Posted on 12/14/2003 12:24:11 PM PST by jern
Print this article Close This Window Saddam's Capture Roils 2004 White House Race Sun December 14, 2003 01:47 PM ET
By Patricia Wilson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's capture injected a dramatic new twist into the 2004 White House race on Sunday, bringing President Bush more good news and complicating the message of his Democratic rivals.
With the U.S. economy on the upswing and now the former Iraqi dictator in jail, the nine Democrats vying for the right to challenge Bush next year are once again having to refine their arguments for replacing him.
The most immediate effects, analysts said, would be a spike in the polls for Bush, vindication for the four candidates who voted to allow Bush to go to war in Iraq and short-term trouble for the front-running Howard Dean whose campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is built around his fervent opposition to the U.S.-led invasion.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who along with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, voted for the war resolution passed by the U.S. Congress, pounced on Saddam's capture to attack Dean.
"This news makes clear the choice the Democrats face next year," Lieberman said. "If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a much more dangerous place."
The Democratic presidential hopefuls have used the chaotic situation in Iraq, where 197 U.S. soldiers have died in guerrilla attacks since Bush declared major combat operations over on May 1, to slam the president for failing to gain enough international cooperation for the war and not planning adequately for its messy aftermath.
"The fact of the matter is, as (Defense) Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld said, we still have a long, hard slog to finish the job in Iraq," said Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "The capture of Saddam Hussein is not the silver bullet that fixes everything."
Bush, whose approval ratings have been hard hit by the escalating violence, should get a quick boost, said Jennifer Duffy, an analyst for the Cook Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter.
"More important is whether it sticks," she said. "Or is this going to be a temporary blip?" The general election is 11 months away.
But the battle among the Democrats for their party's nomination begins in earnest with the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 19 and Saddam's arrest could be used to slow Dean's momentum. The former governor of Vermont was scheduled to give a major foreign policy address in Los Angeles on Monday.
Duffy said the long-sought arrest "took the edge off the argument of someone like Dean."
Democratic activist Donna Brazile, campaign manager for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election, said it would allow Lieberman, Gephardt, Kerry and Edwards to put their yes votes behind them, but she did not believe it would hamper Dean in the long run.
"Now people will start asking 'Where is Osama?"' Brazile said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican, said Saddam's capture made Dean "smaller" as a candidate, but Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist predicted Democrats would simply "reposition" themselves to continue attacking Bush's conduct of the war.
"In talking to the president this morning, he made it very clear in his own mind that politics has nothing, nothing, nothing to do with today," the Tennessee Republican said on "Fox News Sunday."
Campaigning in Florida, Dean congratulated the U.S. troops who nabbed Saddam on Saturday and said the development should "set a new course" for internationalizing Iraqi reconstruction allowing the United States to bring soldiers home.
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After the fall of Iraq a few brave Iraqi souls came forward with information. As the resolve of the coalition became more evident, more came forward. Even more did so after Bush's visit. I fully expect the intel floodgates to open after this. Furthermore, I expect freedom loving Iraqis to more actively seek revenge against the Saddam remnant.
Saddam may eventually talk, and if he does, it will be gravy. Much more will be learned from the citizenry before then.
Who is Kenneth?
This is a strawman; no one said that the capture of Saddam Hussein *is* the silver bullet that fixes everything.
Democrats piss me off.
Yes, cleary they just to to refine and tweak them a bit ...
What a great Sunday !
True, but it sure as hell trumps the "shit bullet" that the Democrats have been firing at random....
Semper Fi
Your wire is stretched too thin.
Don't think about my wire OK.
So you go along with the DUers on this kind of thinking huh?
How long do you think Bush held Saddum in that hole? And why did he let him out now?
But I thought that John F'ing Kerry (who, by the way, served in Viet Nam) backed away from his vote by claiming that he only authorized the THREAT of going to war, not actually going to war.
-PJ
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