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Interview With Ken Rudin

Aired December 09, 2003 - 13:18   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get back into presidential politics for a minute. Does the former vice president's endorsement mean that Howard Dean's Democratic nomination is a shoe-in? And what about other Democrats?
National Public Radio's political editor Ken Rudin joining us as he frequently does, from Washington, for a little political tea leaf reading. Ken, great to see you again.

KEN RUDIN, NPR POLITICAL EDITOR: Nice to see you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: This whole process just gets more and more compressed. We've got the primaries all lumped together. Now all the endorsements. The whole thing is going to be over before it starts.

RUDIN: Well, you know, there used to be a time where the two candidates -- I remember in 1980 when President Carter and Senator Kennedy Fought all of the way from the caucuses to the primaries all the way to the convention that summer.

Now what Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat national chairman, tried to do was to compress the primaries, move everything up in February and March so we would know who the nominee is by early March.

Now it looks like we don't want to wait that long. We have Al Gore saying, Well, look, Howard Dean is the guy. Maybe everybody else should just get out of this thing.

O'BRIEN: All right, but does that really mean as much as you make it sound there?

RUDIN: No it doesn't except for the fact that obviously if it's not Howard Dean then you have to say who is it? I mean Al Gore is a big person in the Democratic Party in the democratic Party when a year ago this month is when he said he wouldn't run in 2004, and that's what seems to open up the flood gates of candidates.

Remember he invented the Internet which helps Howard Dean, but he also invented Joe Lieberman and I think that's what really hurts about this endorsement is that Joe Lieberman was expecting some kind of a courtesy call and did not get one.

O'BRIEN: We can talk about the mismanners aspect of this, but let's move on and just assume for the a moment that that's rude. We'll just agree that that's rude behavior. Now let's talk about Joe Lieberman here on a political level here for moment though. As we bring up our tote board here, Joe Lieberman waited for Gore, of course, to decide whether he would put his hat in the ring. A lot of courtesy there, I might add. He then actively courted Gore, of course, for his endorsement.

The question is now, with Gore, you know, sort of the centrist Democrat mantle moving over to Dean, does Lieberman lose that mantle?

RUDIN: Lieberman never had a mantle because he did not show his support in the polls. I think that what really happened, I think we always talk about the betrayal of Gore with Lieberman. But when Joe Lieberman came out very strong for the invasion against Iraq, the toppling of Saddam Hussein, that's really where the Gore-Lieberman split began because Gore was opposed to this war from the beginning, he was really angry about the way that President Bush has conducted the war.

And he sees in Howard Dean -- when we watched Al Gore in 2000, every time he would be angry, we said, Come on, Al, that's not you. I think Howard Dean this is the Al Gore that Al Gore wishes he was, if that makes sense. But in the fact that Howard Dean is passionate and angry and I think that reflects where Al Gore is certainly on the war.

O'BRIEN: It's the candidate he wishes he could have been.

All right, Dick Gephardt here. Now of course he endorsed Gore in 2000, helped him out quite a bit, fought for the Clinton-Gore agenda in Congress time and time again. Did he ever really have a chance to getting the nod from Gore, do you think?

RUDIN: Well remember in 1988, Gephardt and Gore fought against each other when they where running for the Democratic nomination. That's the one that Michael Dukakis, remember him, won the nomination there, and there was some bad blood from '98.

But I think that Gore was really looking to be a major player. And you know what's so interesting, I mean we've been analyzing this to death. But he made this endorsement one block from Bill Clinton's office in Harlem. And I think it's pretty remarkable whether this is a shot at 2008. That, Look, Hillary, I'm in the race for 2008. Or maybe it's just 2004 and he really thinks Howard Dean is a great guy.

But the fact is that it's a block away from Bill Clinton's office. I thought that was interesting too.

O'BRIEN: All right. And real quick, Wes Clark, is he considered the Clinton candidate or dose this change all that?

RUDIN: No, but he may -- we always talk about who's going to stop Howard Dean. People say if anybody could stop Howard Dean, maybe it's Wesley Clark. But again, if Dean wins Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, it's Dean vs. Bush for November 2004.

O'BRIEN: All right, Ken Rudin. Thanks very much. We didn't get a chance to talk about John Kerry and the rest but... (CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Ken Rudin, thanks for your time as always.

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 December 9, 2003 - 13:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get back into presidential politics for a minute. Does the former vice president's endorsement mean that Howard Dean's Democratic nomination is a shoe-in? And what about other Democrats?
National Public Radio's political editor Ken Rudin joining us as he frequently does, from Washington, for a little political tea leaf reading. Ken, great to see you again.

KEN RUDIN, NPR POLITICAL EDITOR: Nice to see you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: This whole process just gets more and more compressed. We've got the primaries all lumped together. Now all the endorsements. The whole thing is going to be over before it starts.

RUDIN: Well, you know, there used to be a time where the two candidates -- I remember in 1980 when President Carter and Senator Kennedy Fought all of the way from the caucuses to the primaries all the way to the convention that summer.

Now what Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat national chairman, tried to do was to compress the primaries, move everything up in February and March so we would know who the nominee is by early March.

Now it looks like we don't want to wait that long. We have Al Gore saying, Well, look, Howard Dean is the guy. Maybe everybody else should just get out of this thing.

O'BRIEN: All right, but does that really mean as much as you make it sound there?

RUDIN: No it doesn't except for the fact that obviously if it's not Howard Dean then you have to say who is it? I mean Al Gore is a big person in the Democratic Party in the democratic Party when a year ago this month is when he said he wouldn't run in 2004, and that's what seems to open up the flood gates of candidates.

Remember he invented the Internet which helps Howard Dean, but he also invented Joe Lieberman and I think that's what really hurts about this endorsement is that Joe Lieberman was expecting some kind of a courtesy call and did not get one.

O'BRIEN: We can talk about the mismanners aspect of this, but let's move on and just assume for the a moment that that's rude. We'll just agree that that's rude behavior. Now let's talk about Joe Lieberman here on a political level here for moment though. As we bring up our tote board here, Joe Lieberman waited for Gore, of course, to decide whether he would put his hat in the ring. A lot of courtesy there, I might add. He then actively courted Gore, of course, for his endorsement.

The question is now, with Gore, you know, sort of the centrist Democrat mantle moving over to Dean, does Lieberman lose that mantle?

RUDIN: Lieberman never had a mantle because he did not show his support in the polls. I think that what really happened, I think we always talk about the betrayal of Gore with Lieberman. But when Joe Lieberman came out very strong for the invasion against Iraq, the toppling of Saddam Hussein, that's really where the Gore-Lieberman split began because Gore was opposed to this war from the beginning, he was really angry about the way that President Bush has conducted the war.

And he sees in Howard Dean -- when we watched Al Gore in 2000, every time he would be angry, we said, Come on, Al, that's not you. I think Howard Dean this is the Al Gore that Al Gore wishes he was, if that makes sense. But in the fact that Howard Dean is passionate and angry and I think that reflects where Al Gore is certainly on the war.

O'BRIEN: It's the candidate he wishes he could have been.

All right, Dick Gephardt here. Now of course he endorsed Gore in 2000, helped him out quite a bit, fought for the Clinton-Gore agenda in Congress time and time again. Did he ever really have a chance to getting the nod from Gore, do you think?

RUDIN: Well remember in 1988, Gephardt and Gore fought against each other when they where running for the Democratic nomination. That's the one that Michael Dukakis, remember him, won the nomination there, and there was some bad blood from '98.

But I think that Gore was really looking to be a major player. And you know what's so interesting, I mean we've been analyzing this to death. But he made this endorsement one block from Bill Clinton's office in Harlem. And I think it's pretty remarkable whether this is a shot at 2008. That, Look, Hillary, I'm in the race for 2008. Or maybe it's just 2004 and he really thinks Howard Dean is a great guy.

But the fact is that it's a block away from Bill Clinton's office. I thought that was interesting too.

O'BRIEN: All right. And real quick, Wes Clark, is he considered the Clinton candidate or dose this change all that?

RUDIN: No, but he may -- we always talk about who's going to stop Howard Dean. People say if anybody could stop Howard Dean, maybe it's Wesley Clark. But again, if Dean wins Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, it's Dean vs. Bush for November 2004.

O'BRIEN: All right, Ken Rudin. Thanks very much. We didn't get a chance to talk about John Kerry and the rest but... (CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Ken Rudin, thanks for your time as always.

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