US: A televised debate revealed no clear winner, writes Conor O'Clery in Columbia, South Carolina.
On the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia at the weekend, it looked as if the presidential election was days away, rather than 18 months.
Groups of students waved banners, shouted slogans and festooned railings with placards. The occasion was the first debate among the nine contestants for the 2004 Democratic nomination, an event that signals the presidential election campaign is now well under way.
South Carolina seemed an odd venue for a Democratic debate. It is Republican territory, and the the State flies the Confederate flag outside the Capitol, which has prompted African-American organisations to encourage an economic boycott. A few locals turned up to wave the flag provocatively from pick-up trucks and tell the Democrats they were not wanted. However, South Carolina has moved up its Democratic primary election so that it will come immediately after New Hampshire in February and any Democratic contender hoping to challenge George Bush must win that primary.
All the candidates spent Saturday pressing the flesh at fish fries and barbecues, except for Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, who respects the Jewish Sabbath and for whom the debate was delayed to 9 p.m. so he would not have to take part before sundown.
On the streets the largest and most vocal group of students supported former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who opposed the war in Iraq, but inside the campus theatre, where the debate was moderated by former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, the front-runners were careful not to sound soft on national security.
Senator Lieberman, the most hawkish Democrat, warned that the mood of the country had changed since September 11th, and that "no Democrat will be elected who is not strong on defence".
Congressman Dick Gephardt of Missouri who supported the ousting of Saddam Hussein, warned that Democrats cannot be "Bush lite" (a line Howard Dean claims he used first) and "we don't have the money for the 50 states we already occupy".
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who supported the war, with reservations, squabbled bitterly with Dean for saying that he hadn't the courage to "stand up to the issues".
No one should lecture him on courage, he stated, citing his much-decorated service in Vietnam. It took one of the rank outsiders in the debate, the Rev Al Sharpton of New York, to step in and warn that "Republicans are watching" and that making cheap shots at each other would only help George Bush.
Actually not many Republicans, or Democrats for that matter, were watching, as the debate was televised only by one network, ABC, and broadcast very late, a sign of what they are up against to gain national attention. No clear winner emerged in the 90-minute debate. Kerry, Dean, Gephardt and Lieberman have made strong cases for the nomination but not since John F. Kennedy in 1960 has a non-Southerner won the White House, which makes Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who only joined the campaign on Tuesday, feel they have an edge. The remaining three - Sharpton, Congressman Dennis Kucinich from Ohio and former Senator Carol Moseley Braun - are very long shots indeed.
The debate revealed deep Democratic divisions over the critical campaign issue of health insurance in the US, where 41 million people have no coverage. Dick Gephardt has proposed a sweeping $20 billion-a-year plan which could make him the most difficult opponent for Bush to defeat. It requires all employers to provide health insurance and doubles the tax credit they get from 30 to 60 per cent and would be paid for by abolishing Mr Bush's tax cuts. Edwards dismissed it as a bonanza for big corporations and Lieberman as a "big-spending Democratic idea of the past".
Concluding the debate, Stephanopolous asked candidates about their perceived weaknesses. "Aren't you too nice to take on George Bush," he asked Lieberman, who shot back cleverly, "I'd like to come over there and strangle you, George." He asked Dick Gephart if he was not too like Bob Dole, the Republican insider who failed to defeat Bill Clinton. "You really know how to hurt a guy," replied Gephardt. He put it to John Kerry that he lacked the common touch, to which the Massachusetts senator replied "I think I'll just disappear and contemplate that by myself." Howard Dean replied to the charge that he was too anti-war to go toe-to-toe with George Bush with the claim that he was the candidate of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, prompting Senator Graham to retort, "I come from the electable wing of the Democratic Party."
Coinciding with the debate, the latest poll showed that 71 per cent of Americans believed George Bush is doing a good job, but that 48 per cent felt their lives had got worse, not better, since he took office. Spinning their performances later in the press room, this was what the candidates emphasised - that they could still beat George Bush on the economy.
