Voters hesitate to pick leader of pack
By THOMAS BEAUMONT
Des Moines Register Staff Writer
12/19/2003
Marlene Kelso is waiting for inspiration.
The nearly nightly phone calls from campaign staffers, not to mention 11 months of sustained campaigning by the Democratic presidential candidates, have failed to produce a clear favorite for the Keokuk Democrat.
With one month left until the Iowa caucuses launch the 2004 presidential nominating season, Kelso and a healthy-sized bloc of uncommitted party regulars await signs a winner is emerging.
"This is the first time I've not really made up my mind this close to the caucuses," said Kelso, a 60-year-old homemaker who is considering John Kerry, Dick Gephardt or Howard Dean. "I don't think I'm alone in that way of thinking. In the end, I'll support whoever I think can beat (President) Bush."
As quickly as Al Gore's endorsement last week sparked a sense of inevitability about Dean, Saddam Hussein's capture four days later revived the debate over whether the former Vermont governor has the grasp of foreign policy in the post-Sept. 11 world to be the nation's chief diplomat.
Caucus contenders who supported the war have seized on the public's increased approval of the war in the wake of the former Iraqi leader's capture as an opening to pursue Dean's narrow lead in the crowded caucus field.
Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, went on the attack in Iowa, blasting Dean's foreign policy judgment particularly after Dean said that Saddam's capture didn't make America safer. Gephardt, a Missouri congressman, also criticized Dean's statements, but spent the week away from Iowa and has been much less vocal, expecting voters to refocus on the economy by Jan. 19, caucus day. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards also disagreed with Dean, but expected domestic issues to determine the nominee.
Dean, who campaigns in eastern Iowa today, has been waging a two-front campaign, pushing a domestic policy agenda while insisting that the war in Iraq and Saddam's capture had nothing to do with the war on terrorism, which he says should be the international priority.
Mason City Democrat Peggy Boonstra grudgingly supported the war and has doubts about the planning that preceded it. But a candidate's foreign policy background or position on the war are not the chief criteria in her selection of a candidate.
"The economy is the big thing," said the 54-year-old medical office manager, who describes herself as vacillating between Kerry and Dean.
Boonstra also worries that Medicare, the federal health insurance for the elderly, won't cover the costs of her 74-year-old mother's battle with emphysema.
"I still have a job, but I look around and see other people losing their jobs. I see some of these businesses that are shutting down after all these years in Mason City and all across the nation," she said.
National political observers say Democrats are better off stressing bread-and-butter domestic issues, but acknowledge that world terrorism and the war in Iraq make this campaign season unlike past caucuses.
The war in Iraq has been the most divisive issue in the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. Dean opposed the war and has been critical of his rivals Kerry, Gephardt, Edwards and Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who voted for the resolution that authorized Bush to attack Iraq without United Nations support.
Dean's opposition to the war fueled his rise in Iowa from his standing in the single digits a year ago to his narrow lead over second-place Gephardt recently.
Successful fund raising supported by a growing Internet following made Dean a leading candidate for the nomination.
A string of favorable news stories in the recent weeks - fund-raising confidence, powerful union endorsements and, chiefly, 2000 nominee Al Gore's endorsement - spurred Dean's most recent surge, marked by $600,000 in Internet campaign donations immediately following Gore's appearance with Dean in Cedar Rapids last week.
Saddam's capture leveled off Dean's post-endorsement fund-raising spike, campaign manager Joe Trippi said.
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said that Saddam's capture is largely a blip in the race and that caucus activists will return to core domestic issues.
"The bottom line is that - Democrat or Republican - a president's first obligation is to protect our country. That's sort of a given. What's not a given is what they are going to do about a kid's education or what they can do about health care," the Iowa Democrat said. "Those are the unanswered questions that are going to form the debate, not foreign policy."
Kerry has served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for almost 19 years and has recently stoked the debate over Dean's lack of international experience as the former governor of Vermont.
Kerry questioned Dean's capacity to be commander in chief in Des Moines on Tuesday.
The renewed assault on Dean's international experience comes as Kerry is running a distant second to his fellow New Englander in New Hampshire, where the Jan. 27 primary is seen as a must-win for both. Kerry, who returns to Iowa on Saturday, has increased his presence in the state where he is running in third place and aggressively trying to cut into Dean's lead.
Storm Lake Democrat Jeanne Tinsley is concerned about Dean's scant foreign affairs experience.
"I'm concerned of him getting to Washington without a lot of knowledge," the 58-year-old Buena Vista University psychology professor said. "We haven't elected anyone in recent history who has come in with a lot of foreign policy experience or knowledge of the federal government, and I think times call for that."
Although Tinsley is considering supporting Kerry or Dean, Saddam's capture and Dean's comments Monday downplaying its significance turned her husband, Kenneth Scwheller, away from Dean.
"His big issue is the war, and while I certainly support him on his opposition to that whole thing, the more I think about it, I want a president who's going have a more statesman-like demeanor," said Schweller, who is vacillating between supporting Kerry and Gephardt.
A CBS/New York Times Poll taken in the days immediately following Saddam's capture showed support for Bush's handling of the war had risen 11 percentage points from November, to 59 percent, the highest since May.
The poll illustrates the danger Democrats face in campaigning on national security, said presidential scholar Charles Jones, a University of Wisconsin emeritus political science professor
desmoinesregister.com |
