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IOWA WRAP

February 13, 1996

Margaret Warner looks at the Iowa caucus results and their impact on the campaign to come.


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iowa LAMAR ALEXANDER, Republican Presidential Candidate: Thank you, Iowa. On to New Hampshire. Let the future begin.

MARGARET WARNER: The results from the Iowa caucuses were barely in when the Republican candidates took off for New Hampshire. The first to greet New Hampshire voters this morning was the third place finisher in Iowa, former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander. He held an early-morning meeting with high school students in Manchester, then worked the breakfast crowd at a nearby diner.

VOTER: I've narrowed it down between you and Bob Dole. Why should I vote for you?

LAMAR ALEXANDER: Well, there's nothing wrong with Bob Dole to start with. He's a terrific person. I've got a lot of respect for him, but here's what I think. We need new leadership. I mean, Bob Dole's a legislative engineer. He's very good in the legislature. That's where he belongs. We've got to pick somebody who can stand up there with Clinton.

MARGARET WARNER: The first event of the day for Iowa winner Bob Dole was a late-morning speech to the New Hampshire legislature in Concord, where the Senate Majority Leader tried to cement his claim to the state's Republican establishment.

iowa SEN. ROBERT DOLE, Republican Presidential Candidate: I have long been a fan of the great New England poet, Robert Frost. But I've found an area where we have very slight disagreement. You see, Mr. Frost once wrote that New Hampshire and Vermont were the two best states in the union. I hope you would forgive me this morning if I had said that New Hampshire and Iowa were the two best states in the union. But I want you to know, as you already know, that the eyes of the nation are trained here, waiting for your judgment a week from today, your judgment on who should lead America.

MARGARET WARNER: Dole understands how critical the New Hampshire primary is. No Republican in recent history has won his party's presidential nomination without winning here first. But New Hampshire voters have a history of anointing someone other than the Iowa winner. Texas Sen. Phil Gramm finished fifth in Iowa. That, coupled with a loss last week in Louisiana, was grim news. Gramm made just one stop in New Hampshire today, then cancelled the rest of its events to return to Washington to re-think his campaign.

SEN. PHIL GRAMM, Republican Presidential Candidate: When you run fifth in Iowa, an important state, you would have to be brain dead not to take a look at where you are and what you're doing. And I think that one of the things that we're going to try to do this afternoon and tonight is to take a look at where we are, to try to take a look at what our strategy is.

SPOKESMAN IN FORBES AD: He's been called a champion of economic growth and a visionary. He is Steve Forbes.

MARGARET WARNER: The only sign in New Hampshire today of publisher Steve Forbes was his multi-million dollar advertising blitz. Forbes cancelled his only scheduled appearance in the state. Aides said the candidate and his campaign needed to take a day to regroup after his distant fourth place showing in Iowa. The last to appear publicly was an exhausted but ebullient Pat Buchanan, who took a strong second place last night.

iowa PATRICK BUCHANAN, Republican Presidential Candidate: People want to be a part of this cause. They believe in it. They do wonder whether we can win, but more and more are coming to believe that Pat Buchanan can be the next President of the United States. And I'm coming to believe that.

MARGARET WARNER: A sign of what that Iowa showing may mean, his press conference in Manchester today drew more reporters than candidate Buchanan has seen so far in this campaign.


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