Democrat Clark, in Iowa, Calls for New U.S. Vision
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By John Whitesides
Political Correspondent
Mon October 6, 2003 10:06 PM ET
asia.reuters.com
FORT DODGE, Iowa (Reuters) - Presidential hopeful Wesley Clark plunged into grass roots politics in Iowa on Monday, defending his Democratic credentials to party activists, slamming President Bush's policies and promising he can win the White House.
Clark, who entered the Democratic presidential race less than three weeks ago, promised a new vision for America's role in the world and said he would rebuild international respect for the United States that has been shattered by the war in Iraq.
"It's really hard to change people's minds when you're dropping bombs on them," Clark said while taking more than an hour of questions from likely participants in Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses next January.
Clark blasted Bush for rushing to war in Iraq without reason, and answered a range of questions on health care, abortion, trade, and other domestic issues during the last of a series of town hall-style forums with the Democratic presidential candidates, sponsored by Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin.
Confronted by one activist who asked if Clark, who has admitted voting for Republcian presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, was "really a Republican disguised as a Democrat," Clark said he was proud to be a Democrat.
"It's not about how long you've been in the party, it's about what you believe," he said. "We're going to appeal not only to Democrats, but independents and Republicans."
Speaking at Iowa Central Community College as Florida Sen. Bob Graham announced he was dropping out of the race, leaving nine Democrats in the field of challengers to Bush, Clark mentioned his recent jump in national polls.
With some polls showing him moving into the top tier of Democratic candidates and even beating Bush in one head-to-head matchup, Clark said the president was getting nervous.
"I guess he's wearing his flight suit to bed at night," he said, quoting the Doonesbury comic strip that made reference to Bush's landing on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit in May to celebrate what he said was the end of major combat in Iraq.
Clark said Bush's economic policies were "heartless, reckless and wrong" and touted his $100 billion economic plan, which would repeal Bush's tax cuts for those making more than $200,000 a year and put the money into homeland security, relief for state governments and business tax incentives.
Clark said he favored improvements in the North American Free Trade Agreement and said he would not approve any new trade agreement that did not require U.S. partners to meet at least international labor and environmental standards.
"There is a smarter and a better way to do it than what emerged in the 1990s with NAFTA," he said of U.S. trade agreements, saying the nation cannot open markets "willy nilly" without facing more job losses.
In response to another question, Clark said he had studied the issue of abortion and prayed about it, and supported a woman's right to choose an abortion. "It's a decision the woman has to make ... it's her choice," he said.
Earlier in the day, Clark worked his way through the lunch crowd at a diner near Drake University in Des Moines and met with Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. He planned to head to Oklahoma for a campaign event in Tulsa on Tuesday. |
