The challenge for the Democrats:
How to win back Southern voters?

Words Have Meaning: Dean's gaffe may be a blessing in disguise

The Hartford Advocate: The World This Week by Alan Bisbort

Howard Dean learned a valuable lesson this week. Two valuable lessons, actually. First and foremost, he learned that -- at least to people who still hold out hopes for the Democratic Party to live up to its legacy -- words have meaning. Secondly, as the frontrunning candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Dean learned that he will be pummeled by all of the other candidates from his own party. If he's not careful, he will be hamburger meat by the time he takes on Bush, the presumed Republican nominee (if the latter is not impeached or indicted before next fall).

Getting back to Dean's linguistic gaffe -- and it was far more a gaffe than the mortal sin that his opponents made it out to be. He was addressing the secret that dare not speak its name: The poor white Southern (read: redneck) vote has fled the Democratic Party en masse, and they now comprise the core of the Republican Party's "Southern strategy."

This courting began when bigots like Strom Thurmond and George Wallace abandoned their Democratic roots. It was consummated by Nixon in 1972, and it has been exploited by Republican presidential candidates since by using coded language that plays on racial fears and simplifies party differences by focusing on issues like abortion, guns, flags and school prayer. These are symbolic issues that can easily disguise the abject failure of the Republican platform to address issues that directly impact the lives of the overwhelming majority of Americans.

Don't forget, Republicans are all about symbols and images; Democrats are about words and deeds. Dean was the only candidate who had the guts to address this issue on the campaign trail. That he did it badly goes without saying. Even he admits he "started this discussion in a clumsy way." What he won't admit is that he doesn't regret starting the discussion. Nor should he. It may ultimately earn a goal that all Democrats should have as their only priority: evicting George and Laura Bush from the White House in 2004.

The controversy began when Dean told a reporter some weeks ago that he wanted to "be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks" in addition to the voters who traditionally look to the Democratic Party. It exploded when he was asked last week by a black audience member at a town hall forum (note: Bush would never put himself on the line like this) to further explain these remarks which he (the audience member) found offensive. Dean's biggest mistake was not apologizing straight up.

The core of his response was correct; the tone and wording was all wrong, and it was regrettable. He said, "There are 102,000 kids in South Carolina right now with no health insurance. Most of those kids are white. The legislature cut $70 million out of the school system. Most of the kids in the public school system are white. We have had white southern working people voting Republican for 30 years, and they've got nothing to show for it. They vote for a president who cut 1 percent of this country's taxpayers' taxes by $26,000, which is more than they make. And I think we need to talk to white southern workers about how they vote. Because when white people and black people and brown people vote together in this country, that's the only time that we make social progress, and they need to come back to the Democratic Party." Continued: http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/Cover/index.html

 

Dean is Charting a New Course
Dean is Charting a New Course.
From: Mary MacElveen
To: LA Times

In response to Constance L. Rice's editorial "Confederate Flap: Stand Firm, Howard Dean" (LA Times November 6), I am reminded of the opening credits of Star Trek: "To boldly go where no man has gone before." In this case, Howard Dean is going where no Democratic candidate has gone before.

Dean is boldly taking his message to those who would normally vote for the GOP candidate in any presidential election. He should not be sorry for doing so. If Democrats want to chart a new course politically, then they must reach out to those who would normally vote Republican. They must show just how badly they have been served. That is if they have been served at all.

In this day where many revere the American flag, there are those that revere the confederate flag and have the right under free speech to show it. Many revere it as a part of their history. Something that this country is fast forgetting. Claiming everyone who flies this flag is prejudiced is just plain prejudiced.

I also agree with Ms. Rice that we still have slavery in this country. We have slaves to the many corporations around this country and those are the very people, Governor Dean is taking his message to. Governor Dean should not have to apologize to anyone. If anyone should be made to apologize it is none other than George W. Bush himself for giving these modern day slave masters in the corporate world a tax break that they did not need nor deserve.

Regards,
Mary MacElveen

---

Confederate Flap: Stand Firm, Howard Dean
By Constance L. Rice, Los Angeles Times

"Howard Dean wants to represent angry white Confederate flag-wavers. He even quotes Martin Luther King Jr. in doing so. And in a televised debate Tuesday he refused to say he was sorry for starting this tempest. Well, Dr. Dean, you may have clumsily launched this issue, but keep at it and keep quoting, because you're right." Constance L. Rice is a civil rights attorney. Complete article

 

AFSCME and SEIU Set to Announce Joint Endorsement
Howard Dean's Unlikely Road To a Major Boost From Labor
By Dan Balz, Washington Post - November 12, 2003; Page A08

"[AFSCME President Gerald W.] McEntee knew the SEIU was planning to endorse Dean last Thursday. He asked [SEIU President Andrew L.] Stern to hold off formally announcing the endorsement. 'Gerry is very instinctual,' Stern said, 'and his instincts were that, if we were both going to do this, it would be better to both do it together, for us, for Dean, for the importance.'"

"With today's endorsements will come not only more publicity for the Dean campaign, but the kind of institutional muscle his grass-roots campaign has so far been lacking. McEntee summed up the dividends this way: 'We bring money, we bring boots on the ground, and we bring blood and treasure to the process.'"

"The SEIU offered all the candidates the same resources: a list of their local leadership and a warning that the route to the endorsement began not in Stern's fifth-floor office on L Street NW but through the rank and file. 'Everybody got the same advice,' an SEIU official said. 'Howard Dean took it to heart.' No other candidate came close to Dean's outreach. 'Shockingly' not close, Stern said."

"The move stunned labor and political insiders and left some of Dean's rivals furious. Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), who has the support of 20 unions, believed he would get the AFSCME endorsement and was particularly upset."

"Dennis Rivera, the powerful leader of Local 1199 in New York [led the way endorsing Dean.] 'We have come to the conclusion that, in order to win the presidency, we need to change the political configuration,' Rivera said. 'We need to bring more people to the political process. I don't think that's happening with the candidacy of our good friend Dick Gephardt.'"

"Dean's AFSCME endorsement was even more unlikely. More than anything, McEntee was looking for a candidate with electability, a plan for winning and the financial resources to get there. 'We started out, and we thought Kerry had all the bona fides,' he said. As the Kerry campaign failed to live up to its early-year billing, eclipsed in part by Dean, McEntee's interest cooled. 'The traction just wasn't able to hit,' he said of Kerry."

"Clark then caught his eye. 'We saw Clark as a distinct possibility in terms of competing directly with Bush, particularly on the terrorism issue,' he said. 'We had many meetings with him. We had him go over to the AFL-CIO and meet with the political committee. But then we got, I guess you would say, somewhat disturbed by his organizational infrastructure.'"

"The fatal blow for Clark came when his campaign team decided last month to pull out of Iowa. The night the news was breaking, Clark called McEntee to tell him. McEntee told him he was making a terrible 'strategic mistake.' Last week, a Clark campaign official told another labor official that no one on the campaign had known how important Iowa was to AFSCME and McEntee -- further proof to AFSCME leaders of the weaknesses inside Clark's operation."

"As he began shopping for a new candidate, McEntee had a positive meeting with Gephardt, leading the former House Democratic leader to believe he might get the support of Iowa's most powerful union. But McEntee had also asked two top advisers, executive assistant Lee Saunders and political action director Larry Scanlon, to go out and look at the headquarters operations of the campaigns. When they got to Dean's Burlington headquarters in late October, they found energy, innovative use of technology, fundraising prowess and a clear strategy for winning."

---

When Andrew L. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), arrived at the Washington condominium of Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), on the morning of Nov. 3, he had no idea they were about to transform the battle for the Democratic nomination.

McEntee, hobbled by a chipped ankle, had put out a spread of lox and bagels for Stern and the SEIU's international secretary-treasurer, Anna Burger. McEntee knew the SEIU was preparing to endorse former Vermont governor Howard Dean for president. What startled Stern was McEntee's revelation that his union was also ready to go for Dean and that he wanted the two unions to do it together.

It was a radical idea, one that would put the AFL-CIO's two largest -- and among the most politically potent -- unions behind Dean's candidacy, a move Stern later described as McEntee's "big-bang theory" of how the SEIU and AFSCME together could vault Dean above the rest of the Democratic pack in a way that each acting alone might not.

This afternoon at a Washington hotel, McEntee, Stern and Dean are set to formally consummate the deal that was brokered over that Monday morning. For Dean, the endorsements show that, even as he is building support at the grass roots, he is also playing a skillful inside game with some of the Democratic Party's most important power brokers. [Continued]

 

Dean's defining moment
by Susan Estrich, November 12, 2003

Key excerpts:

What is Howard Dean doing? Going after guys with Confederate flags to vote for him? Taking polls among his supporters about opting out of the public financing system? Wasn't he supposed to be the lefty? Democrats everywhere should be breathing a sigh of relief. The party has a frontrunner who understands what it's going to take to beat George W. Bush.

Dean's inclination to opt out of federal financing adds to Republicans' problems and underscores his forward-looking approach. By foregoing federal matching dollars -- giving up about $19 million in federal funds -- Dean gets to spend as much as he wants between now and the national convention.

He doesn't need to do that to beat his rivals. But the real ballgame begins the day the nomination is over, and you're raising and spending money against George W. Bush. That's when you want to be free of the limits. That's when you sit there, chomping at the bit to get started, stuck at the expenditure limit, looking for loopholes, with lots of new people who would be happy to give, needing to hire people, wanting to take aim at Bush and start the general election, and hamstrung by the limits.

It's possible that the field could muddle along through March and April. But don't bet on it. If Dean can pull an upset in Iowa, he could wrap the nomination up in Michigan and leave everyone else going into debt, a place politicians hate to be. Then watch out, George Bush. Hold onto your flags. No one's comparing Howard Dean to George McGovern now. Complete Article

 

The Weekly Standard's Low Standards for Accuracy
It only takes a few paragraphs to find some eye-popping lies from the right wing rag that flogged the Monica story into a Constitutional Crisis and greased the skids for the Bush coup and resulting crime wave.

Who Does Howard Dean Think He Is?
Tall tales and righteous indignation on the campaign trail.
By David Tell - Weekly Standard - 11/17/2003, Volume 009, Issue 10

EARLY ONE EVENING this past March I found myself struggling for balance in the den of a well-appointed, upper-middle-class home in suburban Bedford, New Hampshire, a half-dozen miles or so southwest of Manchester. I was worried about teetering over because not ten feet away from me Howard Dean had just walked in the door from his car outside, and most of the roughly 100 local Democrats who'd come by the house to get a look at him were also in the den, now jostling--very politely, of course--for position. To make matters worse, the crowd had me trapped directly in the hi-my-name-is handshake path Dean was making toward the kitchen. Mine looked to be the next such greeting. Better I should remain upright for it, I figured.

And better, I further figured, that I not introduce myself under false pretenses, though I wasn't wearing a press badge and could easily have passed for just another guest. So when, moments later, the man was indeed right in front of me, sticking out his paw and saying "Howard Dean," I fessed up--in meekish fashion, privately embarrassed that I hadn't any "serious reporter" questions to ask him--about who I was and where I worked.

Whereupon the former five-term governor of the state of Vermont stiffened backwards a step, screwed up his face, and ostentatiously wiped his palm on the thigh of his pants, like he'd just touched a patch of manure by mistake. "THE WEEKLY STANDARD," Dean repeated back to me with a tone of incredulity--and only the faintest hint of irony. "You mean that WEEKLY STANDARD?" I mumbled something and nodded yes. "I actually get THE WEEKLY STANDARD," he went on. "Yeccch."

It's a funny story, in retrospect, a point of pride even, in a reverse sort of way: How many of us, after all, can claim to have received an unprovoked, face-to-face, personal insult from a leading candidate for president of the United States? For that matter, even at the time, I never seriously thought that Dean intended his show of revulsion to be anything other than funny. He was joshing, I sensed, a conclusion I quickly tried my best to confirm, in order to reassure the several bystanders who were listening in, tittering nervously and obviously not getting the joke, fearing instead that they were witnessing an unpleasant scene: Why on earth was Gov. Dean treating a perfect stranger so rudely? I would arrange to have the governor relieved of his burdensome subscription first thing tomorrow, I offered, with an exaggerated smile. "No, no, no," he laughed, "it's all right"--breaking the tension, ending our encounter, and moving on to his destination, the kitchen.

Where Dean soon delivered a nifty, quite gripping 20-minute impromptu stump speech in which he described President Bush, Bush's administration and "right-wingers" generally, and the Republican party and its voters more generally still--all of them together, more or less interchangeably--as the moral equivalent of a patch of manure, people whose hands you'd shudder at shaking for real. This time Dean did not appear to be joshing one bit. And this time no one nervously tittered about it. Quite the contrary, his audience was transfixed. A hundred Bedford, New Hampshire, Democrats went home that night thinking Howard Dean was pretty damned good.

---

Let's be honest. Dean never says Republican voters are "the moral equivalent of a patch of manure, people whose hands you'd shudder at shaking for real." A light joke directed at a notoriously scummy magazine isn't " treating a perfect stranger so rudely," nor was it a "personal insult." That's hysterical exaggeration from a magazine known to savagely attack Democrats. Tell's tall tales venture well into the realm of lying. I thought Tell was telling us Dean did that and that was outrageous? Taking the lead from their notorious liar / publisher William Kristol, lying is job one for Weekly Standard scribes.

The Standard lied by calling Al Gore a liar all through the 2000 campaign - even starting at least a year early with this "gem" from the Weekly Standard in 3/29/99: "As for the mules, it occurs to THE SCRAPBOOK that maybe one of them kicked young Al in the head." This because Gore had told a reporter he used to "plow a steep hillside with a team of mules."

The urban farmers at the Standard claim to know better: "How preposterous. Even when he tries to slum, Gore betrays his blue-blood upbringing. Real farmers, even poor ones, have been hiring bulldozers to clear land since before Al Gore was born, or at least using chainsaws."

However, Gore's story is verified by several accounts such as Peter Boyer's profile in a 1994 New Yorker magazine article: "Al's father, believing that a boy needed to know the rigors of hard work, asked his son, then a teen-ager, to plow a field with a particularly treacherous slope. Pauline Gore worried that the task, requiring the use of an unwieldy hillside plow, was too much to ask of the boy, and she and her husband argued about it. Finally, she yielded, with the sarcastic note, 'Yes, a boy could never be President if he couldn't plow with that damned hillside plow.'" See: Daily Howler 25 March 1999: The Weekly Standard was at it again, with a howler from down on the farm. And: Daily Howler 17 February 2000: When the Standard says that Gore has vile ways, we always think, "Hey! Look who’s talking!"

The Daily Howler chronicled several examples of politically motivated lies from the Standard. On 2/14/00 The Weekly Standard printed Matthew Rees' lies: "Gore huffs that Bradley's proposal 'wipes out' and 'dismantles' Medicaid, while only occasionally mentioning that Bradley wants to provide the poor with refundable tax credits to pay for their health care." There was nothing "occasional" about this. As the Howler's Bob Somerby showed, "In fact, Bradley's Medicaid replacement has been Gore's leading sound-bite since some time in early November. Far from 'occasionally mentioning' Bradley's proposal, Gore mentions it every chance that he gets!" See: Daily Howler 16 February 2000 Our current howler (part III): Nose job

Somerby summed up the "Weakly Substandard's" penchant for lying this way: "Bill Kristol said Gore had a character flaw. His staff seems to have the same problem." See: Daily Howler 29 March 1999 Kristol, perhaps all too clear. For more substandard "reporting" from the Weekly Standard, see: Google Search.

Figuring that lying to unfairly smear a leading Democrat as a liar worked once, the right wingers at the Standard are trying it again. Incredibly, Tell got one fact correctly: New Hampshire, Democrats do think Howard Dean is "pretty damned good." In fact they know he is. The Standard knows it too, which is why they're telling lies about him. This is nothing new.

But if "personal attacks" are really such an outrage according to the Weekly Standard, how to explain their article on Dr. Dean "Harebrained Howard" by associate editor Lee Bockhorn? Note the publication date: 08/14/2002.

In this article, the Standard leads off with a personal insult in the title, takes several gratuitous off-topic swipes at other people: Bill Moyers is a "public television blowhard." Al Gore's thoughtful comments are a "screed." It ends with this wisdom: "It looks like the only "harebrained" thing here is Howard Dean's argument against school choice."

No, "the only harebrained thing here" is the Weakly Standard's hubris and hypocrisy, blasting people with personal attacks and dishonestly accusing them of lying then whining when called on it.

When it comes to telling the truth, the Weekly Standard has no standards at all. The rest of the article proves that with the same mundane nitpicks, exaggerations and lies we've come to expect from this right wing hate rag. [complete article]

 

CNN: Dean First Among Democrats
CNN.com - Poll: Majority of voters would not re-elect Bush - Nov. 8, 2003

Key excerpts:

A poll released Saturday finds that more registered voters want to see President Bush voted out than kept in office in the next election, but his job approval rating has remained constant.

In the Newsweek poll, 50 percent of registered voters who were queried said they do not want to see Bush re-elected, while 44 percent said they do.

The president's overall approval rating in the survey was 52 percent -- the same it has been in previous polls by the magazine during the past two months.

But in the wake of more deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and the rising price tag for occupation and reconstruction, 51 percent of the respondents said they disapprove of Bush's handling of Iraq -- the highest Newsweek's polls have ever shown -- while 42 percent said they approve.

The survey suggests mixed feelings on the president's economic policies, following positive news this week. Forty-four percent said they approve of the way Bush is handling the economy -- up six points from the magazine's previous poll a month ago. Forty-eight percent said they disapprove.

Among contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean edges out Gen. Wesley Clark in the poll. Sixteen percent of Democratic voters and those who lean Democratic said Dean would be their first choice, while 15 percent said Clark would be.

Rep. Dick Gephardt was third with 9 percent; followed by Sen. Joseph Lieberman at 8 percent; Sen. John Kerry and former Senator and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun at 7 percent; Sen. John Edwards at 6 percent; the Rev. Al Sharpton at 4 percent; and Rep. Dennis Kucinich at 2 percent.

 

MikeHersh.com articles on Dean


Dean's New New Deal Coalition
Mike Hersh writes: Howard Dean says he wants the Democratic Party to get votes from everyone, even guys with confederate flags on their pick-ups. Some desperate anti-Dean Democrats compared this to the infamous avowedly racist Nixon "Southern Strategy" which pit poor Whites against Blacks for partisan gain. The opposite is true.

Dr. Dean is working to restore the New Deal coalition that FDR founded, bringing poor and working class Americans together into an unbeatable alliance with middle class and enlightened wealthy voters. From 1932 to 1968, this mighty national force dominated American politics, winning seven of nine presidential races. Dean wants to bring it back.

Mike Hersh Endorses Howard Dean
Mike Hersh Endorses Howard Dean writing: Democrats have a proud tradition. FDR wore his critics' hate with pride. He relished it. He laughed in their faces. He won the White House four times. Harry Truman "gave 'em hell" and didn't care who hated him. LBJ looked his enemies in the eye and they backed down. They knew they'd pay a heavy price for opposing him. Bill Clinton was hated and didn't care - he won twice.

These were proud, tough Democrats. They won elections and legislative battles. We need that kind of toughness to beat Bush. Howard Dean is that kind of tough kick-ass Democrat. Think about this quote from Governor Dean, "I'm tired of my party being bullied by the right wing." If that's how you feel, join me in supporting Howard Dean who promises to make us proud to be Democrats again. Vote for Howard Dean in your state's caucus or primary, and contribute to Dean's campaign.

Why I Like and Support Howard Dean
Warren Gammel explains to all his fellow brothers and sisters in the Bush-Cheney Bomb & Bankrupt Cheap-Labor-Conservative Resistance Movement (BCBBCLCRM) why he likes and supports Howard Dean.

How Does Safire Decide?
Becky Burgwin wonders how William Safire selects which quotes to titillate his readers with. Considering all the choice comments from GW Bush, Ann Coulter and Pat Robertson, why doesn't the NY Times columnist examine and analyze their bon mots?

Safire-works vs. Howard Dean
Mike Hersh "fisks" Former Nixon speechwriter William Safire who knows a thing or two about "fooling all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time." Safire likes to attack Democrats as dishonest - he called Hillary Clinton a "congenital liar" - but sometimes has a bit of trouble telling the truth himself. This time, Safire is flogging an "Urban Legend" that claims Howard Dean defended Saddam Hussein's dead sons. It's not true, and Safire knows better. Or he should. And after recent scandals because of its writers misleading its readers, so should the New York Times.

Please help me put out the fire
Jay O'Connell writes: Below is the link to my personal Howard Dean campaign donation page: http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1537166. Go there or just click here. I'm trying to get to 2000 dollars.

Help Take Our Country Back!
Mike Hersh asks you to Help Take Our Country Back by contributing to the Howard Dean for America campaign. We must flush Bush. Dr. Howard Dean is tough enough to do that. He can and will clean up the mess Bush will leave behind. Imagine if we'd never suffered through the right wing vote theft and this horrible, failed Bush Occupation? We can get back on track taking back our country, by electing Howard Dean next year. Then, we'll start making America great again.

 

Dean's Message Resonates as Flag Flap Fades


The new bum rap on Howard Dean
The headline coming out of this debate is the pounding Howard Dean took for saying he wants the votes of guys whose trucks sport Confederate flags. It's a bum rap.

Howard Dean participates in live forum
Dr. Dean answered questions in a live forum sponsored by the Concord Monitor and washingtonpost.com. Part of their series of live discussions with participating Democratic candidates.

 

Liberal Connecticut group will not back Lieberman
A liberal Connecticut Democratic organization, that counts Sen. Joe Lieberman as one of its founders, will once again snub the senator when it makes a presidential endorsement this weekend, the Hartford Courant reported. The Caucus of Connecticut Democrats [was] started in the 1960s as an anti-Vietnam war group. A key leader of CCD, Bruce Rubenstein, is backing former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a staunch anti-war candidate, in the presidential race.

 

Dean Campaign Flourishes in Florida

Howard Dean Blazes Through Jacksonville
Democratic Front-Runner Criticizes Administration as a 'Credit Card Presidency.' Presidential politics came to Jacksonville, Florida as Democratic front-runner Dr. Howard Dean visited supporters at a local campaign fund-raiser. About 225 supporters attended the $25-a-plate breakfast Tuesday morning at the Omni Hotel.

Howard Dean campaigns in Tallahassee
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told a Tallahassee, Florida audience today that southerners have to quit basing their votes on "race, guns, God and gays." Dean, making his first campaign foray into North Florida, spoke at a rally in Jacksonville then addressed more than 500 people at a luncheon of the Capital Tiger Bay Club.

 

Howard Dean reaches out to young people
Former Vermont Governor and 2004 presidential hopeful Howard Dean made a stop in Boise Oct. 30 to speak at the biennial JFK banquet, an event put on by the Ada County Democrats. This was Dean's fourth stop to Boise since last year, making him the only '04 Democratic candidate to visit the state other than Sen. John Kerry. Attendance for the event reached about 500 persons, owing to a large turn out of students who volunteered to help with the event, including Boise State University College Democrats. "We respect college students and college voters, and they know it. We listen to them, said Dean, adding, "We intend to win back the White House by reaching out to young people."

 

Dean is Right on Appeal to Southern Whites
If Democrats hope to win back the White House and Congress, they need to attract segments of the population that are not voting for them now. "I think what [Governor Dean] was basically saying was that these guys have been taken in by the Republican Party," says David Bositis, senior research associate at The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a private group that conducts research on public policy issues of concern to African-Americans. "They don't get any benefits from the Republican Party, except for symbolic benefits. But the Democrats have never challenged what the Republicans stand for."

According to Bositis, the Democrats don't absolutely have to win the South to win the presidency. If even one of three states where the voting was very close in the last election - West Virginia, Missouri or New Hampshire - had switched to Gore, he would have won. But winning back the working class Southern voters who've been co-opted by the Republican Party in recent years would certainly help the Democrats.

 

Dean Expands National Lead
Dean Expands National Lead of Democratic Presidential Hopefuls; Clark Slips; One in Three Voters Still Unsure. According to New Zogby International Poll Former Vermont Governor Dr. Howard Dean has expanded his lead over the field of Democratic presidential hopefuls, moving away from a late September tie with retired General Wesley Clark.

Dean now receives 15% from 558 likely Democratic primary voters nationwide, and Clark has slipped slightly to 10%. Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt and Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman are tied for third at 9%, slight improvements over September polling. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry remains at 7%, followed by civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton (4%), and North Carolina Senator John Edwards (3%). Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich and former Illinois Senator Carol Mosley Braun are tied with 2% each.