Due to the water conditions, we had a good group of "Little surfer Girls" today. Aaaaah! Here is the "first cut" on the debate from the Times. After all, we never know what to think of these things until we read about them.
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10 Democrats, in Debate, Assail Bush on Iraq and Economy
By KIRK SEMPLE and CARLA BARANAUCKAS
The 10 Democratic presidential candidates, meeting in New York for a feisty televised debate, roundly criticized President Bush on economic policy issues yet clashed among themselves as they jockeyed to differentiate themselves in a crowded field.
The candidates, appearing at Pace University in lower Manhattan, agreed on the need to repeal President Bush's tax cuts, at least in part, and expressed uncertainty about President Bush's request for $87 billion to pay for the continuing American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Democratic hopefuls, revealed clear divisions on the issues of trade, jobs, taxes and health care.
The most heated exchange came when Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri accused Howard Dean, Vermont's former governor, of having supported Newt Gingrich on a $270 billion cut in Medicare in 1995. He snapped: "Now, you've been saying for many months that you're the head of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. I think you're just winging it."
Mr. Dean responded, his face tense with anger: "That is flat-out false, and I'm ashamed that you would compare me with Newt Gingrich. Nobody deserves to be compared to Newt Gingrich."
He continued: "To insinuate that I would get rid of Medicare is wrong, it's not helpful, and we need to remember that the enemy here is George Bush, not each other."
Senator John Edwards of North Carolina issued a plea for harmony, saying, "We need to be really careful that our anger is not directed at each other."
Today's event was the third in a series of debates leading up to the primaries and the first for Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who began his campaign eight days ago.
He has quickly emerged as a threat to the field's leading candidates, particularly Mr. Dean, and his rivals had hoped the event today would offer them a chance to impede the general's surge.
On Wednesday, two of the Democratic candidates raised questions about the retired general's Democratic credentials. Both Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and Mr. Dean wondered why General Clark, who retired from the Army, had supported Republicans like Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
But today, the debate's moderator, Brian Williams of NBC, offered General Clark an early question about his Democratic credentials.
The general responded: "I am pro-choice, I am pro-affirmative action, I'm pro-environment, pro-health. I believe the United States should engage with allies. We should be a good player in the international community. And we should use force only as a last resort. That's why I'm proud to be a Democrat."
On the question of Mr. Bush's request for $87 billion to pay for the continuing military and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the candidates were united in saying they had many questions about the request but divided over whether they would approve it.
"If George Bush rebuilds Iraq the way he rebuilds the United States," Mr. Kerry said, "they're going to lose three million jobs over the course of the next two years."
The senator said he had yet to decide on how he would vote on the appropriation request, as did General Clark. "There are dozens of questions to be asked on this." Chief among those questions, he said, was how the administration plans to pay for it.
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut said the request needed to be approved because "we have 140,000 troops there." But he criticized Mr. Bush for going to the United Nations "like a beggar."
Mr. Dean, Mr. Edwards and Senator Bob Graham of Florida also said the United States must spend whatever is needed to support the troops.
But Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio and the Rev. Al Sharpton said they did not support the appropriation for Iraq. "I say bring the troops home unequivocally," Mr. Kucinich said.
The candidates lashed out at President Bush on his economic policies. Carol Moseley Braun, a former senator from Illinois, said: "The economic policies, the trickle-down economics that this administration has given us has created a situation that we've never seen before in our memory, of embedded wealth, entrenched poverty and a shrinking middle class."
She added: "That, it seems to me, is the antithesis, the opposite of what the American dream is all about."
The outright winner of the debate may have been a man who was not even in attendance: Bill Clinton. His name was positively invoked numerous times by the candidates, several of whom sought to draw parallels between their positions and Mr. Clinton's policies as president. The flood of flattering references about Mr. Clinton prompted Mr. Sharpton to joke, "I know that within the next hour we'll say that Bill Clinton walked on water."
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