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American Morning
On to New Hampshire
Aired January 20, 2004 - 07:10 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: The other major candidates are moving on to New Hampshire as well, sprinting toward next Tuesday's primary.
National correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us from a John Kerry rally in Manchester this morning.
Good morning to you -- Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, Senator John Kerry and his aides are ecstatic, but also exhausted. We took off from Des Moines at 4:20 a.m. Eastern time, and just landed a short time ago.
Aides are using words such as "amazing" and "unprecedented" to describe this victory. They say never before in the history of the Iowa caucuses has someone moved up so quickly in such a short amount of time, after being so far in the back of the pack and after having your campaign as said to have been written off by the pundits.
The aides believe electability is a key issue. And you heard from Senator Kerry himself last night, a central theme of his campaign, he believes he has the national security experience to defeat President Bush in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If George Bush wants to make national security the central issue of this campaign I have three words for him we know he understands: Bring it on! Bring it on! Bring it on!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And now, the Kerry campaign is hoping -- as Bill described, "the big mo" -- momentum from Iowa will help him here in New Hampshire. Senator Kerry himself telling reporters that he is an underdog here in New Hampshire, currently trailing Howard Dean and retired General Wesley Clark. But aides are confident, as he gets out and gets his message out, he'll narrow that gap and, they hope, have another victory one week from today -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Kelly, what's the Kerry campaign saying was the thing, the issue that propelled him over the top into winning? WALLACE: Well, they believe, first of all, what happened in Iowa, they believe Iowans got serious about electing a president -- that they were looking for someone who had the experience, who had the right message, who had the leadership style to defeat President Bush in November. And you are hearing the senator himself talk about experience, because he's going to have to face Wesley Clark, Howard Dean here in New Hampshire, and even John Edwards who had that very strong performance in Iowa.
And so, you hear him say that he is the one who has the length, the breadth, the depth of experience. He said last night in an interview that Democrats want someone who has been tested, someone who can step into the Oval Office and not have to do on-the-job training. That will be a key message, and the Kerry campaign hopes it's a winning one in the days ahead -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Kelly Wallace for us this morning. Kelly, thanks.
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 January 20, 2004 - 07:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The other major candidates are moving on to New Hampshire as well, sprinting toward next Tuesday's primary.
National correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us from a John Kerry rally in Manchester this morning.
Good morning to you -- Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, Senator John Kerry and his aides are ecstatic, but also exhausted. We took off from Des Moines at 4:20 a.m. Eastern time, and just landed a short time ago.
Aides are using words such as "amazing" and "unprecedented" to describe this victory. They say never before in the history of the Iowa caucuses has someone moved up so quickly in such a short amount of time, after being so far in the back of the pack and after having your campaign as said to have been written off by the pundits.
The aides believe electability is a key issue. And you heard from Senator Kerry himself last night, a central theme of his campaign, he believes he has the national security experience to defeat President Bush in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If George Bush wants to make national security the central issue of this campaign I have three words for him we know he understands: Bring it on! Bring it on! Bring it on!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And now, the Kerry campaign is hoping -- as Bill described, "the big mo" -- momentum from Iowa will help him here in New Hampshire. Senator Kerry himself telling reporters that he is an underdog here in New Hampshire, currently trailing Howard Dean and retired General Wesley Clark. But aides are confident, as he gets out and gets his message out, he'll narrow that gap and, they hope, have another victory one week from today -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Kelly, what's the Kerry campaign saying was the thing, the issue that propelled him over the top into winning? WALLACE: Well, they believe, first of all, what happened in Iowa, they believe Iowans got serious about electing a president -- that they were looking for someone who had the experience, who had the right message, who had the leadership style to defeat President Bush in November. And you are hearing the senator himself talk about experience, because he's going to have to face Wesley Clark, Howard Dean here in New Hampshire, and even John Edwards who had that very strong performance in Iowa.
And so, you hear him say that he is the one who has the length, the breadth, the depth of experience. He said last night in an interview that Democrats want someone who has been tested, someone who can step into the Oval Office and not have to do on-the-job training. That will be a key message, and the Kerry campaign hopes it's a winning one in the days ahead -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Kelly Wallace for us this morning. Kelly, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
