2004 Elections: Democratic Party Contenders

"We had him (Osama bin Laden) on the run in December 2001, but the administration didn’t have a plan for success, didn’t have sufficient U.S. forces on the ground to close the noose around him, and he escaped," Clark said. "The administration wants to say he’s not a threat, but today’s heightened terrorism alert ... says he still is, despite 170 some odd billion dollars and 450 lives committed in Iraq."

Kerry has mortgaged half of his home, $6.5 million, to stay in the race. If he made that kind of decision as president, he'd be making Bush like decisions.

Somebody help here.
Kerry's wife has loose change worth 6mil. What is Kerry trying to say--mortgaging his house? Was he afraid of what might be said if he took money from his moneybag...I mean wife?

Thanks, nimh.
That is so hard to believe.
Most marriages have a community pot. Funny how election standards separate a couple.

Dean had own secret energy group
Candidate criticizes Cheney task force for secrecy
Sunday, December 28, 2003 Posted: 9:12 PM EST (0212 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean has demanded release of secret deliberations of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.

But as Vermont governor, Dean had an energy task force that met in secret and angered state lawmakers.

Dean's group held one public hearing and after-the-fact volunteered the names of industry executives and liberal advocates it consulted in private, but the Vermont governor refused to open the task force's closed-door deliberations.

In 1999, Dean offered the same argument the Bush administration uses today for keeping deliberations of a policy task force secret.

"The governor needs to receive advice from time to time in closed session. As every person in government knows, sometimes you get more open discussion when it's not public," Dean was quoted as saying.

Dean's own dispute over the secrecy of a Vermont task force that devised a policy for restructuring the state's near-bankrupt electric utilities has escaped national attention, even though he has attacked a similar arrangement used by President Bush.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Dean defended his recent criticism of Cheney's task force and his demand that the administration release its private energy deliberations even though he refused to do that in Vermont.

...It seems that Dean will get the nomination. When will we know or sure?...

...The Dems are making a huge mistake by the infighting. The Neocons will fight furiously once a candidate is chosen. This is going to be a down and dirty election...

Dean starts to talk religion
Attacks GOP, vows to expand on his beliefs
By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff, 12/28/2003

WATERLOO, Iowa -- Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean peppered an attack on Republican leaders yesterday with religious references, the first showing of what he promised last week would be a broader introduction of religion into his talk on the stump.

''Let's get into a little religion here,'' Dean said at a morning meeting with voters in response to a question about his beliefs. ''Don't you think Jerry Falwell reminds you a lot more of the Pharisees than he does of the teachings of Jesus? And don't you think this campaign ought to be about evicting the money changers from the temple?''

Dean, 55, who is a Congregationalist, has run a largely secular campaign to date, rarely speaking about religion except to offer support for separation of church and state.

But in an interview last week, Dean said he planned to share his religious views on the trail more frequently, particularly as his campaign moves south into states like South Carolina, which holds its primary Feb. 3.

Yesterday, Dean said, ''So we can talk a lot about religion, and you're going to find out that there are a lot of people who are religious in this country and not every one of us feels obligated to talk about it all the time.''

In a change of practice for the campaign, the Waterloo event got underway with an invocation from a local minister, the Rev. ConGarry Williams, who was asked to speak by one of the regional organizers, according to a campaign spokesman.

At the event, Dean picked up the endorsement of US Representative Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the third highest-ranking Democrat in the House and the highest-ranking Latino in congressional history. He is Dean's 28th congressional endorsement, pulling Dean closer to rival US Representative Richard A. Gephardt's congressional endorsement tally, which stands at 34..

Meanwhile, as Dean came under blistering attack by another contender for the Democratic nomination, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, who was speaking in New Hampshire, the former Vermont governor stepped up his own rhetoric, dipping into the kind of anti-GOP lines that won him notice early in his campaign. ''Republican constituencies are not us,'' Dean said. ''They are corporations and very, very wealthy individuals.''

But he also seemed at pains to find balance between optimism and anger.

Dean has been criticized by some who say that being the ''anti-Bush'' candidate will win partisans who make up a large chunk of primary voters but will lose the support of crucial swing votes in the general election.

''We don't think there is a reason to give up,'' Dean said in answer to a question from an audience member about the tone of his message. ''This really is a campaign which is based much more on hope. Anger is part of it because I think we have a right to be angry, because our government has given us up for their corporate sponsors. But I also think this country was founded by ordinary people.''

On a day that took Dean to campaign stops across eastern Iowa, Dean used a lunchtime break to offer his thoughts about mad cow disease. At Morg's diner in Waterloo, Dean took a big bite of a hamburger, and mugging for television cameras, declared, ''I think the nation's beef supply is very safe.''

At the Waterloo event, Dean seemed primed and ready to talk about religion when an audience member pressed him to elaborate on his views. But he seemed exercised by criticism he had encountered since unveiling his plans to share his religious beliefs with voters.

Yesterday, Dean told voters in Waterloo, ''I think religion is important and spiritual values are very important, which is what this election is really about,'' before looping back to a regular line in his stump speech lamenting the loss of jobs in America.

The line that drew applause, though, was this: ''I am pretty religious. I pray every day but I'm from New England, so I just keep it to myself.''

Dean touts a 'Jesus strategy'
From combined dispatches
Dec 24, 2003


Howard B. Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination who had said little about the role of religion in politics, yesterday told the Boston Globe that he is a committed follower of Jesus Christ and suggested that this would be a winning campaign issue.
Mr. Dean said he will start mentioning God and Christ as the campaign moves into the South ...
... The 55-year-old physician, who is a member of the Congregationalist Church, said he does not attend church often, but prays daily. His wife is Jewish, and their two children adopted the Jewish faith.
Jesus is an important influence in his life, he told the Globe interviewer, and he probably will talk to voters about how Jesus has served as a "model" for him ...

... An ABC/Washington Post poll released this week showed that 46 percent of Southerners say a president should rely on his religious beliefs in making policy decisions, compared with 28 percent in the East and 40 percent in the rest of the nation. The Globe reported that Mr. Dean has talked of his religious beliefs to one black congregation in South Carolina, where about half of the expected primary votes will be cast by blacks.
"In a rhythmic tone notably different from his usual stampede through policy points," the newspaper reported, the former Vermont governor said: "In this house of the Lord, we know that the power rests in God's hands and in Jesus' hands for helping us. But the power also is on this, God's earth. Remember Jesus said, 'Render unto God those things that are God's but unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's.' "
Mr. Dean continued: "In this political season, there is also other power. Not as important or as strong as the power of Jesus, but it's important power in the world of politics and the world of Caesar." ...

dys, It's because intelligence and integrity is lacking in the voting public. They don't know what it looks like any more.