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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Rich Galen, Amy Pritchard

Aired October 19, 2003 - 11:15   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.


SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: This weekend, the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National Committees are focusing on presidential politics. The election is just 12 months and two weeks away. Along with some Democratic contenders, they're attending the Arab-American conference in Michigan, and that is a critical state for anyone hoping to win the White House.
Here to examine the outlook on the presidential race Democratic strategist Amy Pritchard and Republican strategist Richard Galen. They're with us from Washington...

RICHARD GALEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Rich, please, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Rich, OK, Rich. Rich, let's start off with you. How do you think the democratic contenders are doing when it comes to winning Arab-American support?

GALEN: Well, judging from the coverage yesterday, Lieberman certainly didn't do well. They had a Zogby -- the chairman Mr. Zogby had to ask the crowd to behave and let him speak. Lieberman, of course, is the only major Jewish candidate in the race so I think that says something about which way it is going. The fact is that Arab- Americans across the country are not a huge political force. They are in Michigan because there's a very, very large population in and around the Detroit area, and I think everybody recognizes that. But I suspect that most Americans don't consider religion to be a particularly important part of their political lives to start with.

MALVEAUX: Amy, do you agree?

AMY PRITCHARD, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I do actually agree. I do agree. I think clearly in Michigan the Arab population is an important voting bloc and Michigan is an important state so it is essential they court them there. But I...

MALVEAUX: Who do you think is looking strongest at this point among the democratic presidential hopefuls when it comes to the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary? What are we looking at here?

PRITCHARD: Clearly Gephardt is leading in the Iowa caucus, although closely followed by Dean. Dean has a comfortable lead, double-digit lead I believe, in New Hampshire over Kerry, and nationally you've got to be impressed with what Dean is doing with the campaign. You know, Clark's obviously getting a lot of attention in the last couple of weeks.

MALVEAUX: Rich, do you think Clark has gained some ground?

GALEN: I think quite the opposite. I think he's dropped like a stone. His initial -- the initial charm of Wes Clark was -- might have been an indication of the fact that democrats are still looking for somebody, and I suspect the person they're till looking for is named Hillary. But the fact is that the most recent poll I saw was one released Friday, and it showed that Clark had gone from -- nationally from 20 percent down to about 14 percent or 13 percent. But in that poll, I thought it was significant that still -- this is democrats -- still 35 percent were looking for someone else. So I think this is very fluid and we'll see what happens -- probably through Arizona. I don't think it will get as far as Pennsylvania on August 27th, but it might -- November 27th.

MALVEAUX: There's been a tape, another clip where we have seen General Wesley Clark again praising President Bush, talking about the good job that he's done. Do you think this really hurts him, or how much is this impacting his race in terms of people believing what he says, that he truly is a democrat?

PRITCHARD: Well, I actually agree with Rich. I don't think that Clark seems to be going anywhere. I just looked at a democracy poll that was a poll of the three New Hampshire/Iowa early primaries and South Carolina. He's barely reaching double digits in New Hampshire or South Carolina. He's single digits in Iowa. I don't think he's being treated seriously by the early primary voters. Of course, they're the ones that will take the lead on this nomination.

He's been seduced -- he's seduced democrats in national polls because of his military credentials, but I don't think if you look at any one of these individual states he is getting traction and being taken seriously. The bottom line, people don't understand who he is. They know he's a military leader, but they don't know anything about him. They don't understand his domestic agenda and he has yet to present a case for that.

GALEN: Suzanne, that tape that you were talking about was at the Pulaski County Republican Lincoln Day dinner in Little Rock. I spoke at that this past spring. So fact that Wesley and I have spoken at the same republican dinner tells you -- he spoke in 2000. That tells you there is little doubt in some people's mind as to his democratic credentials.

MALVEAUX: Well, there's way too much agreement here between the two of you, so we'll try to mix this up a little bit. Let's talk about President Bush, the $87 billion that seems to generate quite a bit of support here. But obviously it is split in the senate and, Rich, as you have seen there are republicans coming over to the democrats' side here. They are not convinced that the president is going the right way when it comes to Iraqi reconstruction.

GALEN: I don't think that's an accurate representation. The debate was over whether $10 billion of the $20 billion of the $87 billion -- boy, that's eye glazing there. How much should be a loan and how much should be a grant. But when it came down to final passage, almost every republican in the Senate voted for it. Still 12 democrats voted against it, including Senators Kerry and Edwards, and I think there may have been some politics involved in that. But the republicans, on passage of the package, were pretty much in line with each other.

MALVEAUX: Amy, do you agree with that, or do you think it meant more here, that you had republicans crossing the line on this issue? Do you think they gained ground here?

PRITCHARD: I think republicans want to support our troops. Democrats want to support our troops. But I think both parties are looking for an explanation from the president and administration about what the plan is, what we're doing there, how we're getting support from other countries.

The reason they wanted it to be a loan is this is a country sitting on over a trillion dollars of oil. There's no reason why we can't expect them to pay this money back. We have problems domestically, and I think there's problems in the senate and house, and I think the president will ultimately get the package he wants, because they want to support our troops, both parties want to support our troops, but they need a better explanation as to what's going on there.

GALEN: I don't disagree with Amy, but I think there's a bigger point. The democrats have not provided any alternative to this other than to kind of cross their feet -- cross their arms and stomp their feet and say we don't like this.

MALVEAUX: Rich, unfortunately we have to leave it there. Rich Galen and Amy Pritchard, thank you very much for your insights.

GALEN: Thank you.

PRITCHARD: Thank you, Suzanne.

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 October 19, 2003 - 11:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: This weekend, the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National Committees are focusing on presidential politics. The election is just 12 months and two weeks away. Along with some Democratic contenders, they're attending the Arab-American conference in Michigan, and that is a critical state for anyone hoping to win the White House.
Here to examine the outlook on the presidential race Democratic strategist Amy Pritchard and Republican strategist Richard Galen. They're with us from Washington...

RICHARD GALEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Rich, please, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Rich, OK, Rich. Rich, let's start off with you. How do you think the democratic contenders are doing when it comes to winning Arab-American support?

GALEN: Well, judging from the coverage yesterday, Lieberman certainly didn't do well. They had a Zogby -- the chairman Mr. Zogby had to ask the crowd to behave and let him speak. Lieberman, of course, is the only major Jewish candidate in the race so I think that says something about which way it is going. The fact is that Arab- Americans across the country are not a huge political force. They are in Michigan because there's a very, very large population in and around the Detroit area, and I think everybody recognizes that. But I suspect that most Americans don't consider religion to be a particularly important part of their political lives to start with.

MALVEAUX: Amy, do you agree?

AMY PRITCHARD, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I do actually agree. I do agree. I think clearly in Michigan the Arab population is an important voting bloc and Michigan is an important state so it is essential they court them there. But I...

MALVEAUX: Who do you think is looking strongest at this point among the democratic presidential hopefuls when it comes to the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary? What are we looking at here?

PRITCHARD: Clearly Gephardt is leading in the Iowa caucus, although closely followed by Dean. Dean has a comfortable lead, double-digit lead I believe, in New Hampshire over Kerry, and nationally you've got to be impressed with what Dean is doing with the campaign. You know, Clark's obviously getting a lot of attention in the last couple of weeks.

MALVEAUX: Rich, do you think Clark has gained some ground?

GALEN: I think quite the opposite. I think he's dropped like a stone. His initial -- the initial charm of Wes Clark was -- might have been an indication of the fact that democrats are still looking for somebody, and I suspect the person they're till looking for is named Hillary. But the fact is that the most recent poll I saw was one released Friday, and it showed that Clark had gone from -- nationally from 20 percent down to about 14 percent or 13 percent. But in that poll, I thought it was significant that still -- this is democrats -- still 35 percent were looking for someone else. So I think this is very fluid and we'll see what happens -- probably through Arizona. I don't think it will get as far as Pennsylvania on August 27th, but it might -- November 27th.

MALVEAUX: There's been a tape, another clip where we have seen General Wesley Clark again praising President Bush, talking about the good job that he's done. Do you think this really hurts him, or how much is this impacting his race in terms of people believing what he says, that he truly is a democrat?

PRITCHARD: Well, I actually agree with Rich. I don't think that Clark seems to be going anywhere. I just looked at a democracy poll that was a poll of the three New Hampshire/Iowa early primaries and South Carolina. He's barely reaching double digits in New Hampshire or South Carolina. He's single digits in Iowa. I don't think he's being treated seriously by the early primary voters. Of course, they're the ones that will take the lead on this nomination.

He's been seduced -- he's seduced democrats in national polls because of his military credentials, but I don't think if you look at any one of these individual states he is getting traction and being taken seriously. The bottom line, people don't understand who he is. They know he's a military leader, but they don't know anything about him. They don't understand his domestic agenda and he has yet to present a case for that.

GALEN: Suzanne, that tape that you were talking about was at the Pulaski County Republican Lincoln Day dinner in Little Rock. I spoke at that this past spring. So fact that Wesley and I have spoken at the same republican dinner tells you -- he spoke in 2000. That tells you there is little doubt in some people's mind as to his democratic credentials.

MALVEAUX: Well, there's way too much agreement here between the two of you, so we'll try to mix this up a little bit. Let's talk about President Bush, the $87 billion that seems to generate quite a bit of support here. But obviously it is split in the senate and, Rich, as you have seen there are republicans coming over to the democrats' side here. They are not convinced that the president is going the right way when it comes to Iraqi reconstruction.

GALEN: I don't think that's an accurate representation. The debate was over whether $10 billion of the $20 billion of the $87 billion -- boy, that's eye glazing there. How much should be a loan and how much should be a grant. But when it came down to final passage, almost every republican in the Senate voted for it. Still 12 democrats voted against it, including Senators Kerry and Edwards, and I think there may have been some politics involved in that. But the republicans, on passage of the package, were pretty much in line with each other.

MALVEAUX: Amy, do you agree with that, or do you think it meant more here, that you had republicans crossing the line on this issue? Do you think they gained ground here?

PRITCHARD: I think republicans want to support our troops. Democrats want to support our troops. But I think both parties are looking for an explanation from the president and administration about what the plan is, what we're doing there, how we're getting support from other countries.

The reason they wanted it to be a loan is this is a country sitting on over a trillion dollars of oil. There's no reason why we can't expect them to pay this money back. We have problems domestically, and I think there's problems in the senate and house, and I think the president will ultimately get the package he wants, because they want to support our troops, both parties want to support our troops, but they need a better explanation as to what's going on there.

GALEN: I don't disagree with Amy, but I think there's a bigger point. The democrats have not provided any alternative to this other than to kind of cross their feet -- cross their arms and stomp their feet and say we don't like this.

MALVEAUX: Rich, unfortunately we have to leave it there. Rich Galen and Amy Pritchard, thank you very much for your insights.

GALEN: Thank you.

PRITCHARD: Thank you, Suzanne.

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