Kerry Takes Hits in Debate

John Edwards jabbed John F. Kerry over his views on trade and spending in a debate here Sunday, presenting his most aggressive challenge to him since the Massachusetts senator emerged as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The race’s onetime leader, Howard Dean, spent much of the day fending off speculation he would quit the race if he lost Tuesday’s primary in Wisconsin, where he has campaigned relentlessly for more than a week.

Nearly all of Dean’s senior advisors privately agree he should end his campaign if he loses. And his campaign chairman, Steve Grossman, announced plans to endorse Kerry if that happened. But Dean told a Wisconsin TV station, “We’re not dropping out after Tuesday. Period.”

Edwards, polite but far more forceful than in most recent debates, criticized Kerry during Sunday’s forum for his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement and the cost of his healthcare plan. The North Carolina senator also cautioned Kerry that he should not assume he had wrapped up the nomination, despite wins in 14 of 16 contests.

“Not so fast, John Kerry,” Edwards said. “We’re going to have an election here in Wisconsin this Tuesday, and we got a whole group of primaries coming up, and I, for one, intend to fight with everything I’ve got for every one of those votes.”

Speaking with reporters after the debate, Edwards denied he was changing the generally positive tone that has marked his campaign.

But he added: “I think it’s important for the voters both here and in other parts of the country to know what the differences are between us, without being nasty or personal.”

After the debate, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced it was endorsing Edwards in the primary.

Dean, who has been excoriating Kerry on the campaign trail here, chose not to criticize him during the 90-minute debate at Marquette University.

The debate -- which also featured some of the harshest attacks yet from the Democratic contenders on President Bush’s credibility -- came two days before a Wisconsin vote that could prove a milestone in settling the Democratic race. The most recent polls show Kerry holding a large lead.

A strong victory by Kerry would solidify the sense that he has effectively clinched the nomination -- especially with the umbrella group of unions, the AFL-CIO, slated to endorse him Thursday. Those developments could leave his rivals struggling to maintain credibility for their bids heading into the 10 states -- including California -- that vote March 2.

Kerry spent almost all of the debate focusing on Bush. Apart from a criticism of Dean’s support for repealing Bush tax cuts benefiting the middle class, Kerry took a gentle tone with his rivals; he repeatedly called Dean “Howard.”

All of the candidates targeted the man whose job they are seeking. Edwards set the tone early when he said Bush’s honesty “absolutely” would be a campaign issue. “Certainly, the integrity and character of the president of the United States is at issue -- no question,” he said.

Later, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio and the Rev. Al Sharpton, the race’s two other contenders, charged Bush had lied to the country during the prelude to the war in Iraq by warning that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction.

“Clearly, he lied,” Sharpton said. “Now, if he’s an unconscious liar, and doesn’t realize when he’s lying, then we’re really in trouble.”

Terry Holt, chief spokesman for the Bush reelection campaign, said such charges amounted to “a plea for a headline,” and would backfire on the Democrats.

“It’s been a very angry, very reckless primary,” he said.

On another controversy that has surrounded Bush, Kerry said he would not attempt to make an issue of the questions swirling around the president’s service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War era.

While Kerry said he had not read the military records the White House released Friday night and could not make a judgment about the president’s service, he added: “I have suggested to some people who are my advocates who’ve gone that line of attack, it’s not one that I plan to do ... I don’t plan to do that, and I’ve asked them not to.”

Dean took on a subdued tone from the debate’s start. He was asked about his recent charges that Kerry resembled Bush in his reliance on special-interest money to fund his campaigns -- a charge the president’s campaign adapted in an ad on the Internet late last week. Dean responded by criticizing Bush, not Kerry.

“I think George Bush has some nerve attacking anybody about special interests,” he said. “Not only has he funded his campaign through special interests, but George Bush is systematically looting the American treasury and giving it to his friends -- the pharmaceutical companies, the HMOs and the insurance companies.”

Edwards delineated his differences with Kerry with more precision and emphasis than he had in recent weeks -- either in his campaign appearances, his advertising or other debates.

He restated his opposition to NAFTA and noted that Kerry and Dean had supported it -- something Edwards rarely makes clear in his speeches.

“You know, Sen. Kerry is entitled, as is Gov. Dean, to support free trade as they always have,” Edwards said. “The problem is ... what we see happening [is that] NAFTA, which I opposed, plus a whole series of other trade agreements, have been devastating here in Wisconsin.”

Edwards challenged the front-runner again after Kerry said his healthcare proposal would provide coverage for “97% of all Americans within three years.”

Edwards, whose healthcare plan would cost less and cover far fewer of the uninsured than the proposals from his remaining rivals, argued that Kerry could not afford his plan while meeting his promise to halve the federal deficit.

“I listen to candidates talk about healthcare,” Edwards said. “They say, ‘Oh, we’re going to cover 97%. Everybody is going to be covered.... We’re going to give you all these tax cuts for the middle class, and oh, by the way, we’re also going to balance the budget in the next four years.”

He added: “It’s just not the truth. People need to know the truth about what we can afford and what we can’t afford.”

Edwards also gently ridiculed a lengthy, complex answer Kerry gave when asked if his vote to authorize the Iraq war left him feeling any personal responsibility for the deaths of American soldiers there.

Edwards, who also voted for the resolution, said, “That’s the longest answer I ever heard to a yes-or-no question.”

The North Carolina senator suggested that his upbringing as the son of a mill worker gave him more understanding of the problems of working families than Kerry or Dean, who had more privileged backgrounds.

“I think Howard Dean and John Kerry have good hearts,” Edwards said. “They want to do the right thing.... But I think it matters to have lived it, and I have lived it.”

That drew a rebuke -- not from Kerry but from Sharpton. “I think bad people come from all economic backgrounds and all races, and good people are good people,” he said. “I think that people can have a prep school background and be very compassionate. I think people can be poor and very cold-hearted.”

The debate, coming in a state that has suffered the loss of 84,000 manufacturing jobs since December 2000, dramatized the Democratic shift away from support of free trade.

None of the candidates defended NAFTA; all said they would insist that future agreements included tougher provisions to improve labor and environmental standards in developing countries.

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Times staff writers Matea Gold, Nick Anderson, Maria L. La Ganga and Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.