I love it. We won't have to do a thing. They'll tear each other apart.
Kerry rises in polls — and as a target
Front-runner sees surge in donations, and attacks from foesMSNBC News Services
Updated: 1:43 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2004COLUMBIA, S.C. - With polls giving him healthy leads in two big states that vote next week and fresh campaign cash flowing in, front-runner Sen. John Kerry also finds himself on the receiving end of new attacks from his rivals in the Democratic presidential race.
As the candidates tuned up for a final frenzied weekend of campaigning before next Tuesday’s seven-state contest that will put 269 delegates on the line, there were these developments:
An MSNBC/Reuters Zogby tracking poll released Friday morning showed Kerry with a 45-11 percent lead over his next closest rival, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. In Arizona, Kerry has taken a 38-17 percent lead over retired Gen. Wesley Clark. The two states have a combined 129 delegates. Kerry is in a statistical tie with Edwards in South Carolina and No. 2 in Oklahoma, where Clark leads.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s record campaign fund has dropped from $41 million to around $5 million, forcing him to cut costs as Kerry’s fund-raising fortunes rise. And while contributions to Dean have dropped dramatically, Kerry raised more than $500,000 over the Internet in the two days since his New Hampshire victory Tuesday night. And he has raised more than $1.6 million online since winning in Iowa Jan. 19.
Picking up on a question from Thursday night’s debate in South Carolina, Clark on Friday lambasted Kerry for failing to take responsibility for comments he said Kerry made about affirmative action.
Clark’s criticism is part of shift in the race since Kerry took front-runner status away from Dean following his early victories: His rivals are concentrating their attacks on the Massachusetts senator.
Indeed, Kerry took a jab from Dean in Thursday’s debate and was called on to explain a remark that suggested he might ignore the South. Meanwhile, Dean, the target of his rivals in more fiery debates when he led in polls before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, was left alone. Instead, the former Vermont governor turned the tables, noting pointedly that “Senator Kerry is the front-runner.”
And while saying, “I mean him no insult,” Dean challenged Kerry’s effectiveness in the Senate, where he has served for nearly two decades, claiming that of 11 bills Kerry introduced on health care, “not one” had passed.
“If you want a president who is going to get results, I suggest that you look at somebody who did get results in my state,” Dean said.
Kerry retorted: “One of the things you need to know as a president is how things work in Congress, if you want to get things done.”
DELEGATES WON TO DATE
left Candidate New Hampshire To date*
Dean 9 114
Kerry 13 98
Edwards 0 39
Clark 0 30
Lieberman 0 25
Sharpton 0 4
Kucinich 0 2
Gephardt 0 7
*Includes unpledged dels. 2162 needed to win.
On Friday, Clark scolded Kerry on the affirmative action issue, which arose Thursday when debate moderator Tom Brokaw of NBC News asked Kerry about reservations he said the senator had expressed in the 1990s concerning affirmative action programs. Brokaw quoted Kerry as having described the policy as representing a culture of dependency.
Kerry responded that he had been describing what critics of affirmative action had said and then contended he had agreed with President Clinton and others who wanted to “mend it, not end it.”
That wasn’t good enough for Clark. “When you make a mistake, you ought to fess up to it, take responsibility for it, and correct it,” Clark said Friday while visiting historically black Benedict College. “We need leadership that will take responsibility in this country, and I’m very disturbed that John did not do that.
Kerry also took heat Thursday from Edwards, a South Carolina native who has called the contest there a “must-win” race for him and derided Kerry’s suggestion that a Democrat could win the White House without Southern states.
Also Friday, six of the candidates heard gut-wrenching stories of a son killed in Iraq and health care benefits denied to a dying relative, promising South Carolina voters they will reverse President Bush’s policies if sent to the White House.
Using an emotional forum to question each others’ credentials, the candidates said America needs improved race relations as well as better education, health care and economic policies.
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“It’s one thing for people to come in front of you and talk about poverty,” Edwards told his home-state crowd. “It’s a different thing to talk about poverty every time you speak, everywhere in America, which is what I do.”
He and the other candidates spoke at the session moderated by nationally syndicated radio host Tom Joyner, whose show is broadcast in 115 markets, predominantly in black and urban areas. Local families posed questions to the candidates, along with Joyner who read questions submitted by e-mail.
Dean hit back at Edwards, suggesting that his five terms as Vermont’s governor trump his rivals’ service in Congress. “Luckily, I’m a governor so I get to tell you what I’ve already done, not just what I’m going to do,” said Dean, whose state is mostly white and whose poverty level is below the national average.
He pledged to enact policies that would eliminate poverty among children by 2010 and wipe it out in America by 2020.
• On the campaign trail
See the long hours, frozen smiles and lighter moments of candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
Blacks make up about half of Democratic voters here, a prime target for Al Sharpton.
“I’m the only one who has been a civil rights activist in this race,” said Sharpton, the race’s only black. “The rest of these people talked about what should be done. I did something about it. I put myself on the line.”
Kerry tried to connect with the audience by reflecting on his service in the Vietnam War.
“Most of the kids I was with in Vietnam came out of the South side of Chicago, South-central Los Angeles or the barrio or elsewhere,” he said. “They weren’t the kids from the university that I went to.”
To a woman sobbing over her family’s dire health care straits, Clark said, “These are cutbacks coming because George W. Bush cut taxes for wealthy people, took revenue sources from states, and states are cutting back on Medicaid.”
The candidates heard heart-wrenching personal stories. Edwards consoled a woman, Elaine Johnson, whose son died in Iraq. Taking her hand, the first-term senator said, “God bless you, ma’am, for what you’re going through.”
Clark dismissed Bush’s immigration plan “as a political gimmick for an election year,” but did not detail his own proposal. Bush’s proposal would give currently undocumented immigrants renewable three-year permits to work U.S. jobs.
Responding to a question from a woman who said she got out of an abusive relationship, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich told the forum that he would help change public attitudes about domestic violence by creating a national Department of Peace.
Lieberman skips forum
Sen. Joe Lieberman skipped the forum to campaign in Delaware.
South Carolina, Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma will be joined in Tuesday’s voting by Delaware, New Mexico and North Dakota. The 269 delegates at stake represent more than 12 percent of the 2,162 needed to win the nomination. Another 204 delegates will be chosen four days later, on Feb. 7, when Washington state and Michigan vote.
While Kerry, with Missouri and Arizona appearing to be locked up for him, challenges Edwards in South Carolina, Clark is focusing on Oklahoma. Dean’s campaign is already looking to Washington and Michigan, and Lieberman said Friday that a victory in Delaware would be enough to keep his campaign going even if he fails to win any other states next week.
Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich, the other two candidates in the race, are polling in the low single digits everywhere with the exception of South Carolina where Sharpton garnered 5 percent in the MSNBC/Zogby poll.
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