Cooler Heads Debate Issues

Subdued but defiant, Howard Dean reasserted his criticism of his rivals for supporting the war in Iraq during a debate Thursday that saw the Democratic presidential contenders temper the verbal fireworks that marked their encounters before the Iowa caucuses.

From its opening moments, the debate at St. Anselm College showed the effect of the surprising one-two finish in Iowa of Sens. John F. Kerry and John Edwards, both of whom emphasized positive themes and minimized attacks as the caucuses approached.

The candidates almost entirely avoided assailing each other, even when prompted by the panel of four questioners. The characteristic moment came when ABC News’ Peter Jennings asked Sen. Joe Lieberman if Kerry or Dean would be vulnerable to Republican attacks on social and cultural issues.

“I’m going to let the voters cast that judgment on Howard Dean and John Kerry,” Lieberman said. He added: “This is a time to be affirmative.”

The main exception to the tone came when Dean was asked about his assertion that support for the war by most of his rivals raised questions about their judgment.

“Someone earlier made a remark about losing 500 soldiers and 2,200 wounded,” Dean said. “Those soldiers were sent there by the vote of Sen. Lieberman and Sen. Kerry and Sen. Edwards. That is a fact. And I think that’s a very serious matter. And it is a matter upon which we differ.”

Lieberman alone responded in defense of the vote by Congress in late 2002 authorizing the war. “We made the right decision,” Lieberman said. “We are safer with [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein in prison than in power.”

The forum was held on a day when Dean, looking to defuse the controversy over the bombastic concession speech he delivered after his defeat in Iowa on Monday, sat with his wife, Judy Dean, for an extended interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer and poked fun at himself on CBS’ David Letterman show. Dean said on the ABC show, “I am not a perfect person, believe me, I have all kinds of warts.”

But Dean on Thursday balanced the contrition with new contention, unveiling a television ad in New Hampshire that renewed his past criticism that his main opponents in the Democratic race had failed to sufficiently resist President Bush.

During Thursday’s debate, Dean said he would “vigorously support” whoever wins the Democratic nomination. But he added: “That does not mean there are not substantive differences between the candidates here.”

Though Kerry has surged to the lead in the latest New Hampshire polls, he drew no direct criticism from his opponents, apart from Dean’s comment about the war.

Kerry turned in one of his most solid debate performances, offering an emphatic answer when asked how, as president, he would feel if a veteran tossed away combat medals, as Kerry did after returning from Vietnam.

“I can pledge this to the American people: I will never conduct a war or start a war because we want to; the United States of America should only go to war because we have to. And if you live by that guidance, you’ll never have veterans throwing away their medals or standing up in protest.”

The medals thrown away by Kerry more than 30 years ago at a rally protesting the Vietnam War were not those he won in combat.

The latest New Hampshire polls show the Massachusetts senator now running ahead of Dean, the longtime leader here. The former Vermont governor has seen his support steadily drop over the last several weeks -- a trend accelerated after his third-place finish in Iowa caucuses and the backlash against his speech that night.

A Boston Globe/WBZ-TV poll that surveyed voters on Wednesday and Thursday showed Kerry now holding a lead over Dean, 34% to 19%. Clark was next, with 14% followed by Edwards, 11%, and Lieberman, 3%; 17% of those polled were undecided.

Early in the debate, Dean tried to defuse criticism about his concession speech with a joke. “You may notice that my voice is a little hoarse,” he said, reprising a line he had used in campaign appearances earlier in the day. “It’s not because I was whooping and hollering at my third-place finish in Iowa; it’s because I have a cold.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a frequent Dean antagonist, needled him over the speech. “I wanted to say to Gov. Dean, don’t be hard on yourself about hooting and hollering,” Sharpton said. “If I had spent the money you did and got 18% [in the Iowa vote], I’d still be in Iowa hooting and hollering.”

Later, Dean offered a more pointed defense of his speech. “I think it’s time that somebody in this party stood up for what we believe in and wasn’t so careful about what they were saying,” he said. “If we’re willing to say anything we have to say to get elected, then we’re going to lose. We have to say what we believe, whether it’s popular or not.”

Edwards flubbed a question about the Defense of Marriage Act that President Clinton signed in 1996. The North Carolina senator mischaracterized the law, which was passed before he was elected to the Senate in 1998, saying it would have “taken away” the rights of states to authorize civil unions or gay marriage.

In fact, the law did not affect the ability of states to regulate gay unions; it said only that no state would be forced to recognize a gay marriage approved by another state, a position Edwards said at the debate that he supported.

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark faced several tough questions, including one stemming from his endorsement by left-leaning film maker Michael Moore.

Clark seemed unsteady when Jennings asked him about Moore’s charge, at a rally Saturday for the former general, that Bush had been “a deserter” in Vietnam.

“Well, I think Michael Moore has the right to say whatever he feels about this,” Clark said. “I don’t know whether this is supported by the facts or not. I’ve never looked at it. I’ve seen this charge bandied about a lot.”

Clark was also pressed about his lobbying after he left the Army for a defense contractor, Acxiom Corp., which has been accused of violating privacy rights in maintaining a vast database of personal information on Americans. Asked about a controversial airline passenger screening system the company had developed, Clark said, “I have not seen the program.”

He said he would have argued for allowing civil libertarians to review it had he still been associated with the company when it was finalized.

Dean was forced to backpedal when asked about his statement last year that he would have gone to war in Iraq “had the United Nations given us permission and asked us to be part of a multilateral force.”

“I would not have used the word ‘permission,’ nor is that what I meant,” Dean said. “You know, my words are not always precise, but my meaning is very, very clear.”

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), drawing just 1% in the Boston Globe/WBZ poll, declared that he would flatly repeal the No Child Left Behind education reform act that he voted for in 2001.

“I would replace it with ... a new educational structure where the focus would be on helping to bring forth the creativity of our children ... to take a new focus on education, to stop this incessant direction of trying to make our nation a nation of test-takers,” Kucinich said.

Before the debate, about 2,000 people gathered for competing demonstrations in the St. Anselm College parking lot where the candidates were arriving. Banging drums and chanting slogans, supporters of different candidates marched in impromptu parades, lending the snow-covered college grounds the air and energy of a college football game.

By the time the debate began, the crowd had largely dispersed and most of the students returned to their rooms to watch the debate on television.

The candidates kept light schedules in campaigning before the forum. Kerry made an appearance at a chili feed in Laconia, where he repeated the populist and Bush-bashing themes he has highlighted in recent weeks.

He gained several newspaper endorsements -- including those of the Boston Globe and Boston Herald -- and the backing of fellow Sens. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) and Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara).

Kerry also won the support of union locals in Michigan and New Hampshire that had been supporting Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, who ended his candidacy Tuesday.

Dean appeared at a town hall gathering in Claremont. In response to questions from an enthusiastic crowd, he criticized his Democratic rivals who had supported the war in Iraq. He also said: “I don’t think we can beat George Bush with an inside-the-Beltway Washington politician.”

The Dean campaign’s new television ad that, while not naming any of his rivals, assailed Democrats for not more aggressively opposing Bush policies. “When George Bush was riding high in the polls and other Democrats were silent, Howard Dean spoke out to oppose the war and Bush’s economic policies,” the ad says.

Its barbed message runs counter to the consensus among many Democratic leaders that the Iowa results showed a backlash against negative advertising.

The Dean ad also touts the praise he received Sunday from President Carter during a visit to Plains, Ga., and portrays Dean as a leader committed to “standing up for what’s right, even when it’s not popular.”

Edwards spoke at Dartmouth College in Hanover. When asked about Bush’s proposal to send manned space flights to Mars, Edwards said the proposal was an attempt “to divert attention” from health care and other domestic issues.

“This is absolutely flabbergasting to me that the president has no health-care plan,” Edwards said. “He is so out of touch with what’s going on in people’s lives.”

Clark spoke in Bedford to a Planned Parenthood breakfast marking the 31st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

Lieberman made a pair of appearances in Manchester. He spoke to college students and the lunch crowd at the Puritan Backroom, a local restaurant.

Lieberman’s campaign also broadcast a new television ad in Arizona, Delaware, Oklahoma and South Carolina -- states that will hold primaries Feb. 3. Titled “Great Country,” the spot details the journey of Lieberman’s immigrant grandparents and describes his plans to help middle-class Americans.

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Times staff writers Maria L. La Ganga, Matea Gold, Scott Martelle and Eric Slater and researcher Susannah Rosenblatt contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

VOICES

Wesley K. Clark

‘When I got out of the military, I looked

at both parties.

I’m pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-environment, pro-labor. I was either going to be the loneliest Republican in America, or I was going to be a happy Democrat.’

*

Howard Dean

‘The president of the United States can’t balance the budget. We’ve not had one Republican president in 34 years balance the budget. . . . You ought to hire somebody who has balanced budgets.

I’m much more conservative with money than George Bush is.’

*

John Edwards

‘I grew up in the rural South. . . . I respect and believe in people’s”

2nd Amendment rights. That does not, however, mean that somebody needs an AK-47 to hunt.’

*

John F. Kerry

‘The troops of the United States of America are overextended. . . . “

The fact is if we are going to maintain this level of commitment on a global basis . . . we need an additional two divisions. One is a combat division, and one is a support division.’

*

Dennis J. Kucinich

‘[Bush] is going in the wrong way, and I dare say that what the strategy of his administration is just to wipe out government purpose for any social and economic justice at all. And I’m going to take the country in an opposite direction than he’s taking it.’

*

Joe Lieberman

‘Let me say that there is a scandalous fact, really a morally scandalous fact, which is that 43 million Americans don’t have health insurance --”

2 million more than when George Bush became president.’

*

Al Sharpton

‘The Sharpton doctrine of foreign policy would be to support emerging democratic nations and those nations that are underdeveloped, with real trade and aid.’

Source: Times staff research