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 Dems in debate urge taxes on wealthiest
JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) -- Democratic presidential hopefuls called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations Thursday and agreed in an unusually cordial debate that any thought of balancing the federal budget would have to wait.
"We're not going to be able to dig ourselves out" of Bush-era deficits in the next year or two, said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, one of six Democratic rivals sharing a stage for the final time before Iowa's leadoff Jan. 3 caucuses.
Asked about the importance of eliminating deficits, Democrats responded by criticizing President Bush's economic policies, including some of his tax cuts.
The discussion of taxes underscored the gulf between the two parties on economic issues. Republican candidates called repeatedly on Wednesday for elimination of the estate tax
-- which falls principally on the largest of estates -- and reduction in the income tax on corporations.
Those differences will have to wait for the general election campaign, however. For now, all presidential hopefuls in both parties are concentrating with single-minded determination on their nomination races beginning with the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 and the New Hampshire primary five days later.
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel were excluded from the debate because they did not meet a requirement that they have a campaign office in the state. Gravel also did not meet a requirement that he have a paid staffer in the state by Oct. 1.
It was not clear why the same rules did not exclude former ambassador Alan Keyes from the Register's debate of Republican candidates on Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the newspaper did not immediately return a telephone call or e-mail.
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Clinton adviser out for Obama comment
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- A top campaign adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton resigned Thursday, a day after suggesting Democrats should be wary of nominating Barack Obama because his teenage drug use could make it hard for him to win the presidency.
Clinton herself apologized to Obama as they waited to fly to Iowa for a debate.
Bill Shaheen, a national co-chairman for Clinton and a prominent New Hampshire political figure, had raised the issue during a Wednesday interview, published on washingtonpost.com.
"I made a mistake and in light of what happened, I have made the personal decision that I will step down as the co-chair of the Hillary for President campaign," Shaheen said in a statement released by the campaign Thursday. "This election is too important, and we must all get back to electing the best qualified candidate who has the record of making change happen in this country. That candidate is Hillary Clinton."
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McCain weighs in on Mitchell Report
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP ) -- White House hopeful John McCain, an avid baseball fan, weighed in Thursday on the Mitchell Report, an investigation into steroid use in professional baseball.
McCain, who was speaking to reporters after a campaign stop in eastern Iowa, said it's time for major league players found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs and their union to "step forward" for punishments and restrictions.
"It's time now for the players' union to step forward and say 'OK, we'll save the game and the reputation of the game and cooperate with meaningful, tough punishments and testing procedures so that we can prevent this from ever happening again," the Arizona senator said.
Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell was hired by baseball commissioner Bud Selig to conduct the investigation. Mitchell recommended that the drug-testing program be made independent, that a list of the substances players test positive for be listed periodically and that the timing of testing be more unpredictable.
McCain, a Republican, said up to this point there has been "obfuscation and delay too often on this issue."
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Romney says Huckabee 'too liberal'
MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) -- Trailing in Iowa, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney intensified his criticism of rival Mike Huckabee on Thursday and called him "too liberal" on immigration, crime, spending and taxes.
"I frankly think that the more people come to know Mike Huckabee the more they realize they don't know about Mike Huckabee," the former Massachusetts governor said a day after all the candidates largely held their fire at their final debate before Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses.
Romney, however, pulled no punches after talking fiscal issues with prospective supporters at a historic hotel in this eastern Iowa town along the Mississippi River. Speaking to reporters, he vowed to keep up his review of the former Arkansas governor's record.
The stepped-up rhetoric comes as polls show a competitive race in the first state to speak in the state-by-state march to the GOP nomination. Romney led in the state for months, but Huckabee's recent rise here and elsewhere has prompted Romney to aggressively go after his opponent in TV ads and on the campaign trail this week as the race has grown hotter by the day.
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Paul brings Huckabee critics to Iowa
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Two former Republican legislators from Mike Huckabee
's home state are in Iowa this week criticizing Huckabee's record on immigration and taxes on trips paid for by Ron Paul, Huckabee's Republican presidential rival.
Paul's campaign said Thursday it was paying former Sen. Jim Holt and former Rep. Randy Minton about $5,000 each to go to Iowa for a series of radio interviews criticizing Huckabee's 10 1/2 years as Arkansas governor.
"We just want to make sure Iowans get the full picture of what Governor Huckabee did when he was in office," said Paul's campaign spokesman, Jesse Benton. "There hasn't been a whole lot of information going out to Iowans and we want to make sure they get the full picture."
To counter the criticism, Huckabee brought in a group of longtime Arkansas supporters to defend his record.
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Obama says he wants to hear you
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) -- Democrat Barack Obama said Thursday night he is running for president to help those who are working harder for less but don't think anyone is listening to them.
Many voters, he said, realize this presidential election comes at a defining moment for the country.
"The dream that so many people fought for so many years feels like it is slipping away, and you know it in your own lives. Americans are working harder and harder for less," he said, adding that "they don't feel as if anybody is listening to them, they don't feel as if Washington is responsible to the concerns of the American people.
"That's why I'm running for president, because I want you to be heard. I want you to be heard," he said.
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Edwards talks to Iowa's undecideds
INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) -- Democrat John Edwards is meeting privately with small groups of Iowa's undecided voters in an effort to convince them that he has what it takes to win a campaign against the GOP presidential nominee.
Along with wife, Elizabeth, Edwards turned to a new tactic Thursday night before delivering his stump speech at a larger campaign event.
"It is a fight," he told the small group sitting around him. "That is a fundamental difference between me and some of the Democratic candidates."
Edwards took questions in a private setting that usually is closed to reporters, but his campaign allowed The Associated Press to listen in.
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Clinton strikes intimate family note
SHENANDOAH, Iowa (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton struck an intimate family note at a meeting in southern Iowa on Thursday night, describing her working-class family as the foundation for her values.
She laughed as she recalled her late father, Hugh Rodham, as a frugal Republican who "didn't believe in credit." And she portrayed her mother, Dorothy Rodham, as a compassionate woman who was thrust into work as a teenager.
"She understood that sometimes you draw the short straw in life," Clinton said. "So I was really raised with values that are rooted in what I think is best about our country, believing in the American Dream but knowing you have to work hard and do your part to be able to achieve it."
Clinton drew that biographical sketch the same day her campaign launched a television commercial with Dorothy Rodham talking about her daughter.
"She has empathy for other people's unfortunate circumstances," Dorothy Rodham says in the ad.
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Huckabee defends women's rights record
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Republican Mike Huckabee's record on women's rights is coming under increased scrutiny, including his endorsement of the Southern Baptist Convention's stance that women should "submit graciously" to their husbands and his opposition to sending women into combat.
Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, defended his record Thursday, saying he appointed many women to high positions in state government and on his staff during his 10 1/2 years as Arkansas governor.
"If you look at my cabinet, I had more women in my cabinet and on my staff in key positions, including chief of staff, than any other governor probably in Arkansas history," Huckabee said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Huckabee had been asked on the TV show about his support of the Baptist convention's statement of beliefs on marriage. The former Arkansas governor and his wife, Janet, signed a full-page ad in USA Today in support of the statement with 129 other evangelical leaders in 1998.
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SCHEDULE:
THE DEMOCRATS
The candidates, except Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, debated in Johnston, Iowa.
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Joe Biden of Delaware and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards also had events in Iowa.
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THE REPUBLICANS
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney made stops in Iowa. Sen. John McCain of Arizona also talked to voters there.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani met with supporters in Oklahoma. (Canceled)
Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson held fundraisers in Tennessee.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well." -- Barack Obama to rival Hillary Rodham Clinton during Thursday's debate. Obama was asked how he could offer a new type of foreign policy since several of his advisers once worked for President Clinton. The former first lady had chimed in that she was "looking forward to hearing that."
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Eighty-three percent of both Republicans and Democrats say they are sometimes or frequently stressed in their daily lives, an AP-Yahoo News survey.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Ann Sanner.
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
