[Peace-discuss] Dems debate

[Ricky Baldwin]

Did anyone happen to tape this thing?  And what about
having a discussion of electoral politics in 2004 at a
Sunday meeting real soon?

Ricky

Democratic Hopefuls Debate War, Tax Cuts 

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer, May 4, 2003

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The nine Democrats vying for the
White House clashed over the U.S.-led war against
Iraq, health insurance and President Bush's tax cut in
an ultra early primary debate in which they hope to
distinguish themselves from the pack. 

The recent conflict — and the divisions among the
candidates over the war — were evident Saturday in the
opening questions. Disagreements among the nine also
emerged as the 90-minute debate moved toward topics
such as candidate Dick Gephardt's plan to roll back
Bush's 2001 tax cut to finance health care. 

Moderator George Stephanopoulos focused initially on
Bush's decision to order U.S. forces to lead a
coalition to disarm Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein. He
highlighted former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's
statement earlier in the day that Saddam really wasn't
much of a threat to the country. 

Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut took issue with that
assessment. "Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United
States and, most particularly, to his neighbors,"
Lieberman said. "We did the right thing in fighting
this fight, and the American people will be safer as a
result of it." 

But Al Sharpton argued that "we could have disarmed
Hussein by working with the United Nations." 

Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun, the former Illinois
senator, focused on the expense of keeping U.S. forces
in Iraq and the reconstruction of the war-torn nation.


The start of the debate was dominated by a heated
exchange between Dean and Massachusetts Sen. John
Kerry. Dean criticized a statement that Kerry's aides
had issued earlier in the week questioning his ability
to be commander in chief. Many of the other candidates
made a plea for the two to stop squabbling, fearing
that it would make the 
Democrats look bad. 

"We're not fighting each other," said Florida Sen. Bob
Graham. "We're trying to select one of us to be the
opponent of George Bush." 

The debate shifted to the issue of Gephardt's health
insurance proposal, the cornerstone of his campaign
that would require businesses to provide health care
for their employees at a cost of more than $200
billion a year. The plan would repeal all of Bush's
2001 tax cut. 

Lieberman said he was unwilling to raise taxes to pay
for health coverage. Sen. John Edwards of North
Carolina questioned a plan that would leave the
decisions to "big corporate America and assume that
they do the right thing. That sounds like Reaganomics
to me." 

Gephardt defended his proposal, arguing that his plan
would stimulate the economy and contending that the
Bush tax cuts have been a failure. He made his case
with a call to his fellow Democrats. 

"I think if we're going to win this election, we
cannot be Bush-lite," said Gephardt, the former House
Democratic leader from Missouri. "We can't come along
and say, 'Well, I'll keep half the Bush tax cut, or
I'll keep three quarters of the Bush tax cut. The Bush
tax cuts have failed. They are not making the economy
better, they are not helping people get jobs, they're
not covering anybody with health insurance." 

Earlier in the debate, Lieberman delivered another
message to all the candidates hoping to unseat Bush in
2004, an argument certain to be part of his campaign
platform. 

"No Democrat will be elected president in 2004 who is
not strong on defense, and this war was a test of that
strength," Lieberman said. 

Kerry revisited that challenge on national security
toward the end of the debate, saying, "I'm the only
person running for this job who's actually fought in a
war. I'm not ambivalent about the war, Joe." 

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a former mayor of
Cleveland, declared he was the only candidate ready to
"say it's time to cut the waste, the fat, the bloat
out of the military." 

The debate came before most of the candidates have
fully developed their positions for next year's
election. But with no clear front-runner, there is
intense rivalry for the nomination, even among the
longshots. 

"The way to move a donkey is to slap the donkey,"
Sharpton, warming up for the debate, told delegates at
the state party convention Saturday afternoon. "I'm
going to slap the donkey until the donkey kicks and we
are going to kick George Bush out of the White House."


In the final segment of the debate, Stephanopoulos
zeroed in on the foremost criticism of each candidate
and asked them to offer a defense to charges of
personal weaknesses. He asked Kerry about his
aloofness, Graham about his lack of charisma, Edwards
about his lack of policy experience, Sharpton if he's
a racial polarizer and Gephardt if he's "been around
the track too many times." 

Gephardt responded, "George, you really know how to
hurt a guy." He highlighted his experience and said if
voters are looking for a fresh face, he's not their
candidate. 

When Stephanopoulos asked Lieberman if he's too nice
to take on Bush, Lieberman responded, "I'd like to
come over there and strangle you, George." But then
said a candidate doesn't "have to be a screamer to be
tough." 



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