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American Morning

Democrats Debate

Aired September 26, 2003 - 09:07   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The Democrats who would be president sharpening their attacks against George Bush and one another. All 10 debated yesterday in New York City, and for the newly minted Democrat, General Wesley Clark, his first political battle, who, if anyone, gained an edge? Good question.
Ron Brownstein, CNN analyst, writer for the "L.A. Times" can shake it down for us. Nice to see you in person.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN ANALYST: Bill, good to be here.

HEMMER: Welcome to our studios here in New York.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

HEMMER: Go back to May of 2001, the RNC, the Republican National Committee, has put out a piece of videotape that shows Wesley Clark praising this administration. Listen to this, and we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FMR. NATO SUPREME COMMANDER: If you look around the world, there's a lot of work to be done. And I'm very glad we got the great team in office, men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Paul O'Neill, people I know very well, our president, George W. Bush.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: You watch that. You listen to it. Does it hurt him?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I think it does. But we don't know how much. This is almost standard operating procedure for a candidate who emerges really all of a sudden out of nowhere, whether it was Ross Perot or Gary Hart before that. They have not spent a long time in the national spotlight. There are going to be issues that emerge, because they haven't been vetted over the years.

Last night, his best answer in the debate was responding to this question, when he said, basically, George Bush hasn't turned out to be what I or many Americans thought. He led us into a war that General Clark said was ill advised. He had tax cuts that he said was ill advised. Therefore, I believe in these things, I'm a Democrat. That answered it very well for one night. But we're going to have to see how the other candidates use it and how voters react, partisan Democrats react, and they are in a very anti-Bush mood right now. HEMMER: Analyze this a bit further. I think it's important to point out the time this came out, May of 2001, four months before the attacks of 9/11. Is that enough to say, you know, listen, the world changed that day? No one saw it coming?

BROWNSTEIN: I think, in fact, it may make it tougher for him in some ways because it was before 9/11, because Bush was not the unifying leader, wartime leader of the country that he became in the immediate aftermath of the attack. At that point, he was still a very partisan figure among Democrats. So Clark is going to have to explain this.

As I said, he did a pretty good job on the first night. It was probably his strongest moment in that debate. As it went on, he seemed conversant with issues, but not necessarily very specific.

So he can make the argument that Bush is different than he expected and he's the one to bring the critique to Bush. But again, for very partisan Democrats who are in a very anti-Bush mood and mode, he's going to have to answer these questions.

HEMMER: Listen to Al Sharpton, as he went after General Clark yesterday, saying he's basically a new member of the party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. AL SHARPTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to welcome General Clark to New York, and I want to welcome him to our list of candidates. And don't be defensive about just joining the party. Welcome to the party. It's better to be a new Democrat that's a real Democrat than a lot of old Democrats up here that been acting like Republicans all along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Al Sharpton from yesterday. You know, this kind of goes back to the questions of when he got into the race last week, is it too late? We're 14 months away.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Do we know you? I mean, do we know you? For the candidates to emerge from nowhere, they always face this strikeback, which is, who are you? Are you really one of us? Can we really trust you? Howard Dean is facing some of that, as well. Dick Gephardt going after Howard Dean for comments he made in the 1990s, seemingly defending Newt Gingrich on his Medicare cuts. Dean says he represents the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Gephardt said he deserted the Democratic Party at its moment of maximum need, its budget shutdown in the mid-90s.

So whenever you have a candidate who really rises from the pack suddenly, these kind of questions about their past emerges. The big issue is how they deal with it. Dean been pretty effective so far. We'll have to see how Clark does.

HEMMER: Fifteen seconds here. Two reports we're hearing: Howard Dean's raising a lot of money, and Senator Bob Graham is losing steam. BROWNSTEIN: True, true. Howard Dean will raise more money this quarter than any Democrat has ever raised in a quarter, putting enormous pressure on everybody else. Bob Graham, I think Dick Gephardt, John Edwards, all having trouble financially. Dean is going to really set people's ears back with these numbers.

HEMMER: Thanks, Ron. Ron Brownstein, "L.A. Times." We'll talk again.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, Bill.

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 26, 2003 - 09:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The Democrats who would be president sharpening their attacks against George Bush and one another. All 10 debated yesterday in New York City, and for the newly minted Democrat, General Wesley Clark, his first political battle, who, if anyone, gained an edge? Good question.
Ron Brownstein, CNN analyst, writer for the "L.A. Times" can shake it down for us. Nice to see you in person.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN ANALYST: Bill, good to be here.

HEMMER: Welcome to our studios here in New York.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

HEMMER: Go back to May of 2001, the RNC, the Republican National Committee, has put out a piece of videotape that shows Wesley Clark praising this administration. Listen to this, and we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FMR. NATO SUPREME COMMANDER: If you look around the world, there's a lot of work to be done. And I'm very glad we got the great team in office, men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Paul O'Neill, people I know very well, our president, George W. Bush.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: You watch that. You listen to it. Does it hurt him?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I think it does. But we don't know how much. This is almost standard operating procedure for a candidate who emerges really all of a sudden out of nowhere, whether it was Ross Perot or Gary Hart before that. They have not spent a long time in the national spotlight. There are going to be issues that emerge, because they haven't been vetted over the years.

Last night, his best answer in the debate was responding to this question, when he said, basically, George Bush hasn't turned out to be what I or many Americans thought. He led us into a war that General Clark said was ill advised. He had tax cuts that he said was ill advised. Therefore, I believe in these things, I'm a Democrat. That answered it very well for one night. But we're going to have to see how the other candidates use it and how voters react, partisan Democrats react, and they are in a very anti-Bush mood right now. HEMMER: Analyze this a bit further. I think it's important to point out the time this came out, May of 2001, four months before the attacks of 9/11. Is that enough to say, you know, listen, the world changed that day? No one saw it coming?

BROWNSTEIN: I think, in fact, it may make it tougher for him in some ways because it was before 9/11, because Bush was not the unifying leader, wartime leader of the country that he became in the immediate aftermath of the attack. At that point, he was still a very partisan figure among Democrats. So Clark is going to have to explain this.

As I said, he did a pretty good job on the first night. It was probably his strongest moment in that debate. As it went on, he seemed conversant with issues, but not necessarily very specific.

So he can make the argument that Bush is different than he expected and he's the one to bring the critique to Bush. But again, for very partisan Democrats who are in a very anti-Bush mood and mode, he's going to have to answer these questions.

HEMMER: Listen to Al Sharpton, as he went after General Clark yesterday, saying he's basically a new member of the party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. AL SHARPTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to welcome General Clark to New York, and I want to welcome him to our list of candidates. And don't be defensive about just joining the party. Welcome to the party. It's better to be a new Democrat that's a real Democrat than a lot of old Democrats up here that been acting like Republicans all along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Al Sharpton from yesterday. You know, this kind of goes back to the questions of when he got into the race last week, is it too late? We're 14 months away.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Do we know you? I mean, do we know you? For the candidates to emerge from nowhere, they always face this strikeback, which is, who are you? Are you really one of us? Can we really trust you? Howard Dean is facing some of that, as well. Dick Gephardt going after Howard Dean for comments he made in the 1990s, seemingly defending Newt Gingrich on his Medicare cuts. Dean says he represents the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Gephardt said he deserted the Democratic Party at its moment of maximum need, its budget shutdown in the mid-90s.

So whenever you have a candidate who really rises from the pack suddenly, these kind of questions about their past emerges. The big issue is how they deal with it. Dean been pretty effective so far. We'll have to see how Clark does.

HEMMER: Fifteen seconds here. Two reports we're hearing: Howard Dean's raising a lot of money, and Senator Bob Graham is losing steam. BROWNSTEIN: True, true. Howard Dean will raise more money this quarter than any Democrat has ever raised in a quarter, putting enormous pressure on everybody else. Bob Graham, I think Dick Gephardt, John Edwards, all having trouble financially. Dean is going to really set people's ears back with these numbers.

HEMMER: Thanks, Ron. Ron Brownstein, "L.A. Times." We'll talk again.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, Bill.

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