Three Democrats who’re running for President courted Iowans this weekend. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry says his campaign will stand up, squarely, against President Bush. Kerry says the “one thing we don’t need in the United States of America is a second Republican party” and he says the Democratic party needs to define its future. Vermont Governor Howard Dean called on the President to issue an apology for his rebuke of University of Michigan admissions rules which Dean says Bush incorrectly called quotas. Dean says the word quota is designed to foster racial divisiveness, and he called Bush’s comments about the University of Michigan case “a disgrace.” Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt used his trip to Iowa to release a plan that calls for repealing President Bush’s tax cut and using the money on a national health insurance systemGephardt says Democrats can’t win the 2004 election by “nibbling around the edges.” The three candidates spoke at a party fundraiser in Marion that attracted about 300 Democrats. Earlier in the day, the trio met separately with party activists in Des Moines. Former Colorado Senator Gary Hart, who is considering a another bid for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, will speak in Ames this coming week. And President Bush is rumored to be headed to Iowa the following week.
