Once written off as a has-been, Gephardt shows new strength
By Steven Thomma
Knight Ridder Newspapers
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Rep. Richard Gephardt, who's running for president again years after a failed bid in 1988, is in a surprisingly strong position to compete for the Democratic nomination.
In Iowa, where the voting will start next Jan. 19, Gephardt holds an early lead.
In New Hampshire, which votes second, on Jan. 27, he is mixing it up with three New Englanders and is tied for third with Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut behind former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
In South Carolina, the site of the first Southern contest, on Feb. 3, he is second. Most importantly there, where 40 percent of the vote could come from African Americans, he has the support of a majority of the state's black mayors and could enjoy a dramatic preprimary endorsement from U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, the state's dominant black politician.
Four days later, the voting moves to Michigan, where Gephardt's long opposition to free trade has endeared him to industrial union members who blame trade for shipping jobs to other countries. Four unions already have endorsed Gephardt, who boasts, "you're going to see lots more coming."
For a 62-year-old longtime lawmaker from Missouri who was widely written off as a has-been just last year, Gephardt looks strikingly formidable. How did he do it? By careful organization, hard work and in no small part by reinventing himself, or at least how he presents himself.
For 26 years, Gephardt has been a man of the House; now he is running away from home. The House of Representatives is a historically poor springboard to the White House; only one American has ever gone directly to the presidency from it, James Garfield in 1880.
Late last year Gephardt stepped down as the leader of House Democrats after failing for the fourth straight time to lead them to victory in November's elections. Then he started campaigning almost full time for president; at last count, he had missed 88 percent of this year's House roll-call votes.
Crucially, he changed his language along the way, dropping the legi-speak of Congress in favor of telling personal stories about himself and his family. He hopes that illustrates deeper values and connects better to ordinary Americans than discussions of abstract policy debates.
The result is a more relaxed Gephardt than the often-frustrated man who led a splintered minority party in the House from 1995 to 2002. He's now liberated from the demands of 200 House colleagues with competing interests, free to propose bold initiatives such as his plan for universal health insurance.
"He's clearly relieved to be away from the leadership duties," said Mike Erlandson, the chair of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota and a former House aide.
One recent day on the campaign trail in Manchester, N.H., Gephardt took a break after meeting with teachers and pupils at a middle school to talk about his decision to turn his focus away from the House.
"The election is out here," he said. "I'm going to win the nomination by winning primaries. The way you get the nomination is you do well enough in primaries and caucuses and you have more delegates than anyone else."
He still returns to Washington for close votes, he said; many of his missed votes - tallied by Republicans - are on routine matters. Regardless, he added, his constituents understand: "The people in St. Louis know I've done a good job for them. They know I'm running for president."
Gephardt wants other Americans to know why he is running as well.
Criticized as a House leader for failing to frame an alternative to the Republican agenda, Gephardt now offers ambitious proposals: Repeal most of President Bush's tax cuts, provide universal health insurance, pay college loans for teachers and conserve energy.
"I'm going to give people real choices," he said.
But he adds, "It's more than just the issues and the message. It's the human being. I'm talking a lot about who I am and where I come from."
He mentions his marriage of 37 years. He speaks of how his son survived cancer to illustrate the need for health insurance. He tells how his daughter sacrificed big paychecks to become a teacher, explaining his plan to help teachers.
He talks about his dad, a milk-truck driver, and his mom, who died just weeks ago. He mentions how they struggled to save for his college education, and how he relied on them for help and also on a church scholarship and on government programs.
"I will try to decide issues on what would have been good for people like my parents," he told a New Hampshire audience.
Not everyone buys the new Gephardt, of course.
He has won the support of just 31 House colleagues so far, half what he had in 1988, though he predicts there will be more. And many rank-and-file Democrats still think he looks like old news and a loser against Bush.
"He's been around too long," Patricia Scott, an Iowa retiree, said at a recent union meeting.
"I like his health-care proposal," Thomas Warzel of Buffalo, N.Y., a power plant engineer, said at the same meeting. "But I just don't know if he's electable."
But some think Gephardt has found the right blend of Democratic issues, Midwest values and plain speaking to take on Bush.
"Bush won because he was likable. People felt they could have a cup of coffee with him," said Gaetan Digangi, an electrical-supply salesman from Merrimack, N.H. "Gephardt is grounded. He's as American as the day is long."
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