Yesterday’s Democratic presidential debate in New York was far livelier than the events in Baltimore and Albuquerque. Watching the previous events, one got the impression the candidates were carefully trying not to make any mistakes. Last night, the gloves came off and the candidates came out fighting, mostly going after Dean.
Despite polls showing Wesley Clark’s strong early support, candidates like Dick Gephardt and John Kerry still see Howard Dean as their principal opponent. Dean is, after all, leading in Iowa and New Hampshire, and is raising more money than most of the Dem field combined. It appeared, therefore, that Gephardt and Kerry have decided they’ll go after Dean now and get to Clark later. Makes sense to me.
The sharpest exchange of the event came when Gephardt attacked Dean over Medicare. Gephardt said, “[W]hen I was leading the fight against Newt Gingrich and the Contract With America, he was shutting the government down — Howard, you were agreeing with the very plan that Newt Gingrich wanted to pass, which was a $270 billion cut in Medicare.”
Dean flashed the temper he’s become famous for. “That is flat-out false, and I’m ashamed that you would compare me with Newt Gingrich. Nobody up here deserves to be compared to Newt Gingrich.” He added, “I’ve done more for health insurance, Dick Gephardt, frankly, than you ever have.” (This may not seem harsh in written form, but Dean was clearly red-in-the-face furious when he said it.)
I initially thought the exchange may play in Dean’s favor. It generated some applause and showed a passion Dean’s fans have come to appreciate. It became apparent, though, that Dean may have been better off keeping his cool. Al Sharpton, of all people, quickly chided Dean, saying, “I think clearly we need to make sure we don’t give George Bush the night by getting too personal, Brother Howard.”
John Edwards offered a similar sentiment, saying, “We need to be really careful that our anger is not directed at each other.”
It reminded me that Dean was ignoring the wise advice Paul Begala gave him during the first episode of K Street: anger is all right, but direct it at Bush, not other Dems.
Clark, meanwhile, did exactly what he needed to do. A lot of people tuned in to check on his performance, not sure what to expect. Considering that Clark had some missteps early on in media interviews, even some Clark supporters were curious to see if he made any rookie mistakes. Many also wanted to know if he could speak as intelligently on domestic issues as he has on foreign policy.
I think Clark handled himself perfectly. Even in response to questions where he did not yet have a detailed proposal, such as on health care, Clark demonstrated the right priorities. He also seemed confident and “above the fray” while Kerry, Gephardt, and Dean bickered.
Other random thoughts:
* Joe Lieberman offered the funniest moment of the evening. “In the Bush administration, the foxes are guarding the foxes and the middle-class hens are getting plucked,” Lieberman said. After a brief pause, he added, “I want to make clear I said plucked.” I’m certainly no Lieberman fan, but that one had me chuckling.
* Bob Graham offered the unintentionally funniest remark when he said, “[Bush] is literally in bed with pharmaceutical companies.” Really? Literally?
* Sharpton did a huge favor for Clark early on, commenting on the fact that Clark is a relatively new member of the Democratic Party. “Welcome to the party,” Sharpton said. “It’s better to be a new Democrat that’s a real Democrat, than a lot of old Democrats up here that have been acting like Republicans all along.” That’s a gift-wrapped answer to any more questions Clark has to endure about voting for Reagan in the 80s.
* Dennis Kucinich is starting to get annoying with his overuse of the phrase “bilateral trade.” I know this is Kucinich’s top issue, the one he once said would win him the nomination, but c’mon. I counted three references to “bilateral trade” in the New Mexico debate and three more again yesterday. Enough already.
* Speaking of annoying repetition, Gephardt managed to go the whole evening without calling Bush a “miserable failure.” That’s a first.
* Brian Williams offered an interesting question at the end, asking all of the candidates to talk about one issue they’d pursue as president that would be unpopular. Who wants to admit that they’re committed to advancing an unpopular cause? Some candidates, especially Kucinich, had little trouble coming up with something, but most couldn’t think of a decent answer.
My only problem with Williams’ question was that it was the last one of the debate. The candidates didn’t get a closing statement, so talking about the most unpopular part of their platform ended up being the last thing any of them said. In effect, they were being prodded to say, “Here’s something I believe that most of you will hate. Thank you and good night.”
* Just three years after Al Gore didn’t even want Bill Clinton campaigning on his behalf, these candidates are tripping over each other to say how much they love Bill. Just as Republicans use “Reagan did it” as shorthand for “it’s a good idea,” so too have Democrats elevated Clinton did iconic status (a status, I believe, he fully deserves).
Going over the transcript, we see that Kerry said, “We can have the deficit cut in half the way Bill Clinton did it.” Then Lieberman said Clinton “transformed” the party in 1992. Kerry then added, “No president can shut the door to globalization and no president should. President Clinton traded. We created 23 million jobs in the 1990s.” Carol Mosley Braun chimed in, “When Bill Clinton became president, we balanced the budget and created jobs and had this country on a good economic foot and the people were doing well. We were in a time of prosperity.” Gephardt, who constantly makes references to returning America to the “Clinton tax code,” said, “I led the fight for the Clinton economic program in 1993. We got it through. We didn’t get a Republican vote in the House, a Republican vote in the Senate. It created 22 million new jobs. It made our unemployment go down to 3 percent. We took a $5 trillion deficit and turned it into a $5 trillion surplus. Why wouldn’t we want to go back to that?”
Eventually, it seemed Sharpton couldn’t take it anymore, saying, “I know that within the next hour we’ll say that Bill Clinton walked on water.” You mean he didn’t?