Starting Gate: Kicking It Up In Iowa
True to their words, both Barack Obama and John Edwards turned up the heat on the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, during that Philadelphia debate and they haven't let up since. Both Obama and Edwards, joined to some extent by others like Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, have bristled at Clinton's less-than-subtle suggestion that their attacks have a hint of sexism to them but they've continued to suggest that Clinton is a candidate who wants to have things both ways.
And it seems to be working. Some polls have shown Clinton slipping a bit in New Hampshire and national polls have added to concerns among Democrats that she is a flawed general election candidate. Sounds like a great time for a counter-offensive by the Clinton camp – and the perfect place to turn the conventional wisdom back around.
If the mantra in the 2000 general election campaign was, Florida, Florida, Florida – this Democratic contest is all about Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa. It's here that the Democratic field has invested in – time, money, attention, organization – setting up a monster, winner-take-all type of contest. But the importance being placed on a small caucus state with a tradition of rejecting perceived negative politics makes events like the Jefferson-Jackson dinner difficult to navigate.
Too much of an edge could backfire on Edwards or Obama. This is, after all, a family gathering of sorts. A lackluster performance, or the usual stump speech which everyone in the audience could probably recite, won't fire up those activists the campaigns are stuffing the audience with. Few candidates are better conditioned to strike the right balance than Clinton. With the holiday season looming, time is growing short. The Democratic field will hold yet another debate in Nevada next week, but tomorrow belongs to Iowa. And as Iowa goes …
Bill Says Health Care Fiasco Was His Fault: Campaigning for his wife in Iowa, former president Bill Clinton said that the failed 1993 health care reform effort was more his fault than the former First Lady's. "She has taken the rap for some of the problems we had with health care the last time that were far more my fault than hers," he said. Clinton said the problem was that he failed to find a way to finance an ambitious reform and added that things have changed on that front now. "This time, when you let the tax cuts for upper-income people expire, it'll create a pool of money that wasn't there last time," he said. In 1993, "we told her she had to get to universal coverage and there would be no new money. She had to figure out how to do it."
Asked about the former president's contention, according to the New York Times, Obama said, "I'm not going to dispute his characterization of these problems. All I know is that part of the record she's running on is having worked on health care … so it's kind of hard to gauge if one of her claims is to have experience in this issue to then suggest that somehow she doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it didn't work." Obama added, "My understanding is President Clinton's not on the ballot."
Taking Support From All The Wrong Places: A new Zogby poll confirms what other surveys and media reports have been suggesting for weeks – Mike Huckabee is on the rise in Iowa. But the survey suggests the former Arkansas' governor's rise is coming at the expense of everyone except the man who's in first place: Mitt Romney.
The poll showed Romney leading among likely GOP caucus-goers with 31 percent support. Huckabee was in second with 15 percent – a rise of 7 percent since August. But since August, Romney's lead over his closest competitor – back then it was Rudy Giuliani – is relatively unchanged, going from 19 percent then to 16 percent now. In other words, Huckabee's merely at the front of a pack of contenders that still badly trails the front-runner.
Huckabee was the only candidate who showed significant movement, in any direction, in the Zogby poll. Romney's support slipped only 2 percent since August. Giuliani fell from 14 percent to 11 percent, while Fred Thompson went from 12 percent to 10 percent. All other candidates were in single digits.
If Huckabee continues to emerge as the leader of the everyone-but-Romney club, look for him step up his attacks against the former Massachusetts governor. After all, this fight may have just gotten a little personal: Huckabee sent out a strongly-worded press release after Paul Weyrich, one of the founding fathers of the modern conservative movement, backed Romney's bid for the nomination. Noting that he had been a fan of Weyrich's since his early 20s, Huckabee said, "I'll bet in the late 70's and 80's Mitt Romney wasn't listening to cassette tapes of Paul Weyrich speeches like I was."
Welcoming China: From CBS News' Ryan Corsaro: Rudy Giuliani is extending a welcome to the future of China as an economic power, but warned that the United States should remain a stronger military force and help condition the Eastern country as a democracy.
The former mayor had been greeted with standing applause by students at Iowa State University, many of whom dressed up in bright red school jerseys on a chilly November afternoon. In the question and answer portion, Giuliani was asked by a Chinese student about his foreign policy in regards to China.
"I see a lot of America's future with Asia," said Giuliani, telling students that the United States and China would be the two strongest countries in the world "by the time some of you are running for president."
Giuliani believes economically developing countries like China and India can be a source of wealth for U.S. exports. But he then took a more solemn tone, warning that "we must also make sure China's rise is a peaceful rise." He then said that China needs to be more politically democratic and develop their legal systems further.
Giuliani says the United States needs a build-up of the current military in strength in order to make sure China, or any other country, does not think they can challenge the United States militarily. He says the same "signal" should be sent to Russia, so that we avoid another arms race.
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