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CNN Live At Daybreak
Sign That Support for Any Democratic Candidate May Not be Firm
Aired January 12, 2004 - 05:01 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: With a week to go until the first contest of the presidential election season, there is a sign that support for any Democratic candidate may not be firm. A new "Los Angeles Times"/"Chicago Tribune" poll finds nearly four in 10 Iowa Democrats could change their minds before attending the caucuses. As for the horse race, Howard Dean is first in the poll with 30 percent, followed by Dick Gephardt with 23 percent, John Kerry with 18 percent and John Edwards with 11 percent.
All right, think football players frustrated with beating each other up in practice who can't wait for the first contest of the season. That gives you a sense of how the Democratic presidential candidates must feel right now in Iowa.
As CNN's Candy Crowley reports, the last debate before next week's caucuses got a little testy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's seen as a Dean soft spot and at the last debate before the Iowa caucuses, Al Sharpton stuck a knife in.
AL SHARPTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How you can explain not one black or brown working for your administration as governor.
DR. HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We do have African- American and Latino workers in state government, including...
SHARPTON: No, no, I said under your administration. Did you have a senior member of your cabinet that was black or brown?
DEAN: We had a senior member of my staff on my fifth floor.
SHARPTON: No, your cabinet.
DEAN: No, we did not.
CROWLEY: When Howard Dean noted several minority supporters in the audience, Sharpton slapped him down.
SHARPTON: I could bring all kind of endorsers here from Congressman Ed Tauzin to Johnnie Cochran. I think you only need cosigners if your credit is bad.
CROWLEY: It was the sharpest exchange in a night that was otherwise full of weirdness. Moving Clinton-like from behind the podium, Kerry tried to answer a panelist's question.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I think we're allowed to walk out here. I think it exists because -- I don't know if the lights are working.
CROWLEY: When it was time for candidates to ask each other questions, Dean refused to go with the program.
DEAN: I'd like to ask my question to a community activist...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a format agreed to by the opponents.
So do you have a question for another opponent or should we move on?
DEAN: No, I think we'll move on.
CROWLEY: Joe Lieberman took so long to ask his question, nobody knew what it was.
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for the question, Senator.
LIEBERMAN: Well, wait a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The question is to who? To all?
LIEBERMAN: It's to all of them. And, look, I'm going to circulate...
SHARPTON: Well, we can't answer that...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, wait, at least -- at least they...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Edwards...
SHARPTON: The outsiders in Washington, D.C. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Edwards, I'll give you 30 seconds.
CROWLEY: Dennis Kucinich held up the same pie chart he tried to show during a radio debate last week and held it and held it. And Carol Moseley Braun, Miss. Manners of the debate season, slammed Al Sharpton, Dick Gephardt and John Edwards all in the same breath.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Carol, that was a great speech, but what you just said is not right.
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, that's --
EDWARDS: As a matter of fact...
MOSELEY BRAUN: You didn't vote for the Patriot Act?
EDWARDS: What -- are you going to let, are you going to let me finish?
MOSELEY BRAUN: I would have but...
EDWARDS: Where, what just...
CROWLEY: By debate's end, you knew they could all use a good night's sleep. "You've got it," agreed one campaign adviser. "I've already sent him to bed."
Candy Crowley, CNN, Des Moines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: After the debate, Dick Gephardt expressed confidence about the voting in Iowa and beyond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: I'm going to win in Iowa, I'm going to win in a lot of other early states. February 3 is going to be a good day for my candidacy and, again, I'm running very hard in South Carolina, in North Dakota and Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and Missouri, my home state, which is on February 3. And, again, it's the issues -- fighting for middle class families -- that I've done my entire career. The fight for the middle class is in my bones, as I said tonight, and people are getting to know that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The Gephardt campaign predicts a high turnout in Iowa due to the tight race at the top and a crowded field.
We'll see.
Iowa's biggest newspaper is backing John Edwards in the Democratic race. The "Des Moines Register" calls Edwards "one of those rare, naturally gifted politicians who doesn't need a long record of public service to inspire confidence." The newspaper notes Edwards is strongly critical of President Bush, but unlike the other candidates, his attacks tend to be less personal.
John Edwards, by the way, will be a guest on CNN's AMERICAN MORNING, along with John Kerry. AMERICAN MORNING, as you well know, starts two hours from now -- oh, actually, a little less than two hours from now at 7:00 Eastern time.
And be sure to stay with us all week as the CNN election express motors across Iowa. Tomorrow, the bus travels from Des Moines to Ames, home of Iowa State University. Then it's off to Iowa City, the former capital and home of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. By Thursday, the election express reaches Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second largest city and oatmeal capital of the world, in case you didn't know. And on Friday, it's off to Davenport in the far eastern part of the state along the Mississippi River. We hope you will join us for the ride.
Track the CNN election express online at cnn.com/bus. While at our Web site, take a look at the candidates' latest ads. Go to cnn.com, AOL keyword: 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
Firm>
Aired January 12, 2004 - 05:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With a week to go until the first contest of the presidential election season, there is a sign that support for any Democratic candidate may not be firm. A new "Los Angeles Times"/"Chicago Tribune" poll finds nearly four in 10 Iowa Democrats could change their minds before attending the caucuses. As for the horse race, Howard Dean is first in the poll with 30 percent, followed by Dick Gephardt with 23 percent, John Kerry with 18 percent and John Edwards with 11 percent.
All right, think football players frustrated with beating each other up in practice who can't wait for the first contest of the season. That gives you a sense of how the Democratic presidential candidates must feel right now in Iowa.
As CNN's Candy Crowley reports, the last debate before next week's caucuses got a little testy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's seen as a Dean soft spot and at the last debate before the Iowa caucuses, Al Sharpton stuck a knife in.
AL SHARPTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How you can explain not one black or brown working for your administration as governor.
DR. HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We do have African- American and Latino workers in state government, including...
SHARPTON: No, no, I said under your administration. Did you have a senior member of your cabinet that was black or brown?
DEAN: We had a senior member of my staff on my fifth floor.
SHARPTON: No, your cabinet.
DEAN: No, we did not.
CROWLEY: When Howard Dean noted several minority supporters in the audience, Sharpton slapped him down.
SHARPTON: I could bring all kind of endorsers here from Congressman Ed Tauzin to Johnnie Cochran. I think you only need cosigners if your credit is bad.
CROWLEY: It was the sharpest exchange in a night that was otherwise full of weirdness. Moving Clinton-like from behind the podium, Kerry tried to answer a panelist's question.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I think we're allowed to walk out here. I think it exists because -- I don't know if the lights are working.
CROWLEY: When it was time for candidates to ask each other questions, Dean refused to go with the program.
DEAN: I'd like to ask my question to a community activist...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a format agreed to by the opponents.
So do you have a question for another opponent or should we move on?
DEAN: No, I think we'll move on.
CROWLEY: Joe Lieberman took so long to ask his question, nobody knew what it was.
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for the question, Senator.
LIEBERMAN: Well, wait a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The question is to who? To all?
LIEBERMAN: It's to all of them. And, look, I'm going to circulate...
SHARPTON: Well, we can't answer that...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, wait, at least -- at least they...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Edwards...
SHARPTON: The outsiders in Washington, D.C. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Edwards, I'll give you 30 seconds.
CROWLEY: Dennis Kucinich held up the same pie chart he tried to show during a radio debate last week and held it and held it. And Carol Moseley Braun, Miss. Manners of the debate season, slammed Al Sharpton, Dick Gephardt and John Edwards all in the same breath.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Carol, that was a great speech, but what you just said is not right.
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, that's --
EDWARDS: As a matter of fact...
MOSELEY BRAUN: You didn't vote for the Patriot Act?
EDWARDS: What -- are you going to let, are you going to let me finish?
MOSELEY BRAUN: I would have but...
EDWARDS: Where, what just...
CROWLEY: By debate's end, you knew they could all use a good night's sleep. "You've got it," agreed one campaign adviser. "I've already sent him to bed."
Candy Crowley, CNN, Des Moines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: After the debate, Dick Gephardt expressed confidence about the voting in Iowa and beyond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: I'm going to win in Iowa, I'm going to win in a lot of other early states. February 3 is going to be a good day for my candidacy and, again, I'm running very hard in South Carolina, in North Dakota and Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and Missouri, my home state, which is on February 3. And, again, it's the issues -- fighting for middle class families -- that I've done my entire career. The fight for the middle class is in my bones, as I said tonight, and people are getting to know that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The Gephardt campaign predicts a high turnout in Iowa due to the tight race at the top and a crowded field.
We'll see.
Iowa's biggest newspaper is backing John Edwards in the Democratic race. The "Des Moines Register" calls Edwards "one of those rare, naturally gifted politicians who doesn't need a long record of public service to inspire confidence." The newspaper notes Edwards is strongly critical of President Bush, but unlike the other candidates, his attacks tend to be less personal.
John Edwards, by the way, will be a guest on CNN's AMERICAN MORNING, along with John Kerry. AMERICAN MORNING, as you well know, starts two hours from now -- oh, actually, a little less than two hours from now at 7:00 Eastern time.
And be sure to stay with us all week as the CNN election express motors across Iowa. Tomorrow, the bus travels from Des Moines to Ames, home of Iowa State University. Then it's off to Iowa City, the former capital and home of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. By Thursday, the election express reaches Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second largest city and oatmeal capital of the world, in case you didn't know. And on Friday, it's off to Davenport in the far eastern part of the state along the Mississippi River. We hope you will join us for the ride.
Track the CNN election express online at cnn.com/bus. While at our Web site, take a look at the candidates' latest ads. Go to cnn.com, AOL keyword: 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
Firm>
