Gephardt Not A Hit With MO Party Leaders

Of 11 randomly selected Democratic Party county heads, only 2 chose Gephardt for VP. 8 selected John Edwards.

Gephardt’s popularity and influence among Missouri Democrats is not strong outside of St. Louis. Many rural voters distrust big-city politicians. He has never run for statewide office and lacks the profile and rapport that grows from traveling its back roads.

“I mostly know Gephardt from seeing him on ‘Meet the Press,’” said Charles Christy of Columbia, longtime Boone County Democratic Committee chairman. “That John Edwards is a fresh face and exciting.”

In southwest Missouri’s Lawrence County, party chairman Jim Kabell recalled traveling seven times to Iowa to knock on doors for Gephardt — but being dazzled by Edwards and the excited new voters he drew to a rally in Springfield, Mo.

“The person I like best and I hear the most buzz about for VP in our area is John Edwards,” Kabell said.

Democrats outside St. Louis were indifferent about Gephardt and, in candid moments, slightly resentful.

It should be noted that this may not be an indication of how the entire state feels about Gephardt, but it does not augur well for Gephardt ending up as Kerry’s VP choice.

Gephardt Endorses Kerry

Former presidential candidate Dick Gephardt has officially endorsed Sen. John Kerry for the Democratic nomination.

… Kerry stood at Gephardt’s side in Michigan as the Missouri congressman told supporters, “I’m here today adding my voice to all of yours to say that we want and need this man to be the next president of the United States.”

Gephardt’s endorsement, may bring other key endorsements:

The alliance of labor groups formed by the Teamsters and more than a dozen industrial unions to support Gephardt were expected to endorse Kerry after union presidents briefed their members over the next week.

MO-mentum

Gephardt to endorse Kerry, CBS News reports.

Should Gephardt Blame Labor?

That's the view of the NewsHour analyst at this moment on PBS TV ... that Gephardt didn't click because of how closely tied he was to labor ... that the perspective Gephardt had to adopt to keep his labor support don't resonate with a Dem party that now primarily includes "college educated" voters.

Hmmm ... thoughts on this in the comments?

Then There Were seven

Reuters reports that, according to CNN, FOX News and MSNBC, Democratic Rep. Richard Gephardt will drop out of the U.S. presidential race after his fourth place showing in the Iowa caucuses:

Gephardt aides said they expected him to withdraw from the race and that he could make an announcement as early as Monday night or formally at a news conference in St. Louis on Tuesday.

Gephardt Withdrawal Simulblog

Via CNN TV:

"This didn't come out the way we wanted ... but I've been through tougher fights in my life."

"Life will go on because this campaign was never about me ... it was about all of us, it was about our future."

He thanks his family ... and his wife Jane. "For me ... Jane makes the sun come up for me every day."

"America's workers are what makes this country what it is."

"My life was an American life ... I consider myself to be the luckiest person alive ... I have a wonderful family ... I've been able to run for president twice, and I've loved every minute of it ... I will support [the Dem nominee] in any way I can ... we will reclaim the White House in 2004 because we have to ... the eyes of the world are watching us ... in the end we will prevail, the people of this great country will make a decision to turn this country in a new direction ... never give up, never give in, never stop helping your country be an even better place."

Frankly, kudos for the man for having the dignity to see the writing on the wall and bow out with grace.

Gephardt Dropping Out? - More Info

According to the AP, the results of the Iowa Caucus are in:

John Kerry rode an 11th-hour surge to victory in Iowa's kickoff presidential caucuses, upsetting Democratic front-runner Howard Dean and stunning caucus favorite Dick Gephardt.

Gephardt scrapped plans to fly to New Hampshire for next week's primary after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, a source said Monday night, possibly signaling the end of his presidential campaign.

This report supports Michele's earlier information about Gephardt dropping out.

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina was in second. "It feels terrific," Edwards said as he awaited the final results at a downtown hotel. "What's happened here the last two weeks with my campaign has been phenomenal." The Dean campaign said he called Edwards to congratulate him on his strong showing.

So Dean, the frontrunner, came in third. The 2004 Democrats may have decided not to run off a cliff after all. The next few days should be quite interesting.

Gephardt To Drop Out

MSNBC is reporting Dick Gephardt will drop out of the race at a news conference tomorrow.

MSNBC - Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts won the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses Monday night, NBC News projected based on more then three-quarters of the precincts reporting. Kerry and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina appeared to break away from the rest of the candidates Monday, running far ahead of Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt, who will drop out of the race Tuesday, aides told MSNBC-TV.

But Does He Do Standup

You can catch Gephardt this Tuesday night on Leno (along with Naomi Watts and Phil Collins, BTW).

All Gephardt, All The Time

Today I also came across the Gephardt Healthcare Calculator, which as near as I can tell, is a thinly-veiled scheme for adding your email address to the Gephardt fund raising rolls. It breathlessly declares "Tell me how much I'll save!" ... yeah, and spam me for the rest of time, too.

More Gephardt Propoganda ...

... here at Gephardt's labor-directed site, GephardtWorks.com.

Gephardt "Critique" Sites

The Gephardt campaign is running websites that critique two other Presidential candidates, Bush (AMiserableFailure.com) and Dean (DeanFacts.com). Notable is their "under the radar" motif, with only a very small "Paid for by Gephardt for President, Inc." notation at the bottom of each page.

Visit each. For a taste of what's at A Miserable Failure, there's

America has lost 3.3 million jobs since Bush took office.
In August, more than 93,000 jobs disappeared.
41 million Americans have no health insurance. (4 out of 5 of them are in working families.)
This is the 29th month of the Bush recession.

At DeanFacts there's

Dean admits to his record on Medicare cuts, stretching from 1995 all the way to 2003. "Dean has said he supported an earlier Republican-backed, balanced-budget effort in 1995 that would have cut $270 billion from Medicare... Dean also supported a balanced-budget plan two years later, which cut $200 billion from Medicare." And he has "said he would limit the growth of entitlement programs to balance the federal budget, one of his chief campaign promises." Dean also "has not publicly ruled out limiting Medicare's rate of growth in order to balance the budget."

I think both feel very much like the online equivalent of going negative ... but judge for yourself.

Gephardt Blog Link

FYI, I've added a link to Gephardt's blog to the right-hand column ...

Gephardt Opens Fire

Finally, Democrats seem to be realizing that they're running against each other at the moment and not Bush. As I said before, they have to beat Dean before they can beat Bush. Gephardt has launched his first real attacks on the former Vermont Governor, charging Dean with a Gringrichian politics on medicare. This from the Des Moines Register:

"Howard Dean's beliefs about Medicare extend beyond merely disliking it. He's actually advocated cutting it and turning it into a wholly managed care program. And that's something I will never agree to," Gephardt told about 80 supporters at a noon-hour speech at the Teamsters Hall on Des Moines' east side. "Gov. Dean actually agreed with the Gingrich Republicans."

Gephardt was referring to news reports from 1993 and 1995 that quoted Dean calling Medicare, the federal health insurance plan for senior citizens, "one of the worst federal programs ever" and "a pathetic bureaucracy."

Dems' Favorite Songs

Fox News has a list of the Democratic candidates' favorite songs. The list is quite telling I think:

Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun-- "You Gotta Be," Des'ree.

Al Sharpton-- "Talking Loud, Saying Nothing," James Brown. He called it "James Brown's song about the Republican Party."

Sen. John Edwards-- "Small Town," John Mellencamp.

Sen. John Kerry -- "No Surrender," Bruce Springsteen.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean -- "Jaspora," Wyclef Jean.

Sen. Joe Lieberman --"Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow," Fleetwood Mac; "My Way," Frank Sinatra.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich -- "Imagine," John Lennon.

Rep. Dick Gephardt -- "Born in the USA," Bruce Springsteen.

Sen. Bob Graham -- "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes," Jimmy Buffett.

I always knew Bobby Graham was a parrothead.

Candidates Argue Taxes

The 2004 Democratic hopefuls spent Monday night discussing how much of Bush's tax cuts should be repealed. Kerry, Kucinich, Mosley-Braun and Lieberman all agreed to repeal only those cuts effecting the rich, while Howard Dean lined up with Dick Gephardt and Al Sharpton to advocate reversing the Bush cuts across the board.

"I think it's very important that Democrats not promise more than we can deliver," Dean said. "We can deliver health care for every American, or we can have the tax cuts."

Are Dean's supporters still trying to convince the public and the pundits that he's a moderate?

Source: NH Primary Monitor

A Tearful Gephardt Accepts Union Endorsement (With Glee)

Gephardt is quickly racking up union endorsements. He picked up his eleventh on Sunday:

U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri choked up Saturday when accepting the endorsement of the Teamsters - a union his father, a truck driver, belonged to before he died 15 years ago.

"How proud my dad would be to see me here today getting the endorsement of his union that fought for him," Gephardt, wiping his eyes, said at a Teamsters rally in Des Moines.

While union endorsements will help him get the support of the Democrat base, his biggest challenge is likely to come from the centrists like Edwards and Lieberman. Lieberman is already framing the primary around the middle class where union membership is much lesss important. Edwards is likely to follow suit.

Gephardt Misses Head Start Vote

CNN reports that Dick Gephardt missed a narrow vote on a Republican bill that will allow some Head Start programs to be controlled by their respective states. Gephardt's response is quoted :

"I try to make as many of the votes as I can, but the Republicans tend to produce as many votes as they need to win these things, unfortunately ... They are in control. They have enough votes to do that."

The bill passed the house 217 to 216.

Rivals Target Gephardt's Strengths

By strengths they mean Gephardt's union support, which, with Gephardt's flagging financials, the other Dems are starting to target. Read more via Yahoo / AP.

'Wake-Up Call': Gephardt Fundraising Comes In Light

Trying to get some posts up as we deal with our database migration ... let's start with this Yahoo / USAToday article which reports less-than-delightful news for the Gephardt campaign:

Rep. Richard Gephardt, who raised millions of dollars for congressional candidates when he was the House Democratic leader, fell short in his presidential race Tuesday with fundraising totals that put him well below his $5 million goal and the top tier of the field.

Gephardt, of Missouri, raised $3.9 million in April, May and June. That put him fifth among the six major Democratic contenders. He was fourth in cash on hand, another key indicator, according to reports due today at the Federal Election Commission. He had $6.3 million as of June 30.

Gephardt Visits Clinton

The town, not the former President. If you've been reading this page with any frequency, you know I try to post local stump coverage, and here the Clinton, Iowa Clinton Herald offers a first-hand account of a recent visit by Gephardt.

"By 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999... things were going in the right direction," he said, adding that 23 million new jobs were created in seven years' time.

"In 24 months, he's turned everything on its head," Gephardt said of Bush.
Gephardt's major push is to extend health coverage to 97 percent of the uninsured. The plan maintains employer-based health insurance coverage that promotes efficiency through group health insurance coverage and directs the benefits of the stimulus package to America's working families, he said.

Gephardt Banks On Strong Union With Labor

Gephardt, who is the only candidate invited to address the AFL-CIO executive council's gathering back in February, is banking on the unions. Here's the story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Gephardt's commitment to pro-union issues and hard-edged trade policies goes a long way toward defining the politician that Gephardt has become and the kind of president he would be. Labor's response to Gephardt's entreaties will go a long way in determining how far Gephardt will go in his drive for the Democratic Party nomination.

"Fighting for working families is in my bones; it's where I come from," he said at Mason Elementary School in St. Louis when he declared his candidacy earlier this year.

Gephardt Goes To Iowa

The Daily Nonpareil reports that Gephardt will be stumping in Iowa this week, visiting, among other places, Council Bluffs:

Gephardt will talk with Cindy and Ron Lakatos, owners of the Lake Manawa Dairy Queen, at their store at 540 32nd Avenue at 10 a.m. The event is open to the public.

Gephardt Blasts Bush Agenda

From the Portsmouth Herald (NH):

A day before Independence Day, U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., visited the site of a conspiracy against the crown.

Like Declaration of Independence signer William Whipple, who lived in the Moffatt-Ladd House on Market Street during the late 18th century, Gephardt wants to free America from its current leadership. Gephardt smiled as his tour guide and strong supporter, Moffatt-Ladd House curator Barbara Ward, told of Whipple’s role in the colonial cause ...

... Across the street, during a speech in The Oar House tavern, Gephardt continued to criticize the Republican, trickle-down economics reflected in Bush’s tax-cut policies.

Bush argues that tax cuts for wealthy Americans will spur investment and create jobs for lower income citizens.

"There’s only one problem with trickle-down economics," Gephardt said. "It takes 100 years to trickle down."

Gephardt's Son Visits New Hampshire

From the News Tribune (MO):

Matt Gephardt joined fellow cancer survivors for a "Relay for Life" fund-raiser [last] Saturday, walking a few laps around a junior high school running track and displaying a one-track mind focused on boosting his father's presidential campaign.

The 18-hour American Cancer Society walk-a-thon for cancer research and patient programs was in its final hours when Gephardt joined the crowd Saturday morning.