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CNN Live At Daybreak

2004 Elections

Aired November 04, 2003 - 05:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: From school boards to state Senate, from small town to big city mayors, the polls will be open where you live to pick local and state leaders. Here are where a few of the more prominent races are going on today. It is election day for mayors in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Houston. There are two races for governor, in Mississippi and Kentucky. And in both you can bet political party operatives will spin the results as a favorable preview to 2004, which, of course, would be the presidential election.
2004, exactly one year from today. You will be voting for president. Are you registered?

As CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley explains, a lot can happen in a year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One year away from the presidential election, this much is clear.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How are you doing with the economy right now? Do you have a...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's picking up. I've done well.

KERRY: Great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little slow in the summer, but now it's crazy.

KERRY: I'm glad to hear it.

CROWLEY: A year can change anything, a year can change everything.

KERRY: Well, nobody expected such a situation with the war and so, but these things happen.

CROWLEY: A war turns sour and the economy goes bullish. Events have turned the conventional wisdom of politics on its head and back again. Richard Gephardt has already had a rebirth, prompting a state of tortoise and hare stories, with Gephardt emerging from the Iowa caucuses as a slow but deliberate Dean slayer.

Last winter's presumed front runner is not anymore. Possible scenario, Gephardt beats Dean in Iowa, John Kerry then beats a weakened Dean in New Hampshire. Voila, comeback kid, the sequel. KERRY: The people of New Hampshire want to know who can be president and they want to see anybody who wants it fight for it. And I intend to fight for it.

CROWLEY: The most familiar face in the Democratic crowd is languishing. Yes on war in Iraq, yes on the $87 billion, Joe Lieberman struggles in a primary shaped by anti-war Democrats.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I didn't duck it, I didn't play politics. I voted to support our troops and finish the job.

CROWLEY: Lieberman looks for a respectable third in New Hampshire to take him to the more moderate climes of South Carolina, Arizona and Oklahoma, where he becomes the not Dean candidate. It's a highly competitive position. John Edwards, yet to make the kind of splash his fresh face promised, looks to survive Iowa and New Hampshire with a pair of thirds and make his play in South Carolina as the not Dean. Likewise, Wesley Clark. Passing on Iowa, Clark sees a third in New Hampshire as his ticket to South Carolina, where the state's large veterans population crowns him the not Dean.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, it's the stalker.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, you don't have to say that.

DEAN: You guys are great. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.

DEAN: You guys are wonderful. Thanks for all your hard work.

CROWLEY: This is Dean, last November's asterisk, now a front runner with groupies. He has the most money, the best polls, the only pizzazz and a strategy of inevitability.

DEAN: We're going to reach out and give three or four million people who didn't vote in the last election or who voted for a third party a reason to vote. And when they vote, we're going to have more votes than the president of the United States and this time the person with the most votes is going to the White House.

CROWLEY: All viable strategies, possible scenarios. But the war could go right, the economy could go wrong or some combination thereof. Anything can happen in a year, and it usually does.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And be sure to join us for an unpredictable, unscripted and uncensored town hall meeting with the Democratic candidates. Our own Anderson Cooper will be your host for "America Rocks The Vote." Young voters will direct their own questions to the presidential candidates. The 90 minute debate will be live from Boston tonight, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 4, 2003 - 05:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: From school boards to state Senate, from small town to big city mayors, the polls will be open where you live to pick local and state leaders. Here are where a few of the more prominent races are going on today. It is election day for mayors in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Houston. There are two races for governor, in Mississippi and Kentucky. And in both you can bet political party operatives will spin the results as a favorable preview to 2004, which, of course, would be the presidential election.
2004, exactly one year from today. You will be voting for president. Are you registered?

As CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley explains, a lot can happen in a year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One year away from the presidential election, this much is clear.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How are you doing with the economy right now? Do you have a...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's picking up. I've done well.

KERRY: Great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little slow in the summer, but now it's crazy.

KERRY: I'm glad to hear it.

CROWLEY: A year can change anything, a year can change everything.

KERRY: Well, nobody expected such a situation with the war and so, but these things happen.

CROWLEY: A war turns sour and the economy goes bullish. Events have turned the conventional wisdom of politics on its head and back again. Richard Gephardt has already had a rebirth, prompting a state of tortoise and hare stories, with Gephardt emerging from the Iowa caucuses as a slow but deliberate Dean slayer.

Last winter's presumed front runner is not anymore. Possible scenario, Gephardt beats Dean in Iowa, John Kerry then beats a weakened Dean in New Hampshire. Voila, comeback kid, the sequel. KERRY: The people of New Hampshire want to know who can be president and they want to see anybody who wants it fight for it. And I intend to fight for it.

CROWLEY: The most familiar face in the Democratic crowd is languishing. Yes on war in Iraq, yes on the $87 billion, Joe Lieberman struggles in a primary shaped by anti-war Democrats.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I didn't duck it, I didn't play politics. I voted to support our troops and finish the job.

CROWLEY: Lieberman looks for a respectable third in New Hampshire to take him to the more moderate climes of South Carolina, Arizona and Oklahoma, where he becomes the not Dean candidate. It's a highly competitive position. John Edwards, yet to make the kind of splash his fresh face promised, looks to survive Iowa and New Hampshire with a pair of thirds and make his play in South Carolina as the not Dean. Likewise, Wesley Clark. Passing on Iowa, Clark sees a third in New Hampshire as his ticket to South Carolina, where the state's large veterans population crowns him the not Dean.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, it's the stalker.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, you don't have to say that.

DEAN: You guys are great. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.

DEAN: You guys are wonderful. Thanks for all your hard work.

CROWLEY: This is Dean, last November's asterisk, now a front runner with groupies. He has the most money, the best polls, the only pizzazz and a strategy of inevitability.

DEAN: We're going to reach out and give three or four million people who didn't vote in the last election or who voted for a third party a reason to vote. And when they vote, we're going to have more votes than the president of the United States and this time the person with the most votes is going to the White House.

CROWLEY: All viable strategies, possible scenarios. But the war could go right, the economy could go wrong or some combination thereof. Anything can happen in a year, and it usually does.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And be sure to join us for an unpredictable, unscripted and uncensored town hall meeting with the Democratic candidates. Our own Anderson Cooper will be your host for "America Rocks The Vote." Young voters will direct their own questions to the presidential candidates. The 90 minute debate will be live from Boston tonight, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com