WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- The nine candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination met in South Carolina Saturday night to square off on healthcare, taxes, civil liberties and the economy in the first national debate as the country's attention turns from the war in Iraq to the political stage.
Former Clinton Chief of Staff George Stephanopoulos, who now is a commentator for ABC News, moderated the debate held in Drayton Hall on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Greenville.
The South Carolina Democratic Party sponsored the event, the centerpiece of the state party's two-day conference. Democrats have a crowded field with Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Bob Graham, D-Fla., and John Edwards, D-N.C.; Reps. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.; former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean; former Sen. Carol Mosley Braun; and civil rights activist Al Sharpton.
While no clear leader emerged by the end of the 90-minute exchange, the event began with a heated exchange between Dean and Kerry. Earlier in the week, aides in the Dean camp had criticized Kerry's ability to lead the nation's military forces as commander in chief. Kerry sharply retorted that he "didn't need any lectures in courage from Governor Dean."
Graham and the others beseeched the pair to stop fighting and reminded them that they were there to choose a candidate to face President George W. Bush in November 2004.
"The squabble between Dean and Kerry doesn't send the right message to voters about our party," said Lieberman.
The debate then turned to Gephardt's proposal for universal healthcare. Gephardt's proposal gives employers a 60 percent tax credit on healthcare premiums for their workers and reimburses state and local governments for the cost of providing health insurance for their workers. The plan would cost $700 billion for the first three years.
Edwards said the plan would take money for the people who need it most and give it to corporations. He said the healthcare crisis in America cannot be dealt with unless lawmakers have the backbone to take on corporations.
"There's a culture -- and the president works for those people -- there's a culture in Washington that stands against taking them on. We have to take them on," Edwards said.
Lieberman said that he was not willing to raise taxes to pay for Gephardt's plan, saying that Democrats were "not going to solve all of our problems with George Bush's big irresponsible tax cut, and we are not going to solve them all with this kind of big spending. It doesn't leave any money to invest in education, to invest in finding cures for disease, to invest in homeland security or international security."
Gephardt defended his plan as a way to stimulate the economy unlike Bush's 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut that he said has failed.
"The Bush tax cuts have failed. They are not making this economy better, they are not helping people get jobs, they are not covering anybody with health insurance," Gephardt said. "We've got to give the people a choice. I want to give the American people a choice. If you like George Bush's tax cuts, stick with him, vote for him. But if you want to finally solve this problem that's bedeviled our people for a hundred years, let's get it done."
All the candidates assailed Bush's tax cut as bad for the country. Sharpton had the most cutting words: "I call George Bush's tax breaks, even the small amounts that he gives working-class people -- it's like Jim Jones giving Kool-Aid -- it tastes good, but it will kill you. In the long run, it's got the entire nation in debt. It is mortgaging our grandchildren. It will bring us to a trillion dollar debt that we cannot pay."
On the issue of national security and civil liberties, Carol Moseley Braun asked Edwards whether he would vote to repeal the Patriot Act that broadened the government's ability to gather information in the fight against domestic terrorism.
"I and many other people have real concerns that the Patriot Act vastly expanded government power of surveillance, wire taps, arbitrary detention, investigations, and arguably, again, violates all the amendments to the Constitution that I named -- the First, the Fourth, the Fifth, the Sixth, the Eighth and the Fourteenth Amendment. Will you vote to repeal it? Will you vote to restore the civil liberties guaranteed to Americans and privacy guaranteed to Americans by the Constitution?" Braun asked.
Edwards said his problem with the Patriot Act was not with the law itself, but rather with how it was being administered by Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"We have had consistent problems with this. It is why I have proposed taking away from the FBI the responsibility of fighting terrorism here in this country and simultaneously setting up an independent watchdog group, Office of Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, to watch what's happening and to make sure that none of us are losing our civil liberties, our civil rights, the things that, as I said earlier, I believe make America great."
Stephanopoulos asked Sharpton about his reputation as a racial polarizer and the worry that every vote for him in the primaries and caucuses would cost the Democratic nominee votes in November. Sharpton responded that it was the same charge leveled against Jesse Jackson 20 years ago.
"Jesse Jackson proved that he registered so many voters that we were able to regain the Senate in '86. I think that anytime a person of color particularly comes out of a movement fighting for justice that we are falsely charged with that," Sharpton said. "You have a sitting Supreme Court judge, the chief justice, that just went to a Fourth Circuit retreat humming Dixie. You have people that are waving the Confederate flag. They didn't wave it in Baghdad; they waved it in Columbia."
On the issue of trade, Graham defended his vote for the North American Free Trade Agreement. He said America does not have the alternative of becoming an economically protectionist nation.
"We have got to participate and lead in the global economy, not attempt to avoid it. Now, that doesn't mean that we are going to engage in trade with the law of the jungle. We need to have some rules that are abided by, particularly in areas such as labor and environmental standards. We need to have a level playing field," Graham said.
Kucinich said the problem with NAFTA is the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs.
"It's time to cancel NAFTA and the WTO (World Trade Organization) and return to a trading system that is conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and the environment. Otherwise workers are undermined at the bargaining table, jobs are going south out of the country, and they are going further off this continent," Kucinich said. "And what's happening is we are losing control of our own destiny with a $500 billion trade deficit, and with rising unemployment. And I think that a core problem here is our trade policy. It's time to get rid of NAFTA and the WTO."
Kerry said it would be a mistake to cancel NAFTA. What is needed, he said, it to manage the pact more effectively.
The Democrats face February primaries, with Iowa and New Hampshire holding their caucuses in January.
The debate came six days before Bush is scheduled to deliver the commencement address on the same campus. The university will bestow the president with an honorary law degree. Bush's father while president addressed the graduating class in May 1990.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted last month showed Lieberman leading the group of candidates as the choice for 19 percent of voters surveyed. Gephardt had 14 percent and Kerry had 13 percent. Dean and Sharpton trailed with 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
The debate also comes after a portion of the campaign finance law was struck down by a federal panel. It is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. At issue is the McCain-Feingold law that banned the use of soft money and restricted so-called issue ads. While the ruling is being reviewed, the Democratic and Republican parties will be able to resume raising soft money as long as it is not used for issue ads.
South Carolina is a Republican stronghold and the Democratic Party there has been lacking cash in recent years after having a tight grasp on nearly all the top political posts in the 1980s.
