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| MOSELEY BRAUN DROPS OUT | |
 January 15, 2004  | |
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The New York Times' Adam Nagourney assesses Carol Moseley Braun's decision to drop out of the presidential race and reports on the possible impact of that move on the race for the Democratic nomination. Excerpts of Braun and Dean.
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| The impact of Braun's announcement | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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GWEN IFILL: Adam, we just heard from Carol Moseley Braun and Howard Dean. We know that she didn't make that big an impact in this race during the time she was in, at least the polls indicate that. So what is the significance of endorsement like that?
So I do think this is a fairly significant endorsement. The other thing that seems to me is that you do get the sense of a movement of people towards Dr. Dean in that. Keep in mind this happens after Bill Bradley endorsed him, after Al Gore endorsed him and after Tom Harkin, who was standing in the shot with them, endorsed him as well.
ADAM NAGOURNEY: Yeah, you know, I have to assume that there's some -- I don't mean this in a bad way -- but some orchestration going on here. There has been a series of episodes where things have been going on, which are arguably not good for the Dean campaign and they pulled out of their pocket an endorsement or something that's trumped the news. And you'll find that, in an effective campaign, a good campaign tends to do that. For example, yesterday the story was Richard Gephardt, one of the other Democrats, attacking Dean pretty brutally on a on a whole range of issues having to do with Medicare, for example. And you know, the front page. Des Moines Register this morning wasn't about that. It was a big picture of Dr. Dean with the headline about Dean and Carol Moseley Braun. And this is not the first time it's happened. |
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| The candidates adopt different strategies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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GWEN IFILL: So Dr. Dean says he's been treated like a pin cushion and he is going to fight back. We hear -- you mentioned that Dick Gephardt is doing his own fighting back. Who's punching harder right now in this?
Whereas at the other side, you have Dean and Gephardt hitting very hard. Dean has returned to the themes that got him where he was, the Washington insider versus outsider, notwithstanding the fact that he seems to some ways be becoming the candidate of the Washington insiders, hitting the war issue very hard. Gephardt is attacking Dean with a new television commercial that went on the air as well today. Medicare and a number of issues, I think gun control certainly in a speech yesterday I forgot whether it was in the ad -- but issues where Dean has, as we say, evolved positions, as Gephardt has also over the years. |
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GWEN
IFILL: First, a look at the political landscape in Iowa, given Carol
Moseley Braun's withdrawal and other developments. We get that from
Adam Nagourney, the New York Times chief political writer. 
ADAM
NAGOURNEY: I don't think it has much significance in Iowa. As you say,
Gwen, she didn't have much of an impact here at all. She appeared in
debates, she didn't campaign that much. But I do think it's important
up the road in states like South Carolina, where there will be a heavy,
we expect, vote by black Democrats. Not that she's particularly well
known or popular in that state, but she's a validator. So when you have
a situation like, for example, Rev. Sharpton's questioning Dr. Dean's
commitment to affirmative action or hiring minorities when he was governor
of Vermont, to have her appear with him I think is a help.
GWEN
IFILL: Which brings me to my next question about this: You see these
series of endorsements, which is very interesting, but they all often
come after the Dean campaign has sustained some bout of bad news. 
ADAM
NAGOURNEY: The way things are ... I don't want to, I want to stress
to you -- it's very fluid as these candidates change their strategies
from hour to hour. But right now you have a split among the four major
candidates. You have starting with John Edwards, who's used the Mr.
Nice Guy approach to make a lot of progress here. And now, from what
we're hearing Senator Kerry is also becoming Mr. Nice Guy, too, on the
trail.