Democrats fret over candidates' bickering
By JASON CLAYWORTH
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Increasing clashes among the leading Democratic presidential candidates have
sparked concern from some caucusgoers and even candidates that the
squabbling may weaken the party's chance of victory in the 2008 presidential
election.
Others say the eventual nominee will emerge stronger as a result of the grilling.
At issue are a growing number of news releases, public appearances and
speeches by Democrats that directly or indirectly target each other in hopes of
swaying Iowa caucusgoers.
U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut warned during a nationally televised
Democratic debate that "there's a shrillness" from fellow candidates. Democrats,
he said, "have a job to do, and that is to unite this party, attract independents,
Republicans who are seeking change to join us 12 months from now and elect a
Democrat to the White House and to hold onto the House and Senate."
Others - including veterans of previous presidential campaigns - disagree that the
criticism aimed at leading candidates is tearing the party apart. They say a
rough-and-tumble primary campaign will toughen the eventual nominee for what
is bound to become a grueling, marathon-like race against the Republican
nominee in the 2008 general election.
"I really think it helps the candidates to sharpen their messages," said Tom
Henderson, chairman of the Polk County Democratic Party. "In some respects, I
don't think that the types of things occurring right now in the primary process are
necessarily going to hurt our eventual nominee, because Republicans are
definitely going to take shots at whoever our nominee is, and I think they'll be a
lot tougher as a result of the primary process."
Rivals are working to contrast themselves with U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New
York, who is the national front- runner among Democratic candidates.
Others seek to cast shadows upon the campaigns of candidates who are ranked
lower in recent polls.
Republican candidates, while elbowing each other, are also working to slam
Clinton. That's because she is seen as the candidate to beat, said Ed Rogers, a
former White House assistant who was the senior deputy to George H.W. Bush's
campaign manager Lee Atwater in 1987 and 1988.
While it's possible that such attacks from either party could create lasting
negative impressions upon voters that carry into the November 2008 general
election, that hasn't happened so far, Rogers said.
"Certainly nothing so far has happened that will produce a scar that will be visible
come November of '08, but I don't think the live ammunition has started yet,"
Rogers said.
Many voters are already familiar with Clinton's high and low points and such
criticism isn't typically revelatory, he said.
"She has zero symptoms of a losing front-runner," Rogers said.
Jesse Thoeming is among Iowa caucusgoers who believe the jabs between
candidates do matter. Thoeming is an independent voter from Cedar Rapids who
is undecided between Democrat Barack Obama or national GOP front-runner
and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
"It definitely hurts them, because you lose credibility and whoever wins the
primary for the Democrats is probably going to have one of these guys as their
presidential running mate," Thoeming said before an Obama campaign stop in
Cedar Rapids on Nov. 6. "Then all of a sudden you have disdain and you have a
public that doesn't trust them because just a few months earlier they were
bashing each other."
Thoeming isn't the only one with concerns.
New Mexico governor and fellow Democratic presidential candidate Bill
Richardson during the Jefferson Jackson fundraising dinner at Veterans
Memorial Auditorium cautioned the front-runners to avoid tearing each other
down as the Iowa caucuses approach. Dodd also issued words of caution Nov.
13 after Democrat John Edwards hesitated to say if he would support Clinton if
she wins the party's nomination.
"I am surprised at just how angry John has become," Dodd said in a statement.
"This is not the same John Edwards I once knew. Of course, we should all come
together to support the nominee. I wonder which of the Republicans John prefers
to Hillary?"
Edwards, ultimately, said he would support the person who wins the Democratic
nomination, including Clinton.
Strong primary or caucus attacks among presidential candidates with other rivals
in their party have historically provided mixed results. George H.W. Bush, for
example, used the catch phrase "voodoo economics" in 1980 to describe Ronald
Reagan's plan to lower taxes while increasing the defense budget. Bush
ultimately won the Iowa GOP caucuses but didn't win the nomination that year.
Reagan selected him for the vice president spot partly as a way to unify the
party.
More recent was the political jousting between former Vermont Gov. Howard
Dean and Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt. They both were leading
Democrats in polls during much of 2003. But their campaigns collapsed to
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Edwards by January 2004 after a barrage of
pointing fingers at each other. Kerry, who ultimately won the Democratic
nomination and selected Edwards as his running mate, lost to President Bush.
"On a national level, I don't see these attacks really hurting anybody right now,
but on an Iowa level it may be a different story," said Dianne Bystrom, the
director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa
State University. The Iowa campaign "is a much more interpersonal process, so
negative attacks take on a more personal meaning."
Jon Mott, a political science professor at Brigham Young University, said
negative information has to be believable and perceived as relevant before it
would influence caucusgoers.
"There is always a potential for a very bitter, negative primary to have a negative
impact on the person who services that and goes into a general election," Mott
said. "Certainly if it got worse, if it really got mean and nasty, I think that could
have an impact, but I don't think we've entered that territory yet."
Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee said most of the criticism from other
candidates - especially Edwards and Obama - has been unfair, but voters
understand it's little more than campaign rhetoric.
"It's amusing that candidates who talk about change and changing the way
politics is done are resorting to one of the most tired old tricks of politics, which is
going negative when your campaign falls flat, and I think most voters see that,"
Elleithee said.
Obama, in an interview with The Des Moines Register on Nov. 6, said his
clashes with Clinton on issues such as energy policies are important to the
overall caucus process. He discounted the idea that such comparisons would
weaken the party's ability to capture the presidency in 2008.
"I think that's the argument that people who perceive themselves as front-runners
make," Obama said. "We've got two months. These are entirely legitimate
issues."