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CNN Live At Daybreak

How the White House Race is Shaping Up

Aired November 28, 2003 - 05:11   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.


CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The first real test of the Democratic presidential hopefuls is fast approaching. The Iowa Caucuses are set for mid-January and CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley takes a look at how the race is shaping up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL 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?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's picking up. I've done well. A little slow in the South, but now it's crazy. 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 -- these things happen.

CROWLEY: A war turned 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 spate of tortoise and hare stories that 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. JOE LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I didn't duck it. I didn't play politics. I voted to support out 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 veteran's population crowns him the not-Dean.

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

(LAUGHTER)

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 3 or 4 million people who didn't vote in the last election, or 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 (on camera): All viable strategies, possible scenarios, but in a year the war could go right again, the economy could go wrong again. Anything could happen in a year and in a presidential year, it usually does.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Des Moines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 28, 2003 - 05:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The first real test of the Democratic presidential hopefuls is fast approaching. The Iowa Caucuses are set for mid-January and CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley takes a look at how the race is shaping up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL 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?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's picking up. I've done well. A little slow in the South, but now it's crazy. 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 -- these things happen.

CROWLEY: A war turned 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 spate of tortoise and hare stories that 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. JOE LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I didn't duck it. I didn't play politics. I voted to support out 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 veteran's population crowns him the not-Dean.

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

(LAUGHTER)

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 3 or 4 million people who didn't vote in the last election, or 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 (on camera): All viable strategies, possible scenarios, but in a year the war could go right again, the economy could go wrong again. Anything could happen in a year and in a presidential year, it usually does.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Des Moines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com