Daschole is deeply saddened AND disappointed.
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(Please Freepmail me if you want on/off Daschle ping.)
Posted on 01/02/2004 2:04:27 PM PST by MegaSilver
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle says it is unlikely he will ever run for president and has no regrets about seeking re-election to the Senate this year rather than joining the fray for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Asked whether he might seek the presidency in the future, Daschle told The Associated Press this week: "I guess you never say never, but my current and only focus is my re-election, and we'll worry about other questions like that down the road. But I would say unlikely, but I suppose only time will tell."
Daschle said campaigning for the 2004 presidential nomination has become too negative and may make it harder for Democrats to unite behind the nominee. He said he's worried the GOP will use many of the comments from the primary races against the nominee challenging President Bush in November.
"The Republicans oftentimes say they have the 11th commandment: 'Never criticize publicly a fellow Republican.' And I think that's a commandment that both parties ought to adhere to," he said.
Daschle said it's too early to tell how front-runner Howard Dean's stance against the war in Iraq would resonate with voters if Dean is the nominee. "I think it depends on how the postwar Iraq effort goes and people's sentiment later in the new year," he said.
The economy will be the dominant issue in 2004, Daschle predicted, but international issues, terrorism and health care will be major as well.
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Democratic presidential candidates are hoping for the day when one of them can go one-on-one against Howard Dean.
But a new Time-CNN national poll indicates Dean has an advantage among Democratic voters in two-way matchups. In a two-way matchup, Dean has the backing of 46 percent of Democratic voters, while Wesley Clark has the backing of 32 percent. Dean leads Joe Lieberman 50 percent to 32 percent, leads John Kerry 51 percent to 29 percent; leads Dick Gephardt 53 percent to 28 percent, and leads John Edwards 53 percent to 24 percent.
While the Democratic presidential race is being fought state by state, the poll indicates Dean's overall strength among Democratic voters is considerable, even if the field is narrowed from nine candidates to just Dean and one or two opponents.
In head-to-head matchups for president, slightly more than 50 percent of the 604 likely voters in the sample chose President Bush over the top Democrats.
The poll of 1,004 adults included 399 registered voters who say they are Democrats. The poll was taken Dec. 30-Jan. 1 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, slightly larger for subgroups like Democratic voters.
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Wesley Clark says he will not be "Howard Dean's Dick Cheney" if the Democratic front-runner wins the party's presidential nomination.
"We've already tried that model of government," Clark told reporters Friday in Concord, N.H. "That's what's misled America thus far."
Clark said President Bush was a former governor, inexperienced in foreign policy, who surrounded himself with experienced advisers, including Vice President Cheney.
"He tried to reassure the American people by having a lot of highly experienced and competent advisers around," Clark said. "And we see the results right now in our presence in Iraq and the alienation of people around the world."
Clark compared Bush to Dean, the former governor of Vermont, but said his criticism did not apply to former President Clinton, once the governor of Clark's home state of Arkansas.
"Bill Clinton had several other things going for him, and the time was different," the retired general said. "This is a new era, especially after this current administration has done so much to wreck America's relationship with its allies and destroyed American esteem in the world."
Clark contends Dean asked him to be his running mate in a private meeting last fall before Clark had decided to seek the nomination himself. Dean has denied making the offer.
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An Arab-American group in Michigan is undertaking an effort to register new voters of Middle Eastern descent and organize a big turnout for the state's Feb. 7 Democratic presidential caucuses.
"There is no free Arab-American vote," said Imad Hamad, director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee of Michigan. "We see ourselves as part of the process."
The ADC plans to use education, storefront offices and door-to-door canvassing to get voters on the rolls and to turn out the vote in November. Southeast Michigan is home to one of the nation's largest concentrations of people with roots in the Middle East, with an estimated 300,000 living in the area.
Jean Abi-Nader, managing director of the Arab American Institute in Washington, said there now is a large enough number of Arab-Americans to demand that presidential candidates -- especially Democrats -- pay attention to their concerns. Most of the Democrats seeking the party's nomination attended the ADC's national leadership conference in Dearborn in October.
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Associated Press writers Will Lester in Washington and Norma Love in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.
Not that we'd need them, but we'll take whatever help we can get.
In head-to-head matchups for president, slightly more than 50 percent of the 604 likely voters in the sample chose President Bush over the top Democrats.
I read something QUITE different from CBS and ABC...
Just damn.
If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
Daschole is deeply saddened AND disappointed.
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(Please Freepmail me if you want on/off Daschle ping.)
Run, and never return.
Translation: Daschle will do what the Clintons tell him. WHEN they tell him. He, like other Dems, has seen what happens to people who cross them.
Wesley Clark says he will not be "Howard Dean's Dick Cheney" if the Democratic front-runner wins the party's presidential nomination."We've already tried that model of government," Clark told reporters Friday in Concord, N.H. "That's what's misled America thus far."
Clark said President Bush was a former governor, inexperienced in foreign policy, who surrounded himself with experienced advisers, including Vice President Cheney.
"He tried to reassure the American people by having a lot of highly experienced and competent advisers around," Clark said. "And we see the results right now in our presence in Iraq and the alienation of people around the world."
Clark compared Bush to Dean, the former governor of Vermont, but said his criticism did not apply to former President Clinton, once the governor of Clark's home state of Arkansas.
"Bill Clinton had several other things going for him, and the time was different," the retired general said. "This is a new era, especially after this current administration has done so much to wreck America's relationship with its allies and destroyed American esteem in the world."
Clark contends Dean asked him to be his running mate in a private meeting last fall before Clark had decided to seek the nomination himself. Dean has denied making the offer.
This is the real news of the piece. This remark ought to go down as another proof that Wesley Clark hasn't the faintest idea about campaigning. In one breath, he compares Dean to the "stupid" governor Bush and then in the next statement says that that critique wasn't valid against Clinton. Why? Because things are different. In other words: because I said so.
I keep hearing what a political genius BJ Clinton is but all of his prodigies (Reno, Bowles, Reich, Hitlery) disprove it in their actions and words
Wow, a good idea for once: "Democrats should never publicly criticize Republicans."
But Tommy definitely has his eye on 2008 if he can survive Thune, no matter what he says now. He can't take on Hillary and Gore, though.
I'd swtich my party affiliation for the year just to vote for him in the primaries. It'd be an easy win against Tommy.
A Bush rout, and Tommy is out.
From an unnamed GOP rap group
As long as there are enough dead Indians voting in SD, Tommie the Commie can get reelected.
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