The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 12—<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):
—7:30 am: Rep. Richard Gephardt appears on ESPN 2's "Cold Pizza"—8:10 am: Rep. Gephardt appears on Fox News's "Fox and Friends"—9:00 am: The University of Virginia's Center for Politics, The Hotline, and The New Hampshire Institute of Politics host a day-long forum at Saint Anselm College about the New Hampshire primary, Manchester, N.H.—9:45 am: Off-camera press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan—10:45 am: Gov. Howard Dean holds a town hall meeting with Pottawattamie County residents, Council Bluffs, Iowa—12:15 pm: On-camera press briefing with White House Press Secretary McClellan—1:30 pm: Vice President Cheney speaks at an event for Matt Blunt, Kansas City, Mo. —2:45 pm: President Bush names a new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the White House—2:30 pm: Rev. Al Sharpton signs his "Al on America" book at Joseph-Beth's Book Store, Cincinnati, Ohio—3:00 pm: Gov. Dean meets with Madison County residents, Winterset, Iowa —4:00 pm: Sen. John Edwards speaks at the Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco, Calif.—4:00 pm: Rep. Gephardt appears on MSNBC's "Lester Holt Live"—4:00 pm: Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun speaks at the National League of Cities, Nashville, Tenn.—4:45 pm: Gov. Dean meets with Warren County residents, Indianola, Iowa—5:15 pm: Rev. Sharpton speaks to the press at St. Stephen AME Church, Cincinnati, Ohio—6:10 pm: Gen. Wesley Clark speaks about his health care plan, Knoxville, Tenn.—6:30 pm: Vice President Cheney speaks at a Bush-Cheney '04 fundraiser at the Clarion Hotel, Jackson, Miss.—7:15 pm: Gov. Dean meets with Dallas County residents at a Commit for Change Rally, Perry, Iowa—7:30 pm: Gov. Dean meets with community members at a gathering hosted by Men of Vision, Des Moines, Iowa—7:30 pm: Rev. Sharpton speaks at an Our Voice! Our Choice! Presidential kick-off rally at St. Stephen AME Church, Cincinnati, Ohio—9:00 pm: Gov. Dean attends the Annual Iowa Democratic Holiday Party at Studio 55, Des Moines, Iowa
NEWS SUMMARY
As we drift into Holidayville, things are politically quiet out there today — maybe too quiet.
All you need to know about the Dean Alternative issue today you can find, here's:
A. Jill Lawrence's USA Today piece that nicely makes the case: Dean's success has been built on some old-fashioned basics of politics — not just high techia. LINK
B. The Boston Globe 's Michael Kranish continues the unpacking of the Globe's oppo work, with a story about Howard Dean, special Bermuda-style tax breaks for big business, and Enron. LINK
This story will cleave the communication strategists in the offices of Kerry, Lieberman, Edwards, Clark, and Gephardt into two distinct groups.
On the one hand, you'll have those who think that THIS time there will be a silver bullet that will open the eyes of the voters and the still-too-dormant press to the notion that Howard Dean is Mr.-Say-One-Thing-But-Do-Another.
The other group is comprised of those who will feign enthusiasm at the senior staff and communications meetings this morning, but in their hearts and inner voices they will be thinking that they have seen this movie before, and, so far, it always has the same ending.
In Burlington, they will laugh all the way into the weekend and say: the media is too undisciplined to stay with any of these anti-Dean stories for too long, and this one makes him seem pro-business anyway — a great general election pivot message!!!
C. Michael Kinsley makes Howard Dean's case better than Dean does about the political and intellectual trouble of those candidates who voted for the Iraq resolution but are now critics of the war. Said candidates won't like how Kinsley lets Dean skate on his own inconsistency. (See (B) above.) LINK
D. Could it be a Joecemeber to Remember as the Lieberman forces get energized by losing the Gore endorsement? What IS Al Gore's fav/unfav with New Hampshire independents?
E. John Kerry goes after Dean on national security with the Boston Globe (whose ed board is in the midst of hosting all the Dems), and David Lightman surveys the "can Dean beat Bush?" question. LINK
While it's hard to break through on December weekends, keep your eyes on John Edwards in the next 72 hours, what with his Sunday appearance on "60 Minutes" and today's intriguing speech.
Senator Edwards will speak at the California Commonwealth Club today to give a speech in "Defense of Optimism."
Look for the trained lawyer to build on the case he made at the Iowa J-J dinner where he argued that Democrats won't win in '04 if all they offer voters is a "message of anger."
Now.
The last thing any serious journalist wants is to become part of the story — we want to objectively cover the news, not be a character in the drama.
In the last few days, many of you who are supportive of the candidacy of Rep. Dennis Kucinich have been given some false and highly misleading information about ABC News.
This is an important topic and ABC News takes it very seriously.
Before we let you know what facts some of you are missing, let us tell you a bit about our view of some key aspects of the Kucinich candidacy.
Rep. Kucinich has succeeded in raising decent amounts of money in small contributions and building grass-roots support in no small part because he has consistently espoused a message that is distinct from the rest of the field and has appeal to many Americans who feel the Democratic Party and the leading candidates don't speak to their aspirations for the nation and the world.
Kucinich's views on foreign policy, defense spending, corporate influence, trade, the politics of meaning, and social welfare are all quite similar to those of his friend Ralph Nader.
These views resonate with many Americans, which was made evident by Nader's success in 2000, and has been confirmed by the following that Kucinich has built this year.
It is an important and distinctive message, but is not likely to capture the Democratic nomination.
However, it does attract a committed and intense following, and it is the responsibility of all major news organizations to report on the substance of that message and the reasons it has appeal for millions of Americans, and to strike a balance in coverage that doesn't inhibit the ability of such messages to find an audience.
To that end, and contrary to the impression some of you have, ABC News has demonstrated its commitment to all the major candidates running for the Democratic nomination by devoting more resources to covering the Kucinich, Moseley Braun, and Sharpton campaigns than any other news organization in the world.
That's right and unambiguous: ABC News has spent more time on the trail with the Kucinich campaign than any other news organization. If you don't believe us, please ask the Congressman himself at the next event you attend which reporter has covered him the most this year.
Or ask David Bauder of the Associated Press or Mark Jurkowitz of the Boston Globe how many days their news organizations have assigned reporters to cover Dennis Kucinich during the entire campaign.
Again: Contrary to the impression many of you have, ABC News has devoted more time and expense covering the Kucinich campaign than has any other news organization.
Contrary to what some of you have been led to believe, we continue to have a reporter assigned to cover the Congressman, covering his major events and staying in touch by phone and e-mail, the way other news organizations do on many stories.
Melinda Arons of ABC News has covered the campaign since September and is one of just two reporters — print or broadcast — to have been assigned to cover the campaign exclusively.
Only Arons, though, has been traveling with Kucinich everywhere as he makes his case for his candidacy.
She has written daily about a candidate who rarely receives press coverage in any newspaper; she has logged more hours of Kucinich footage than anybody else; she is one of the very few to have produced a video package dedicated solely to Kucinich; she is one of the few to have written and voiced a long radio package detailing a day in the life of the Kucinich campaign.
In short, Melinda Arons has probably covered Dennis Kucinich in person more than all other reporters combined during this campaign.
In fact, in her writing and broadcast work about Kucinich, Arons, has covered just about every issue in his platform.
To name just a few:
*His fervent opposition to the Iraq war, his insistence on bringing the troops home immediately, his 3-point plan to get U.S. troops out of Iraq that includes handing over all oil contracts to the UN, relinquishing any say over privatization, and handing over the cause of governance to the UN.
*His plan to provide universal single payer health care, for which he's introduced legislation as embodied in HR 676.
*His plan to cancel NAFTA and the WTO and his reasons for wanting to do so.
*His plan to universal pre-kindergarten for ages 3, 4, and 5, paid for by a 15 percent cut in the what he calls "the Pentagon's bloated budget."
*His plan to provide free public college tuition, paid for with the money gained by repealing the Bush tax cuts for the top bracket.
*His introduction of legislation to repeal the Patriot Act.
*His plans to rejoin the world community by signing the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, the Land Mine Treaty, the Small Arms Treaty, to sign the Kyoto climate treaty, to join the International Criminal Court, etc.
*His being one of the few candidates to fully support gay marriage, not just civil unions.
*His change of heart on abortion.
*His plan to create a WPA-type program to ensure a full-employment economy.
In addition, Arons has captured the major themes of Kucinich's campaign and how they make him unique among he candidates, including:
*His "holistic" world view which envisions "the world as one, with everything interconnected and interdependent."
*His desire to rejoin America with the world community and build up the UN's standing.
*His insistence that he can win against President Bush because he provides the strongest contrast to him and will therefore entice Greens and other third-party or independent voters.
Some of you might have heard by now that ABC News this week decided to change the way we are deploying our limited resources by having our reporters covering Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton, and Carol Moseley Braun not travel full time, every day with those candidates.
The reporters are still assigned to report multiple times each day by phone and e-mail on these campaigns, meaning that ABC News continues to cover these three candidacies more closely than all but perhaps one other news organization.
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