Democrats ignore Bush, now go after one another
Presidential candidates shift campaign focus in televised debate
TIM FUNK
Observer Washington Bureau
NEW YORK - After a string of debates in which they mostly ganged up on President Bush's record, the Democratic candidates for president went after each other Thursday night in a face-off that signaled a shift in the tone of the campaign and highlighted differences over middle-class tax cuts, trade policy and health-care funding.
The nationally televised debate, co-sponsored by CNBC and The Wall Street Journal, also gave voters and the other Democrats their first look at Wesley Clark in action. The retired Army general, who recently became the 10th contender for the chance to challenge Bush, was largely ignored by the others standing with him on the stage at Pace University in lower Manhattan. But at least twice, reporters on the panel posing the questions insisted on following up after Clark gave what they considered vague, generic answers.
Though Clark has rocketed to the head of the pack in some national polls, it was former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean -- the leader in Iowa and New Hampshire -- who took most of the fire during the debate.
Dean often returned the criticism with charges of his own, but did express frustration at one point by reminding the others that "we need to remember that the enemy here is George Bush, not each other."
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who is battling Dean for a must win in neighboring New Hampshire, charged him with pandering to some activists by suggesting he wouldn't sign trade agreements with countries that don't have the same labor and environmental safeguards as the United States.
"That means we would trade with no countries," Kerry said. "It's either a policy for shutting the door, if you believe it, or it's a policy of just telling people what they want to hear."
Kerry and others also criticized Dean and Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., for saying they would repeal Bush's middle-class tax cuts. Gephardt wants to use the money to bankroll his expensive plan to provide health care for all; Dean says the tax cuts for the middle class have been a pittance compared to the increases they've faced in tuition costs and local property taxes -- expenses he tied to the sour economy and growing federal deficit.
That brought a sharp rebuke from Kerry: "I think Gov. Dean is absolutely wrong, and he's wrong on his facts."
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., also took aim at Dean and Gephardt on the tax issue, though the first-term senator mostly managed to stay out of the televised fray and warned the others that "we really need to be careful that our anger is not directed at each other."
Still, he offered his own criticism: "I'd say to Gov. Dean and Dick Gephardt -- I grew up in a middle-class family whose taxes they're talking about raising. For a family of four who makes about $40,000 a year -- $2,000 (in tax relief) could be used to pay a lot of bills."
Edwards wants to cut even more middle-class taxes, including those on capital gains.
Clark, of Arkansas, stayed out of the line of fire, even though he has admitted in recent days that he voted for Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan for president in the past. The general was even welcomed by the Rev. Al Sharpton in what appeared to be a slap at Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Edwards and Kerry for voting for the war in Iraq and some other Bush initiatives.
"Don't be defensive about just joining the party," Sharpton said. "It's better to be a new Democrat that's a real Democrat than a lot of the old Democrats up here that have been acting like Republicans all along."
In answering questions, Clark appeared intent on proving that he's a bona fide Democrat, taking the party's orthodox positions on everything from privatizing Social Security (he's against that) to repealing tax cuts for the rich (he favors that).
"I am pro-choice, I am pro-affirmative action, I'm pro-environment, pro-health," he said. "I believe the United States should engage with allies. And we should use force only as a last resort. That's why I'm proud to be a Democrat."
During the debate, Kerry and Edwards staffers sent reporters watching on closed-circuit TV poll results from the Edwards campaign that indicated Edwards is now way ahead in South Carolina, with 23 percent, and has risen to 10 percent in Iowa -- behind Dean (21 percent), Kerry (20 percent) and Gephardt (18 percent).
Though the president got off relatively easy Thursday night, the best sound bite of the debate was a shot at the Bush administration by Lieberman for its alleged coziness with greedy corporate interests.
"In the Bush administration, the foxes are guarding the foxes and the middle-class hens are getting plucked."
Then, after the audience groaned and laughed, he added: "I want to make clear I said plucked."
Also participating in the debate were former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.
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