It's Still the Economy, Stupid - Wall Street Journal

[question everything]

By JACKIE CALMES and JACOB M. SCHLESINGER
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

For months, candidates have faced a big question: Will this year's presidential race be more about the war in Iraq or about the economy?

On Monday night, Iowa Democrats gave their answer: Economic insecurity matters more than national security.

(snip)

For now, the rise of the economy and the decline of the war as campaign issues appear to have contributed to the sudden woes of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. The premier antiwar candidate finished third in Iowa, a heartland state long receptive to antiwar themes.

(snip)

If the Iowa trend holds, the lessening of the war as a campaign issue will be good news for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Iowa winner. His biggest problem has been explaining to Democratic loyalists why he voted in favor of the congressional resolution that authorized the war in Iraq.

An economic focus may not be so good for former Gen. Wesley Clark... (whose) late entry into the Democratic contest was based on his standing as a former general and national-security pro who opposed the Iraq war.

(snip)

If anything, the economy looms larger in upcoming battlegrounds in the South and West. A critical showdown comes Feb. 3 in South Carolina, where textile imports and manufacturing jobs moving abroad have taken a toll and Mr. Edwards has pushed his theme of "Two Americas," in which average workers suffer while the investor class prospers. Also coming that day will be votes in industrial and rural states struggling to create or attract jobs, including Oklahoma, Missouri, North Dakota, Arizona and New Mexico. Michigan, a vote-rich battleground that has continued to suffer manufacturing job losses, is next up on Feb. 7.

The good news for President Bush is new evidence that the economy finally is growing robustly after the 2001 recession and a painfully slow rebound through much of the past two years.

(snip)

Yet there are also soft spots that could cause trouble for Mr. Bush -- and that Democrats are attempting to exploit. Mr. Kerry never tires of pointing out that in the "Bush league recovery," corporate profits have soared in recent months while wages have barely risen at all. The labor market remains stubbornly weak, with employers having added only 1,000 jobs in December.

(snip)

Mr. Clark, the former general, seemed to bore in on economic worries as the New Hampshire campaign went into high gear Tuesday. In remarks at his headquarters in Manchester's gritty industrial neighborhood, he ticked off the numbers of Americans who are out of work, in poverty and uninsured. Only then did he cite the numbers of American troops killed and disabled in Iraq, and the $180 billion spent to date "on a war we really didn't have to fight."

(snip)

In the blur of campaign events in Iowa, economic issues were clearly uppermost on voters' minds. The capture of Saddam Hussein by U.S. troops in Iraq last month helped drain the emotional edge from the issue of war, and comments made to candidates focused closer to home.

(snip)

Though Mr. Dean has promised for months a detailed budget and economic plan, he has yet to release one. Aides have plaintively said they haven't had time to sit down with him and go over a blueprint. Through much of last year Mr. Dean had the most frenetic travel schedule of the Democratic contenders, as he attempted to overwhelm rivals with crowds numbering in the thousands.

(snip)

"What Iowa told Democrats is you can't be on the wrong side of middle-class tax cuts," says Joe Lockhart, former press secretary to President Clinton, who isn't affiliated with a campaign, but has been critical of Mr. Dean.

When Mr. Edwards spoke at a West Des Moines retirement home, one listener was Pamela Hodges, a 61-year-old social worker. "I was leaning toward Dean," she said, "but that thing about the middle-class taxes really discouraged me." It wasn't just the money, she explained, but a concern about how much he was paying attention to real voter concerns. "How well does the man listen?" she said. "I don't understand why he hasn't offered a tax cut."

Mr. Edwards, more than anyone, sensed early on the importance of having a full economic platform to bring to voters. Throughout 2003, while Mr. Dean was raising money and rousing adoring crowds, Mr. Edwards spent more time with aides crafting detailed white papers and giving speeches on policies such as cracking down on predatory lenders. Mr. Edwards has proposed tighter regulation of financial companies, including imposing caps on high-interest loans and requiring more detailed disclosure for credit-card companies.

(snip)

Mr. Dean hit similar themes about jobs and outsourcing, but his full-throated protectionist cry appears to have made some Iowa voters nervous, in part because he admitted that prices for consumer goods might go up.

(snip)

Mr. Dean also will point to his time as a governor and a successful record of fiscal discipline at a time when all the candidates are attacking Mr. Bush for record budget deficits.

The surprising new appeal of that argument among Democrats was evident at a Dean rally at the University of Iowa Sunday night, where rocker Joan Jett, traveling with the campaign, warmed up the crowd. For her, she said, Mr. Dean's antiwar stance was just "icing on the cake." The main reason she was drawn to the Vermonter, she said, was "he balanced the budget 11 times in 11 years." The crowd of students roared.

Write to Jackie Calmes at [e-mail] and Jacob M. Schlesinger at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107464827269507197,00.html

[cprise]

1. The WSJ cries uncle

1. Get rid of the war (its expensive and we're done with it anyway)

2. Maybe we were a little wrong about taxes

3. Keep pushing "free trade". Dean's "full-throated" cry just makes us nervous.

4. Journalist For Sale.

[Moderator]

2. question everything

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.


Thank you

DU Moderator

[question everything]

3. OK, sorry n/t