Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 8

8 TUESDAY, JAN. 20, 2004 NATION STATE THE UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL President puts finishing touches on State of the Union By SCOTT LINDLAW Associated Press WASHINGTON President Bush put the finishing touches Monday on a State of the Union speech that calls for modest expansions of voter-friendly programs while telling Congress to curb spending in the face of record-breaking budget deficits. Between rehearsals for the Tuesday evening address, he told reporters: "I'm almost finished, in case you're interested. A bespectacled Bush ran through the speech, editing pen in hand, in the Family Theater of the White House. He read from a TcIePrompTcr to a small group of aides, including staff secretary Brett Kuvanaugh and communications chief Dan Bartlctt.

Bush seemed relaxed as he passed reporters en route to a brief appearance before the wives of black clergy members. He said with a laugh that the number of drafts had not reached the "triple digits." The president left the State Room appearance as his wife sat down for lunch with the spouses, joking that he hadn't been invited. In fact, he returned to more rehearsals of a speech that will set his election-year agenda. Bush will open his address with remarks on national security, then move into domestic priorities, contrary to past practice, aides say. He will urge Americans to back him on the war on terrorism, arguing that the path he has chosen, including invading Iraq, is the right one.

Bush's message that his top responsibility is to protect Americans comes at a time when Americans are split on his leadership. In a CBS-New York Times poll earlier this month, people were about equally divided over his handling of foreign policy. But less than half said the American death toll in Iraq, which has climbed past 500 amid continuing violence, was worth it. The second half of Bush's speech focuses on domestic priorities, with a special emphasis on the economy. He will seek to convince Americans that his series of tax cuts has turned the economy around, and that he is now turning his attention to job creation, who aides said.

Education sources have said he'll call for new job-training grants channeled through community colleges to help prepare American workers for a changing economy. Constrained by red ink, Bush's job-training proposal will cost more than $120 million, said White House officials who declined to be more specific. Democrats said they were determined to make sure the president does not get too much credit; he has cut vocational education and an array of job-tfaining programs in recent years, they said. Seeking to highlight the "compassion" in his "compassionate conservative" slogan, Bush will also propose steps to rein in the rising costs of health care. The Census Bureau reported that 43.6 million people lacked health insurance at some point in 2002, up from 39.8 million in 2000.

But administration officials said they did not foresee a sweeping new proposal to bring more Americans onto the rolls of the insured. Last week, when the Institute of Medicine recommended for the first time that the government provide universal health insurance by 2010, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson called that "not realistic." Last year, the administration last year proposed spending up to $89 billion in health cafe tax credits to help those who do not have employer-based coverage. The Republican- led Congress took no action. This month, Bush has called for sweeping changes in immigration law and for establishing a research base on the moon. His State of the Union address contains no such large-scale proposals, partly because the government faces record budget deficits.

Next year, the shortfall is expected to be about $500 billion. Bush has pledged to cut the deficit in half over the next five years, and is likely to reiterate the promise, aides said. But Bush should go farther said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax is a sense of, 'When are we going to rein in Norquist said. "He needs to spend more time on the importance of spending restraint than on going to Mars." Iowa's caucuses open 2004 voting By RON FOURNIER AP Political Writer DES MOINES, Iowa Iowa's caucus campaign drew to a close Monday night as four Democratic candidates made a push for victory in the suspenseful opening act of the 2004 presidential election. In the closest Iowa contest since 1988, former Gov.

Howard Dean of Vermont, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts fought for the state's 45 delegates and for momentum in New Hampshire's primary eight days later. "We all face the same test here," Gephardt said before voting began.

"Everybody's got to do well or win." Dean, calling himself "ripping, roaring, ready to go," hoped to retain his credentials as front-runner for the nomination even as polls in Iowa showed a four-way statistical tie. "We arc not going to be stopped until the right wing is out of power," Dean told campaign workers jammed into his state headquarters Monday morning. "I think we're going to win. No matter what happens, we're going to have more to do." Iowa's caucuses, a neighbor-debating- neighbor staple of American politics, begin the march to the Democratic presidential convention in Boston and the fall campaign against President Bush. Hours before caucuses opened in 1,993 precincts, officials said Rep.

Dennis Kucinich had agreed to ask supporters to swing behind Edwards in cases where they lacked the numbers to qualify for delegates. These aides said Edwards would urge his supporters to back Kucinich in cases where they lacked the necessary numbers. Kucinich campaign spokesman David Swanson stressed that the Ohio congressman was remaining in the race. The agreement with the Edwards campaign was a blow to Gephardt, who had hoped to win Kucinich supporters. Dean needs a victory to quiet questions about his viability.

Gephardt, winner of the 1988 caucuses, would be unlikely to continue his campaign if defeated here. Expectations were lower for Edwards and Kerry, but they need a solid showing to gain momentum for the New Hampshire primary and the seven-state follow-up Feb. 3. A close finish might muddle the race as the eight-person field heads to New Hampshire, where retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and Connecticut Sen.

Joe Licbermun awaited. the contest tightened in Iowa in recent days, Democrats began expressing fears that two or more candidates could lock into a longer-than- expected nomination fight that would benefit Bush. Dean entered the year a clear front-runner but lost his lead in Iowa and saw it shrink in New Hampshire alter a tumultuous two weeks. Stung by criticism of his record on race relations, Medicare and trade, Dean said a week ago he was tired of being the party's "pin cushion," and suddenly looked weak to voters drawn to his blustery image. Gephardt gambled a few days later with an ad highly critical of Dean.

The front-runner's approval rating dropped. Voters who started second-guessing Dean drifted to Edwards or Kerry. Suddenly, it was a four-way race. Political ads seemed to squeeze out enter- tainment shows on TV. Four pricey get-out- the-vote operations sent thousands of volunteers and professional organizers to knock on doors, mail fliers, poll voters and train precinct captains in the art of caucus politics.

At 6 p.m. CST, in schools, living rooms and other caucus sites, tens of thousands of lowans were coming out of the icy cold and splitting into groups Edwards voters here, Gephardt people there, Kerry folks in the back and Dean backers along the wall. Kucinich was expected to get a significant showing at a few caucuses. Their numbers were to be counted, then recounted after the campaigns competed neighbor-by-neighbor for voters who remained undecided or became free agents because their candidates didn't get enough votes to go forward. In their caucuses, local Democrats elect county convention delegates, reflecting their presidential preferences, then discuss platform issues and elect precinct leaders.

The process favors candidates with broad organizations that reach into each of the state's 99 counties. Gephardt had hundreds of professional union organizers working the streets while Dean had thousands of volunteers, many of them political novices drawn to his campaign through the Internet and traveling to Iowa at their own expense, fed from vending machines and housed in remote cabins. Although Dean used blunt language and you-have-the-power rhetoric to fire up an antiwar, antiestablishment base, many of his youthful organizers in Iowa looked more for adventure than a fight. Gephardt was upbeat and calm on the campaign trail, but his blue-collar foot soldiers were motivated by fear and anger in an unsteady economy. Kerry and Edwards had solid organizations, but nothing to match Dean or Gephardt.

They hoped momentum would override the disadvantage. After Iowa and New Hampshire, Democrats turn their attention to an unprecedented rush of primaries starting Feb. 3 with South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri, Delaware and North Dakota. Democratic leaders designed the front-loaded calendar in hopes of having a presumptive nominee by mid- March. Most candidates see Iowa as a tempting jumping-off point.

Jimmy Carter was a little-known Georgia governor when his 1976 Iowa campaign catapulted him onto the national scene and put the caucuses on the political map. Since then, Iowa has been an important but often unreliable barometer of presidential mettle. For every eventual nominee who has won Iowa Republican Bob Dole in 1996 and Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984 the state has yielded many more surprises. Ronald Reagan lost in 1980, and his foe, George H.W. Bush, declared he had "Big Mo" heading into New Hampshire.

Bush's momentum dissipated in a high-stakes debate there, and Reagan went on to the nomination. Al Gore, heading for a last-place finish in Iowa in 1988, left the state to campaign elsewhere, dismissing the caucus as "a real arcane procedure that produces crazy results." Twelve years later, Gore returned as vice president to beat rival Bill Bradley and go on to the nomination. COUPON Meal Deal! I WINDMIIISC I II I) I Experience Ukinli's IVew family llealuuruiil! "Buy 1 meal at regular price receive the second one of equal or lesser value for only half price. Good through Breakfast Ivnoh Dinner erved 7 6 a.m. 9 p.m.

7 I'Kinli 2- 14U17 Schwarzenegger speaks to judges ByTAMIMIN Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger left a farm in Austria as a young man to become a championship bodybuilder, made millions in films, then ousted a governor later in life. Along that extraordinary path, the American justice system has protected him, Schwarzenegger said Monday. Schwarzenegger said he was "protected with open arms" by the courts as a young immigrant. That's when he needed visas to stay in the country, Schwarzenegger told a group of chief justices gathered for a three-day conference in San Francisco.

"People born in America" take important things like freedom for granted, Schwarzenegger said. "People dream about it all over the world." Schwarzenegger had longed to come to America since he was 10, he said. "I came at 21 years old with absolutely nothing in my pockets," Schwarzenegger told the chief justices from around the country, including California Chief Justice Ronald M. George. He was able to stay and live a life that went beyond his dreams because of "the services you provide," Schwarzenegger told the judges assembled for the Conference of Chief Justices.

Again the courts stepped in to help him out later in life, Schwarzenegger said. A federal appeals court reinstated the Oct. 7 California gubernatorial recall election date after the American Civil Liberties Union sued to postpone the event. The civil rights group claimed that as many as 40,000 votes could be uncounted because of the use of punch-card ballots, the kind that prompted the "hanging chads" litigation in Florida's 2000 presidential election. Ukiah Fitness Center Tanning Salon Classes Jazzercise Kickboxing Weight Training 101 462-1255 All Classes included with Membership valid on specials I VUllrUn mm mm mm mm mm mi The Ukiah DAIL' URMAL Ukiah Almanac A Magazine Style Resource Guide, Focusing on the Businesses, Government, and People of the Ukiah Area Publishes: Wednesday, January 30,2004 Deadlines: Wednesday, January 21,2004 Ukiah Almanac will be distributed in The Ukiah Daily Journal, The Journal Sampler (February 3rd) and will be available at The Ukiah Daily Journal and other locations throughout the year, The Ukiah Almanac will also appear on our website: ukiahdailyjournalcom Contact your account executive today! The Ukiah DAI URMAL.