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American Morning
Field of Democratic Candidates Officially Grows by One
Aired September 22, 2003 - 07:37 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: To the race for the White House now. The field of Democratic candidates officially grows by one today. Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, is set to announce her candidacy this morning. And she is not the only Democrat who's making news.
Candy Crowley is live for us in Washington, D.C. -- good morning.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Carol Moseley-Braun has been in the race, as you know, Soledad, for almost a year. She has failed to make any headway in fundraising. She is certainly toward the lowest part of the pack. I think at the end of the second quarter she was at around $145,000. Compare that to $7.6 million for Howard Dean.
Having said that, there are a number of people who support Moseley-Braun's candidacy simply for being. She is the first woman to run for president since the '80s and Pat Schroeder and a lot of people say you have to be, begin to break barriers, and that's certainly what Carol Moseley-Braun has done all her life. As you mentioned, she was the first black U.S. senator, female senator elected.
So, this is, it seems to be one of those candidacies that makes a statement simply for being, but in terms of her chances, she is one of the longest of the long shots -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about this poll that comes out of "Newsweek," which shows General Wesley Clark really making amazing headway in the short time that he's been in the race officially.
CROWLEY: Yes, you know, you have to be careful on a couple of things. First of all, this is a nationwide poll and a lot of people are paying more attention to those first states, Iowa and New Hampshire. Look, if you're Clark, you really want to be at the top of this poll and it's good news for him. But you have to understand that, first of all, polls at this point tend to be a lot about name recognition and it comes just after basically a three day media orgy when Clark announced.
Nonetheless, he is the first one to make that kind of splash on the national scene. So we have to wait for several more polls, I think, to sort of see how sturdy that lead is. Also, we need to point out that there's a margin of error of about three points. So it's sort of a virtual tie up there. But certainly name recognition on a national poll helps and Clark certainly got a lot of that in the week that he announced. So a couple more polls and we'll be able to declare him a front runner.
O'BRIEN: Yes, we will wait and see then.
Candy Crowley, thanks, as always.
We should mention that Carol Moseley-Braun will be our guest at the top of our next hour on AMERICAN MORNING. That's at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time.
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 September 22, 2003 - 07:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: To the race for the White House now. The field of Democratic candidates officially grows by one today. Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, is set to announce her candidacy this morning. And she is not the only Democrat who's making news.
Candy Crowley is live for us in Washington, D.C. -- good morning.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Carol Moseley-Braun has been in the race, as you know, Soledad, for almost a year. She has failed to make any headway in fundraising. She is certainly toward the lowest part of the pack. I think at the end of the second quarter she was at around $145,000. Compare that to $7.6 million for Howard Dean.
Having said that, there are a number of people who support Moseley-Braun's candidacy simply for being. She is the first woman to run for president since the '80s and Pat Schroeder and a lot of people say you have to be, begin to break barriers, and that's certainly what Carol Moseley-Braun has done all her life. As you mentioned, she was the first black U.S. senator, female senator elected.
So, this is, it seems to be one of those candidacies that makes a statement simply for being, but in terms of her chances, she is one of the longest of the long shots -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about this poll that comes out of "Newsweek," which shows General Wesley Clark really making amazing headway in the short time that he's been in the race officially.
CROWLEY: Yes, you know, you have to be careful on a couple of things. First of all, this is a nationwide poll and a lot of people are paying more attention to those first states, Iowa and New Hampshire. Look, if you're Clark, you really want to be at the top of this poll and it's good news for him. But you have to understand that, first of all, polls at this point tend to be a lot about name recognition and it comes just after basically a three day media orgy when Clark announced.
Nonetheless, he is the first one to make that kind of splash on the national scene. So we have to wait for several more polls, I think, to sort of see how sturdy that lead is. Also, we need to point out that there's a margin of error of about three points. So it's sort of a virtual tie up there. But certainly name recognition on a national poll helps and Clark certainly got a lot of that in the week that he announced. So a couple more polls and we'll be able to declare him a front runner.
O'BRIEN: Yes, we will wait and see then.
Candy Crowley, thanks, as always.
We should mention that Carol Moseley-Braun will be our guest at the top of our next hour on AMERICAN MORNING. That's at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
