herald’s Ellen J. Silberman: “Howard Dean is
taking his surging presidential campaign to rival John F. Kerry's
doorstep, planning to rally backers and raise cash just two miles
from the Bay State senator's Beacon Hill home. Dean, leading Kerry
in polls in both New Hampshire and Iowa, is scheduled to come to the
Hub tomorrow for three major fund-raisers expected to add $250,000
to his bulging campaign coffers. Posing an even greater
threat of embarrassing Kerry is a Dean rally planned for Boston's
Copley Square Tuesday as the former Vermont governor pushes to add
50,000 new names to his roster of backers by the end of the month.
The Dean campaign hopes to draw 3,000 supporters to the
lunchtime rally, featuring a speech by Dean and -- if city
officials approve -- live music at a site less than two miles from
Kerry's Louisburg Square townhouse. ‘He's really sticking
it to Kerry,’ Boston College political science professor Marc
Landy said of the rally, Dean's first major Massachusetts
event. ‘He's got Kerry reeling. Why not come here?’ Dean
supporters claim the presidential front-runner is drawn to Boston's
symbolism as the birthplace of democracy and the site of next year's
Democratic National Convention -- not a chance to tweak Kerry.
‘It seems like the proper place to recapture and reignite democracy,
freedom and action,’ said Steve Grossman, former chairman of the
state and national Democratic parties and Dean's most
prominent local supporter. Kerry campaign officials reacted to
news Dean's rally with a slap. ‘Boston is a diverse and
inclusive city, occasionally even welcoming Yankee fans like Howard
Dean,’ Kerry spokeswoman Kelley Benander said.”
(9/17/2003)
… Kerry campaigns with Guv Davis in LA
against the CA recall effort. Coverage – an
excerpt – of Kerry visit by Los Angeles Times
staff writer Michael Finnegan in today’s editions:
“Two Vietnam veterans, Gov. Gray Davis and U. S.
Sen. John F. Kerry, appealed to former
soldiers Wednesday to rally to Davis’ side and
against the effort to oust him from office. They
also sought to blame President Bush for many of the
problems that fuel the recall effort…During the
morning appearance before several dozen veterans,
Kerry, the Massachusetts senator and
presidential candidate, described his stops in
California during his Navy service, and quickly made
a transition to the recall. ‘This recall is an
abuse of the democratic process, and I hope
California will reject it,’ said Kerry, one of a
string of Democratic officials to visit California
this week He called the recall ‘a rejection of
common sense.’ Kerry, in an organized effort to
bolster Davis' chances, said Californians do have
cause for anger -- and then listed several
criticisms of the Bush administration, citing what
he called the president's ‘contribution to the
deficit’ in California and the administration's
favoritism of Enron and other energy companies over
electricity users in California. Kerry also
criticized the Bush administration's environmental
policies and praised Davis' record on veterans'
issues. ‘Don't let the Republicans monkey with
the democracy of California,’ Kerry said.”
(9/18/2003)
… Yesterday, Dean unloaded on Kerry during
New Hampshire appearance (Iowa Pres Watch Note:
See this morning’s update for report) – and now
Kerry (via website posting on
www.johnkerry.com ) has responded. Headline:
“Statement from John Kerry on Howard Dean’s
speech at St. Anselm’s” Kerry’s statement: “Unfortunately,
Howard Dean once again stated he wants to repeal the
tax cuts Democrats gave middle class families at a
time when middle class families are taking too many
hits already. Their health care costs are
rising, their housing payments are higher, their
jobs less secure, and college is costing more.
This would hurt those who most deserve our help --
the hard-working, middle class Americans who have
borne the brunt of the Bush bust. For example,
Ted Walsh and Maya Glos, a middle class family from
Barrington, would pay nearly $3,000 more in taxes
even as they try to get ahead and raise a family if
Howard Dean has his way. I believe we should
give Ted and Maya a tax cut not a tax increase.
We can cut the deficit in half in four years, give
Americans access to the health care coverage they
need, invests in education and homeland security
without putting a penalty on married people and
without taking the child tax cuts the middle class
needs. Howard Dean wants to correct
George Bush’s economic mistake by penalizing the
middle class and that’s wrong. The problem with this
economy is not that the middle class is making out
like bandits. What George Bush has done to the
middle class is wrong. And, unfortunately, what
Howard Dean wants to do is wrong for our middle
class families as well. Putting real money into
the pockets of the hard working middle class is true
to our principles as Democrats – and right for the
American economy.” (9/18/2003)
… Not an eye for an eye, but an editorial
for an editorial. In a Union Leader editorial
this morning, Gephardt says that Kerry was wrong
when he claimed Dean and Gephardt were destroyed the
Clinton economic legacy – in an editorial yesterday.
(Iowa Pres Watch Note: See yesterday morning’s
update for Kerry’s editorial.)
Headline from this morning’s Union Leader – “Dick
Gephardt: Economic plan preserves Clinton legacy of
growth” Excerpt: “President Bush’s
economic plan has failed because his irresponsible
tax cuts have not worked. Since he took office,
the country has lost 3.3 million jobs, making his
record on jobs the worst for any President since
Herbert Hoover. Now, if you think those misguided
tax cuts have worked for you, vote for George Bush.
If you want to preserve some large part of the
failed Bush tax cut, vote for Senator Kerry or
another of the Democratic candidates articulating
that view. But, if you want to exchange the Bush
tax cuts for guaranteed health care that can never
be taken away, then you should vote for me. In
1993, I led the fight to pass the Clinton economic
plan that restored fiscal discipline and asked the
wealthy to pay their fair share. The Republicans
said it would be a ‘jobs killer.’ Well, they
weren’t only wrong, they were dead wrong. Without a
single Republican vote, the Clinton plan created 22
million jobs and the best economy this country has
ever had. Now, George Bush has turned the
economic success of the 1990s on its head. I
supported the Clinton plan because I believe what’s
good for the middle class is good for America. I
look at the economy from a middle class perspective,
because I was raised in a middle class home. My
father was a Teamster and my mother was a secretary.
Instead of George Bush’s trickle down approach, I
believe we have to build the economy from the bottom
up and from the middle out. That’s why the first
thing I’d do as President is get rid of all the Bush
tax cuts and use the money to provide guaranteed
health insurance to every American. My health care
plan does more for the economic security of the
middle class than any of the Bush tax cuts. It will
pump billions of dollars into the economy, create
millions of new jobs and allow employers to invest
in new equipment, free up investment capital and
increase employee wages and benefits. In fact, a
recent independent study found that under my plan a
middle class family would receive between $2,000 and
$3,000 in new increased wages and benefits. That is
a great deal more than any working family would ever
see from the Bush tax cuts. I am confident of the
economic benefits of my health care plan. But those
economic benefits alone are not the reason I feel so
strongly about providing universal health care to
every American. This is the centerpiece of my
campaign because it’s the right thing to do. To me,
this is not just the basis of my economic growth
plan, but a moral imperative…In the most
powerful country in the world, it’s wrong for health
care to be a luxury, an unattainable dream, and not
a right of citizenship. Throughout this
campaign, I’ll be offering the American people a
clear choice on the economy. We can keep pursuing
George Bush’s tired, old, failed economic policies
like Senator Kerry and other Democrats in this race
have suggested. Or we can learn from the policies
that worked for us after 1993 and move forward
together. If we reward the work and initiative
of all Americans, then everybody benefits, from the
factory floor to the corporate boardroom. In the
end, we’re all bound together. We’re all members of
the American family. And I won’t be satisfied until
every family, not just the few, can share in the
bounty of America. That’s why I’m running for
President. Join with me, and we’ll build a new and
shared prosperity.” (9/18/2003)
… “Dean rips Kerry as Bush Lite” – headline
from this morning’s Boston Herald. Coverage –
dateline: Manchester, NH – by David R. Guarino: “Front-running
Democrat Howard Dean, letting loose after weeks of
sniping by rival John F. Kerry, yesterday branded
Kerry a budget-fudging Bush defender who epitomizes
Beltway politics as usual. In a bare-knuckled rebuke
here and on Kerry's Bay State turf, Dean alluded to
Kerry as ‘Bush Lite’ and lambasted the senator for
defending some Bush tax cuts. ‘I get criticized
for saying we should repeal all the Bush tax cuts,
we need to repeal all those tax cuts,’ Dean
told an audience at St. Anselm's College. ‘We cannot
approach this campaign being the usual folks,
politicians in Washington who promised everybody
everything.’ Later, at a union gathering in North
Andover, Dean lambasted Kerry for using fuzzy
math to say the middle class is being helped by some
cuts. ‘Sen. Kerry unfortunately is using
the Bush figures to defend the Bush tax plan, I
think that's a mistake on Sen. Kerry's part,’
Dean told reporters, saying most middle
income earners got hundreds -- not thousands -- from
the cuts. ‘We can't have politicians promising
health care, special education and a tax cut too --
that's not going to happen. I think some truth in
budgeting is necessary.’ Kerry spokeswoman
Kelley Benander said Kerry is using
non-partisan figures from the Brookings Institute
and the Joint Committee on Taxes for his estimates
-- not the White House. Kerry showed no signs of
wanting the inter-party tax battle to wane, penning
a column in Manchester's largest newspaper -- and
later issuing a similar statement -- accusing Dean
of abandoning the middle class. ‘Howard Dean
wants to correct George Bush's economic mistake by
penalizing the middle class and that's wrong,’
Kerry said. ‘What George Bush has done to the
middle class is wrong. And, unfortunately, what
Howard Dean wants to do is wrong for our
middle class families as well.’…Dean and U.S.
Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) have said the
tax cuts must be repealed in order to give Americans
better health care and other social programs.
Dean has also said he wants to use the savings
from the cuts to eliminate the gaping budget
deficit. Trying to upstage Dean's plan for a
major tax address planned for today at St. Anselm's,
Kerry took Dean and Gephardt to task in The
Union-Leader. ‘America has been suffering under
an investment deficit, a jobs deficit, a fairness
deficit; and all those deficits would be made worse
by a breakneck rush to raise the tax burden on
struggling middle class families,’ Kerry
wrote. ‘Our party should put substance ahead of
sound bites.’ But Dean said, ‘I know that
you can't repeal just the wealthy portions of the
tax cut and do all the things that Sen. Kerry
and I would like to do for the country because we
looked at that and we couldn't do it. So I would say
Sen. Kerry and I have a disagreement here and
I do not think it's worth defending the Bush tax
cut.’” (9/18/2003)
… Dean and Kerry continue to attract NH voters
while others fade – The two account for more that
50% of the vote while others all now in single
figures. Undecided 27%. Excerpt from AP report:
“Howard Dean holds a 10-point lead over John
Kerry among likely voters in the New Hampshire
primary, according to a poll that suggests the race
is tightening between the two New Englanders. Dean,
the former Vermont governor, had 31 percent in the
poll by the American Research Group of Manchester,
N.H., while Kerry, the Massachusetts senator, had 21
percent. The remaining candidates were in single
digits; 27 percent were undecided. Dean's
lead over Kerry is about half what it was in
a different New Hampshire poll late last month but
close to the 12-point difference in another poll a
week and a half ago. In the last ARG poll, in
mid-August, Dean was 7 points ahead of
Kerry, 28 percent to 21 percent. Rep. Dick
Gephardt of Missouri was at 8 percent, and Sen. Joe
Lieberman of Connecticut had 5 percent. Florida Sen.
Bob Graham, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and
retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who entered the race
Wednesday, had 2 percent, while Ohio Rep. Dennis
Kucinich and Carol Moseley Braun had 1 percent. Al
Sharpton had 0 percent. While two-thirds of
those surveyed had a positive view of Dean
and Kerry, only a third of the primary voters
had a similar opinion of Lieberman. Seven
in 10 voters are familiar with Clark, but only 22
percent had a favorable view of him, while 5 percent
were unfavorable. Forty-three percent said they
don't know enough about the retired general yet to
form an opinion. The poll of 600 likely primary
voters was taken Sept. 14-17 and had a margin of
error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.”
(9/18/2003)
… Boston Globe columnist compares Kerry to “a
poodle at a Ping-Pong match.” Under the headline
“The two minds of John Kerry,” Scot Lehigh
wrote: “So
let’s see. Just two weeks after John Kerry issued
a statement saying that no campaign shakeup loomed,
the assurance that all is fine is now apparently,
ah, inoperative. Chris Lehane, Kerry's
communications director, has now jumped ship, said
to be frustrated that Kerry sat on his hands
while Howard Dean soared by him. And last
week, Kerry distanced himself from the
controversy-dousing declaration that he planned no
changes in his team. ‘Those weren't precisely my
words,’ he told the Globe's Michael Kranish.
‘They were the words of a press release sent out.’
Apparently only utterances from the candidate
himself can be taken at face value. Of course, when
it's the senator himself speaking, the sentiments
can be awfully hard to decipher. Last Tuesday,
during the Democratic debate in Baltimore, Kerry
was asked about his vote to authorize the use of
force (or ‘to threaten the use of force,’ as
Kerry has tried to characterize it) against
Iraq. Replied the candidate: ‘If we hadn't voted the
way we voted, we would not have been able to have a
chance of going to the United Nations and stopping
the president, in effect, who already had the votes
and who was obviously asking serious questions about
whether or not the Congress was going to be there to
enforce the effort to create a threat.’ To call
that answer incoherent is to pay it a fulsome
compliment. Kerry, a close friend of John McCain,
must know that voters want someone authentic,
direct, genuine. Can he honestly imagine he is
within a country mile of meeting that standard?
With Lehane gone, there's now some talk that
Kerry may install someone to supersede campaign
manager Jim Jordan. Given the candidate's recent
performance, here's a better idea: The campaign
should find someone to supersede John Kerry. Oh, not
forever. Just until the candidate decides who he is.
And what he stands for. Maybe Teresa Heinz could
do it. She is more real and far less programmed than
her husband…Now, as I've argued before, the
senator's plight is hardly as dire as the death
spiral sometimes portrayed. Two new polls show
him narrowly leading the Democratic race nationally.
And a new Boston Globe survey in New Hampshire
reveals that the 21 point lead that Dean
supposedly held over Kerry there is really a
more manageable 12 point margin. So Kerry is
still positioned to bounce back. But to do so, he
will have to improve. Dramatically. His problem?
Seeking an office he has coveted all his life, Kerry
still can't decide how he wants to run. His
campaign is a study in duplication: Two media
consultants, two pollsters, two inner circles.
Which, in one sense, is perfect for a candidate
often of two minds. The various duplicates can
line up and debate their competing approaches -- and
Kerry can take it all in, head pivoting back and
forth like a poodle at a Ping-Pong match…If he's
to regain his footing, the senator will have to
decide what he really wants to say about Iraq. Was
his vote the right one to confront a dangerous
tyrant, as he has sometimes said? Was he misled by
faulty intelligence, as he has suggested at other
times? Was it, therefore, a mistake? It can't be
both. And he must decide when, and how, he will
take on Dean. At a time when Kerry needs
to be at his very best, his campaign looks
undisciplined, divided, and adrift. But there's an
axiom in presidential politics that's as true as it
is old: Problems in the campaign usually reflect
inadequacies in the candidate. The basic problem
here? John Kerry. The only one who can solve it?
John Kerry.” (9/18/2003)
… “Kerry hammers Bush…in Web cartoon”
– headline from this morning’s Boston Herald. Report
by the Herald’s Andrew Miga: “Desperate to blunt
rival Howard Dean's money surge, Sen. John F. Kerry
urges donors to ‘hammer’ a goofy-faced President
Bush into a trash bin in a new interactive cartoon
on his campaign Web site. Kerry, who only
launched his campaign home page last month, has been
criticized for being slow to recognize the value of
Internet fund raising, which fueled Dean's
dramatic rise over the summer. The Bay State
senator's latest fund-raising gimmick is aimed at
sparking a two-week money surge for Kerry, who
expects to raise about half of Dean's money total
for the quarter ending Sept. 30. Dean is on track to
collect at least $15 million for the third quarter.
Kerry's Web site, utilizing carnival-style
imagery, allows donors to click on a hammer that
sends a caricature of Bush toppling haplessly from a
White House perched atop a pole into a trash can
labeled ‘History.’ A headline reads: ‘Hammer Bush
out of the White House.’ The animated site
portrays Bush as beholden to well-heeled and
powerful special interests. Kerry last night shared
the stage at a New York City event with rock
musician Moby, part of the senator's fund-raising
push.” (9/19/2003)
… Fire Fighters union to endorse Kerry
because their leaders believe he’s most electable
Dem wannabe. New York Times report says the
endorsement is “bound to hurt” Gephardt’s bid for
AFL-CIO endorsement. Excerpt from Times coverage
by Steven Greenhouse: “The International
Association of Fire Fighters will endorse Senator
John Kerry for president next week, union officials
said yesterday, making it the first union to endorse
a Democratic presidential candidate other than
Representative Richard A. Gephardt. Harold
Schaitberger, the firefighters' president, declined
to discuss his union's plans, but labor leaders
who have talked with him said the union would back
Mr. Kerry because its leaders thought the senator
was the most electable Democrat. The firefighters'
endorsement, which is expected to be announced on
Wednesday in Washington, is bound to hurt Mr.
Gephardt's efforts to win the coveted endorsement of
the A.F.L.-C.I.O., union leaders said. In an
interview on Wednesday, John J. Sweeney, president
of the labor federation, said Mr. Gephardt did
not yet have the two-thirds support needed for the
A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s endorsement when its leaders
meet on Oct. 14 in Washington. But Mr. Sweeney,
who voiced enthusiasm about Mr. Gephardt, said it
was still possible that Mr. Gephardt could gain the
two-thirds backing by the meeting. He said as
many as 30 unions might endorse Mr. Gephardt
by that date, more than double the 12, including the
machinists and steelworkers, that have already done
so. From the start, Mr. Gephardt's strategists
have pushed hard for the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s
endorsement, knowing that he has been a faithful
friend of labor and that such an endorsement could
give him a leg up in the Iowa caucuses and the New
Hampshire primary. Labor leaders said Mr.
Schaitberger had questioned Mr. Gephardt's
electability and planned to campaign all-out for
Mr. Kerry. In two weeks, these labor leaders
said, Mr. Schaitberger, whose union has 260,000
members and is the largest for firefighters, plans
to appear with Mr. Kerry in New Hampshire,
the first primary state, alongside hundreds of
firefighters. The firefighters' message could
carry more weight than that of many far larger labor
unions because its members carry a special stature
since the Sept. 11 attacks, when 343 firefighters
died at the World Trade Center.” (9/19/2003)
… New topic emerges in Dean-Kerry
conflict: Baseball. Headline on today’s report
by David R. Guarino in today’s Boston Herald: “Dean
cries foul” The report datelined from
Londonderry, NH: “It's apparently not enough that
John F. Kerry and Howard Dean are going at it like
the Yankees and the Red Sox. Now they're at each
other's throats over the famed Bronx-Beantown
rivals. Dean, a New Yorker by birth,
told the Herald yesterday he's steaming mad that a
Kerry aide labeled him a Yankee-lover.
‘The biggest insult…hurled at me in the campaign is
to call me a Yankee fan,’ Dean said. But the
former Vermont governor insists he bleeds Yawkey red
-- though, when pressed, he admitted he executed the
ultimate baseball flip-flop only of late. ‘I was a
Yankee fan when I was growing up -- in New York, you
had to,’ said Dean, who moved to Vermont in
1978. But he said he switched sides after being
‘mad’ at Yankee owner George Steinbrenner and said
‘when (Roger) Clemens beaned (New York Met) Mike
Piazza, that was it.’ But that just happened in
2000, prompting howls from Kerry's camp. ‘Of
all of Howard Dean's waffling and flip-flops, this
is the most indefensible,’ said Kerry
spokeswoman Kelley Benander. ‘Obviously, being a
Yankees fan was great until he thought about running
in the New Hampshire primary.’” (9/19/2003)
… Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – who’s been attacked in
past in Iowa for his environmental policies –
endorses Kerry’s candidacy. AP report in this
morning’s The Union Leader – an excerpt: “Massachusetts
Sen. John Kerry on Thursday received an endorsement
for his presidential bid from environmentalist
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who slammed the Bush
administration while lauding Kerry's environmental
efforts. ‘There is certainly nobody who is
running for president today who has a better
environmental record than John Kerry,’
Kennedy said, citing the Democratic senator's work
against acid rain and for higher fuel efficiency
standards. Kerry traced his interest in the
environment to his mother, who started taking him
for walks when he was a child. He decried those
who said environmental protection came at the
expense of jobs and economic prosperity. ‘I intend
to be a president who makes it clear to Americans
that protecting the environment is jobs and it is
the future of our country and most importantly the
legacy of our generation,’ he said. ‘We are the
stewards, and we are at risk of being the first
generation in American history to pass this place
off in worse shape than we were handed it by our
parents.’ Kerry took aim at the Bush
administration's stance on environmental issues and
joined those calling for an investigation after an
internal report from the Environmental Protection
Agency said the agency, at the urging of White House
officials, gave misleading assurances there was no
health risk from the dust in the air after the
collapse of the World Trade Center towers on Sept.
11, 2001. ‘New Yorkers displayed enough courage
that day to be told the truth about the air they
were breathing,’ Kerry said, speaking at Pace
University, near City Hall and just a few blocks
from ground zero. He said he called ‘for an
immediate investigation in both Congress and the
Department of Justice on whether environmental
health was compromised because of White House
interference.’” (9/19/2003)
… Kerry says Dean’s campaign bubble is
bursting. Headline from this morning’s New York
Times: “Kerry Says Dean Is ‘Imploding’” From
report by the Times’ Michael Janofsky: “Senator
John Kerry of Massachusetts (Friday) sharply
criticized one of the other leading Democrats
running for president, Howard Dean, asserting that
some of his recent pronouncements show that his
‘bubble's bursting a bit.’ Referring to
statements by Dr. Dean, the former governor
of Vermont, on the Middle East, the Hamas guerrillas
and other issues, Mr. Kerry said, ‘You
can't make 15 gaffes a week and be president.’
Mr. Kerry's remarks came near the end of an
interview on WCBS-TV in New York when the camera had
turned away from Mr. Kerry, who was still
wearing a microphone. Mr. Dean's campaign
manager, Joe Trippi, seemed mildly amused by the
interview. ‘I guess we're just on his mind a lot,’
Mr. Trippi said, pointing to another episode,
the recent debate in Baltimore, when a microphone
picked up Mr. Kerry muttering, ‘Dean.
Dean. Dean. Dean. Dean.’ In the WCBS interview,
Mr. Kerry implied that many of Dr. Dean's
views would cost him his standing in the polls.
‘Dean's been imploding,’ he said. Asked what he
meant, Mr. Kerry said Dr. Dean had asserted that
the United States should not take sides in the
Middle East conflict and that suicide bombers from
Hamas were ‘soldiers.’ Mr. Kerry called
those positions ‘dead wrong.’…’It just catches up,’
Mr. Kerry said. ‘Someone's going to write it.
People will see it. And you know, the poll numbers
are going to show it.’” (9/20/2003)
… “Kerry says Bush sold out true conservatives”
– headline from this morning’s New Hampshire Sunday
News. Excerpt from coverage from Keene by News
correspondent Stephen Seitz: “A crowd of about
150 greeted U.S. Sen. John Kerry as he brought his
campaign for President back to New Hampshire
yesterday. ‘I stand before you as one of 10
Democratic candidates for President. These are the
only jobs that George W. Bush has created,’ Kerry
said. The talk soon became more serious as Kerry
outlined the case for making him President and
answered audience questions. ‘On every single
voting issue, George Bush has taken this country in
the wrong direction,’ the Massachusetts senator
said. ‘I intend to reverse it. It will take a new
President to create jobs, improve health care, clean
up the environment, and restore America’s position
in the world.’ Claiming that 3.1 million jobs have
been lost during the Bush administration, Kerry
said he’d clean up the tax code to prevent further
erosion. ‘The tax code used to be 14 pages,’ he
said. ‘Now, it’s 17,000 pages. Do you have your own
page? No, but plenty of industries do. I will go
through every page of that tax code and close every
loophole that allows a company to leave Keene, take
$400,000 off the tax rolls, and move its jobs to
Bermuda.’ At one point, Kerry also accused the
administration of selling out traditional
conservative Republicans in favor of an extreme
right-wing agenda. ‘There is nothing conservative
about driving the deficit up as high as the eye can
see,’ said Kerry. ‘Traditional conservatives don’t
want to erase the dividing line between church and
state. That’s not the direction to take for our
country.’ Several in the audience wanted to know
what Kerry’s Iraq policy would be. The
senator replied that restoring American prestige in
the world would be one of the toughest parts of a
successful Iraq policy, and that a new President
would be needed to do it. ‘When I am President, I
will go to the United Nations,’ Kerry said.
‘I will stand in that well, where so many great
initiatives, like the non-proliferation treaty,
began, and I will pledge a new chapter in America’s
relationships with the world.’ President Bush
should have brought in allies before the war, rather
than offending them and going it alone. ‘Now the
President has to go to them hat in hand to Jacques
Chirac, to Germany, even Chile and Mexico, the whole
host of countries he’s alienated and convince them,’
Kerry said.”
(9/21/2003)
… “Problems for John Kerry” – headline on
editorial in this morning’s Washington Times.
Excerpt: “The presidential campaign of Democratic
Sen. John F. Kerry, the Boston Brahmin who once
fancied himself as the heir apparent to JFK's
political legacy, had a mixed week. Winning the
endorsement of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the most
popular politician in California, was good news for
the foundering campaign. Part of the bad news was
the entry of retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who
now doubles the number of wounded Vietnam War heroes
in the Democratic field, effectively eliminating
Mr. Kerry's monopoly of the one area that he
has heretofore exploited. In what may signal the
beginning of a campaign implosion, Chris Lehane, who
served as Mr. Kerry's communications director,
resigned last week. Mr. Lehane, who directed the
Clinton White House's pit-bull communications
operations during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and
served as press secretary for Al Gore's
ill-fated 2000 presidential campaign, reportedly
urged Mr. Kerry to more aggressively
counterattack Howard Dean's campaign for the
Democratic nomination. A Zogby poll in New
Hampshire illustrates Mr. Kerry's problem. By
late August, Mr. Kerry's 13-point February
advantage (26-13) over Mr. Dean had turned
into a 21-point deficit (38-17). Unless
corrective action is taken soon, Mrs. Feinstein's
endorsement may prove to be meaningless. Meanwhile,
money has been flowing into the campaign coffers of
Mr. Dean, who raised $7.6 million in the
second quarter, compared to Mr. Kerry's $5.8
million. (The Dean campaign fully expects to
reach its goal of $10.3 million for the third
quarter. In fact, unless it shatters it, it will
fail to meet the expectations it has set.) Imitating
New Hampshire poll data, second-quarter fund-raising
figures represented a massive reversal of fortune
for Mr. Kerry, who, during the first quarter,
raised more than $7.5 million while Mr. Dean
pocketed less than $3 million. Speaking of
fortune, the political strategists are busy devising
scenarios about how an increasingly desperate Mr.
Kerry could get his hands on his wife's $550 million
Heinz-ketchup inheritance. According to the
consensus interpretation of campaign-finance law,
Teresa Heinz Kerry is limited to contributing $2,000
to her husband's campaign…In June, the Kerry
campaign told the Associated Press that it had
concluded that the Massachusetts senator could not
legally use any of his wife's fortune for his
presidential race. Today, there is speculation
that Mrs. Kerry may try to transfer Heinz trust
assets into a joint account, half of which he could
divert to his campaign. Such an action would
certainly be challenged in court by his competitors.
Another possible loophole would be an
‘independent expenditure’ campaign waged by his wife,
who in the past has indicated she would open her
coffers if she felt she and the senator had come
under personal attack. With donations gushing in,
the Dean campaign has been considering forgoing
matching funds during the primaries, a strategic
decision that would allow it to spend far more than
the $44.6 million limit that comes with matching
funds. Amid the possibility that Mr. Kerry's
third-quarter fund-raising might be about half of
the Dean campaign's take, Mr. Kerry
last week unloaded in an interview with the Boston
Globe, which described his demeanor as bristly. ‘If
Howard Dean decides to live outside [the
federal spending cap], I'm not going to wait an
instant,’ Mr. Kerry told the Globe.
‘Decision's made. I'll go outside. Absolutely. I'm
not going to disarm.’ Asked if he would use personal
funds, Mr. Kerry replied, ‘Whatever's legal
under the law.’ If his foundering campaign tries to
take the loophole route, the self-styled
campaign-reform advocate will surely find himself in
court. Unlike his political hero -- JFK, whose 1960
campaign was financed by his father's bootlegging
fortune -- at least Mr. Kerry can take solace
in the fact that ketchup is less unseemly. On
second thought, there is something delicious about a
Boston Brahmin desperately clinging to his wife's
ketchup dough to bankroll his political dreams.”
(9/21/2003)
… For former wannabe prospect Biden the
choices appear to be Clark or Kerry, but Hillary
gets solid mention too. From AP’s roundup of the
weekend Sunday morning shows: “Sen. Joseph
Biden, a former Democratic presidential candidate,
says he's leaning this year toward supporting his
Senate colleague John Kerry or the newcomer, retired
Gen. Wesley Clark. He reserved most of his praise,
however, for a candidate who's not running: Hillary
Clinton. ‘One of the smartest people I know’ was
Biden's reaction when the New York senator's name
came up on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ ‘She's a very
powerful figure in our party. She's very well-liked,
and she's very, very smart.’ But she and those
around her insist she does not plan to run, and she
has pledged to serve in the Senate at least until
her term expires in 2006. So, Biden said, ‘The
two people I'm most inclined to support are Kerry or
Clark.’ Kerry, from Massachusetts, was an
early entrant in the campaign. Clark, from
Arkansas, former supreme commander of NATO and a
friend of former President Clinton and his wife, the
senator, announced his candidacy only last week.
But, Biden was asked, what if Mrs. Clinton should
decide after all to run in 2004? ‘Look, this is one
of the few people in all of America who's known by
every single American,’ Biden said. ‘The good news
is the bad news: Everybody has an opinion.’
Biden, D-Del., ran for president in 1987 but ended
his campaign before the primary season began because
of allegations that some information in his
biography and resume were plagiarized. The eventual
nominee, Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, lost
badly to the first President Bush.” (9/22/2003)
… “Famous Names Join With Kerry” –
subhead from Michael Janofsky’s column in
yesterday’s New York Times. “With the hot
candidate Dr. Dean and the maybe-hot candidate
Wesley K. Clark to contend with, Senator John Kerry
(formerly hot) scrambled last week for high-profile
endorsements to electrify his campaign. He
managed to persuade three big names to make their
way into his corner: Senator Dianne Feinstein of
California; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of Senator
Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts; and Claudia
Kennedy, the retired lieutenant general who was the
highest-ranking woman in the United States Army.
Ms. Feinstein's endorsement brings Mr. Kerry's level
of support on Capitol Hill to 17 lawmakers. Not bad.
But he still trails Representative Gephardt, who is
the leader in Congressional endorsements, with 31.”
(9/22/2003)
… South Carolina envisions major role –
and possible Dean meltdown – in first-in-the South
primary. Political handicapper Larry Sabato says
Gephardt or Kerry could slow Dean’s charge by early
February primary. Excerpt from column yesterday
by veteran political reporter Lee Bandy in The State
of Columbia: “Joe Lieberman of Connecticut has
called South Carolina his ‘turnaround state.’ John
Edwards of North Carolina has made it a ‘must-win’
state for him. And John Kerry of Massachusetts, for
insurance purposes, has started building a
‘firewall’ here. The other seven aren't saying
much. But it matters not. South Carolina is going to
be a make-or-break state for whoever is left in the
Democratic presidential race following the Jan. 27
New Hampshire primary. That could be as many as
five -- or as few as three. ‘It's going to be a
death struggle in South Carolina,’ says Rice
University political scientist Earl Black. No matter
how one slices it, the Palmetto State will have a
major say in the selection of the Democrat to oppose
President Bush in 2004. Some go so far as to
suggest that S.C. voters will pick the nominee. They
just might. ‘South Carolina will be the defining
moment of the primary season,’ says former state
Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian. South
Carolina's Feb. 3 primary is an important early test
because it's the first in the South, the first with
a significant black population, and it comes just
four days before the Michigan caucuses, the first
major industrial state test of the primary season.
It also could be the first stumbling block for
former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has been
leading the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, but is
back with the pack in South Carolina. After
South Carolina's Feb. 3 primary, Harpootlian expects
the field to be narrowed to two candidates. ‘We'll
pick the next president of the United States,’
Harpootlian says. Right now, the contest is wide
open. Recent polls show Edwards leading
in the Carolinas, but it's not anything to write
home about. A Sept. 2-3 survey taken by Zogby
International had him out front with 10 percent of
the vote. But the most telling statistic from that
poll -- and many like it -- is this: 46 percent
undecided. ‘This campaign is not even on the radar
screen in South Carolina,’ Zogby notes. ‘Nobody
has the edge, and it looks like South Carolina will
be shaped by Iowa and New Hampshire.’ In this
kind of vacuum, he says, retired Army Gen. Wesley
Clark could seize the moderate mantle…Black
says whoever wins New Hampshire will have a huge
head of steam coming into South Carolina. ‘Right
now, that looks like Dean,’ he says.
University of Virginia analyst Larry Sabato says the
electricity surrounding Dean is so intense it
will take a major break for another candidate to
snatch the prize from him. Who can stop him? Most
likely, Sabato suggests, it will be the
‘steady-if-boring’ Dick Gephardt or the
‘heroic-if-aloof’ Kerry. Lieberman is too
conservative to get the nomination, he says.
Edwards' challenge ‘is to convince Democrats
that he has got the experience and wherewithal to be
president,’ says Winthrop University professor Scott
Huffmon. Right now, there is no consensus
candidate.” (9/22/2003)
…
Kerry, in tough fight with Dean for New
Hampshire, nets key campaign leader: Ex-Guv Shaheen.
Headline this morning on FOXNews.com: “Former N.
H. Governor to Chair Kerry Campaign” Coverage by
AP’s Holly Ramer from Manchester: “Former New
Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen was named national
chairwoman of Democrat John Kerry's presidential
campaign Tuesday. Shaheen, the most sought-after
Democrat in the state, had steered clear of the
presidential race to focus on teaching. Her
endorsement of the Massachusetts senator was no
surprise given that her husband, Bill Shaheen, is
running Kerry's New Hampshire campaign. But the
timing was unexpected since Shaheen had agreed to
moderate four candidate forums next month. The
announcement also came shortly before Kerry's
top rival in New Hampshire, Howard Dean, was
speaking in Boston -- Kerry's turf. Dean
maintains a double-digit lead over Kerry in state
polls. Shaheen shattered the glass ceiling in
1996 when she was elected New Hampshire's first
female governor and its first Democrat in 16 years.
She made it onto Al Gore's short list of
potential White House running mates in 2000. And
last year, she came close to being the first
Democrat elected to the Senate from New Hampshire in
nearly three decades. After losing the Senate race
in November to Republican John E. Sununu by about
20,000 votes, Shaheen spent the spring semester
teaching at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Shaheen, 56, was born in St. Charles, Mo., and grew
up in a Republican family. She and her husband
settled in New Hampshire in 1973, and three years
later she worked on Jimmy Carter's winning campaign
for president. In 1984, she helped Colorado Sen.
Gary Hart score a primary upset of front-runner
Walter Mondale.” (9/23/2003)
… Kerry turns up the heat – again – on Dean,
charges the ex-guv of playing on the fears of
workers. Headline from this morning’s New York
Times: “Kerry Attacks Rival Dean Over
Protectionism” Excerpt from report by the Times’
David M. Halbfinger: “Ratcheting up his attacks
on his Democratic presidential rivals, Senator John
Kerry of Massachusetts yesterday accused former Gov.
Howard Dean of Vermont of playing on the fears of
workers and supporting protectionist trade policies
that ‘would send our economy into a tailspin.’
Speaking in Detroit, Mr. Kerry said that Dr.
Dean and Representative Richard A.
Gephardt of Missouri, who have staked out
traditional pro-labor positions on trade, were
pandering to unions and advocating a ‘retreat from
the global economy.’ But Mr. Kerry saved his
harshest words for Dr. Dean, aiming at what has been
a main thrust of his opponent's appeal to core
Democratic voters, tapping into a wellspring of rage
at the Bush administration. ‘Anger and attacks
are all well and good,’ Mr. Kerry said. ‘But
when it comes to our jobs, we need a president who
can build a barn, and not just kick it down.’…’Governor
Dean has said repeatedly that America should not
trade with countries that haven't reached our own
environmental and labor standards,’ Mr. Kerry
told the Detroit Economic Club. ‘I will assure
strong labor and environmental standards. But his
approach would mean we couldn't sell a single car
anywhere in the developing world.’ Mr. Kerry's
speech illuminated a quandary facing the Democratic
hopefuls on trade: how to attack the president for
losses in manufacturing employment, given that many
of those positions have been lost to trading
partners, without abandoning the Clinton
administration's support for open markets. Mr.
Kerry's solution, it seems, was to rail
against President Bush for failing to enforce the
trade standards on the books, much as opponents of
gun-control laws say they prefer to enforce existing
laws. Mr. Kerry promised to open export markets
in Japan and China and to require competitor nations
to lower tariffs along with the United States.
‘Given this administration's inaction, American
manufacturers can be excused for feeling like
economic roadkill,’ he said, accusing the president
of ‘sitting on his hands’ as America is abused by
its trading partners. ‘How many jobs do we have to
lose until this administration stops waiting?’”
(9/23/2003)
 September
1-15, 2003
September
16-23, 2003
September
24-30, 2003
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