The Note

ByABC News
October 24, 2003, 10:44 AM

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 23&#151;<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):

9:00 am: Senator John Kerry has breakfast with Scott County Democrats, Davenport, Iowa9:30 am: Senate convenes for legislative business10:15 am: Senators Tom Daschle and Ted Kennedy lead a press conference to discuss the Medicare prescription drugs bill, Capitol Hill11:00 am: Senator Kerry makes remarks on jobs and the economy, Davenport, Iowa 11:00 am: Senator John Edwards meets with Black Hawk County Democrats, Cedar Falls, Iowa 1:00 pm: Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger meets with Governor Gray Davis, Sacramento1:45 pm: Senator Kerry has lunch with Muscatine County Democrats, Muscatine, Iowa 2:00 pm: Senator Edwards meets with Polk County Democrats, Des Moines, Iowa 2:30 pm: President and Mrs. Bush tour Pearl Harbor, Hawaii5:00 pm: Congressman Dennis Kucinich addresses the SEIU meeting, Miami 6:00 pm: Congressman Kucinich attends the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project dinner, Miami 6:00 pm: General Wesley Clark attends the New Hampshire Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Manchester, N.H. 6:00 pm: Senator Kerry meets with Cedar County Democrats, Tipton, Iowa 7:00 pm: Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun keynotes the Harris County Women's Political Caucus Shattered Glass Award Reception, Houston 7:00 pm: Senator Joe Lieberman hosts a reception to press for full voting rights for the D.C. residents, D.C. 8:00 pm: Senator Kerry attends a fundraiser for State Senator Roger Stewart, Maquoketa, Iowa 10:55 pm: President Bush attends a closed Republican Party meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii11:45 pm: President Bush attends a closed meeting with Pacific leaders, Honolulu, Hawaii1:20 am: President Bush attends a Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser reception, Honolulu, Hawaii

NEWS SUMMARY

The president's foreign trip; the donors conference in Spain; the situation on the ground in Iraq; the Rummy memo fallout; the Hill agenda, especially mixed Medicare messages; and a lot of non-political news (school shootings, snipers, Schiavo, etc.) there is a lot of news out there.

But in our world, the biggest stories are being played out under the Visible Primary of the Democratic presidential nomination battle big top:

Item: Howard Dean's new Iowa and New Hampshire ads that criticize "my opponents" and a memo attacking the spotty congressional voting attendance of his "opponents" begin to raise hackles. LINK and LINK and LINK

Item: How the candidates and campaigns in this multi-multi-candidate field are handling the current posture towards negativity (always sensitive in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the illusion, at least, of voters not liking The Negative worries some strategists) is now a Big Thing. See our campaign reporter reports for how each shop is handling things on this fronts these days.

Item: General Wes Clark's (limited) relationship with the media gets Major must-read Howie Kurtz treatment in the Washington Post LINK, as Clark appears poised to be the only presidential candidate to attend tonight's New Hampshire Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson dinner.

Item: The Washington Post 's Balz and VandeHei look at the Lieberman/Clark/Edwards map strategies without the prospects of numerically winning Iowa or New Hampshire. LINK

Item: Kudos to the DNC staff, for reminding their presidential candidates that the reason the DNC opposes straw polls is BECAUSE THE CAMPAIGNS WANT THEM TO!!! Check out the Florida clips, in which a still-defiant state party is still trying to turn straw to gold, despite The Macker-plus-nine united front put up yesterday. . LINK and LINK

General Clark fundraises in New York City this morning. He campaigns in New Hampshire this afternoon before attending the New Hampshire Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Manchester. He won't speak, but he'll be on hand to hear former Governor Jeanne Shaheen and The Macker address the dinner. Clark fundraises some more in Boston tonight.

Senator Kerry campaigns in Iowa.

Governor Dean has no public events today.

Congressman Gephardt has no public events today.

Senator Lieberman campaigns in D.C. Hadassah Lieberman campaigns in Oklahoma.

Senator Edwards campaigns in Iowa today.

Congressman Kucinich campaigns in Miami today.

Ambassador Moseley Braun campaigns in Houston today.

Reverend Sharpton is in New York City with no public events.

President Bush wraps up his Asian tour today in Australia and heads for Hawaii. President and Mrs. Bush will tour Pearl Harbor and read to elementary school children. The president will attend separate closed meetings with GOP leaders and Pacific leaders. He will also attend a Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser reception tonight.

ABC News Vote 2004: The Invisible Primary:The Washington Post 's all-star tag-team of Dan Balz and Jim VandeHei examine the Clark, Lieberman, and Edwards campaign strategies that look past Iowa and New Hampshire (which they collectively concede to Dean, Kerry, or Gephardt) to the group of contests on February 3. LINK

Most telling quote: "Eli Segal, chairman and chief operating officer of the Clark campaign, says history is of limited use this year because there is no dominant candidate and the calendar is compressed. 'The calendar has changed completely,' he said. 'I'm not saying history is bunk, but the lessons of the past are of limited utility.'"

Balz and VandeHei never really address WHO sets the rules that make being out of the Iowa and/or New Hampshire storylines dangerous for a nomination-seeker, but maybe that's because they are both modest types.

The "WHO," as we have long Noted, is about 25 journalists and the enabling, co-dependent wiseguy and wisegal sources in both parties who perpetuate the self-fulfilling prophecies of "tickets" out of Iowa and New Hampshire.

The press is filled with these things today, but our favorite is in DiStaso's "Granite Status" column and comes from the guy who both preceded and replaced Mike Dennehy as New Hampshire's national committeeman:

"'There are three tickets out of New Hampshire,' says Republican strategist Tom Rath. 'No more than three. Howard Dean probably has one, and the others will have to fight for the other two.'"

We'll just see about that.

The first wave of data in the Biden Foreign Policy Primary is out. The almost-presidential candidate said Wednesday that "none of the Democratic presidential candidates has expressed a coherent foreign policy although it's early in the campaign," the AP reports. LINK

Biden said, "'If it's only 'I voted to go in (to Iraq)' or 'I thought we should've gone in, but now we shouldn't spend any money there,' that is not a particularly coherent policy. And I think it will maybe work well in the primary, but I don't think it works very well in the general (election).'"

The Des Moines Register 's Tom Beaumont chronicles the back-and-forth over tax cuts as the candidates move around the (quaint?) 99 counties in Iowa. LINK

The Boston Globe 's Glen Johnson reports on the campaign involvement of presidential candidates' offspring. LINK

Florida wants straw:The St. Petersburg Times' Adam Smith previews the fight between the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls and Florida Democrats over a proposed straw poll, throwing in a great "this will separate the men from the boys" quote from a Broward County committeewoman who was paying attention to the broken "gentlemen's agreements" on candidate forums. LINK

The Palm Beach Post says the decision by the nine to stay away "was bruising news for Florida Democrats" but quotes Democratic Party Chairman Scott Maddox as saying the campaigns "were already making room reservations for the convention. He said the decision on whether to hold the straw poll would be up to a Nov. 16 state central committee vote." LINK

"'Do you really think the candidates will stay away?' he asked. "I don't think they want to risk offending Florida Democrats.'"

House of Labor:The New York Daily News reports on a "hush-hush" meeting of SEIU leaders, who heard from Bill Clinton and Howard Dean as they laid out plans for an "unprecedented $35 million campaign to drive George W. Bush out of the White House next year."

While neither the SEIU nor its 1199 local, headed by New York kingmaker Dennis Rivera, has yet endorsed a candidate, the Daily News quotes one union shop steward as saying the crowd "mobbed Dean and cheered him wildly from the moment he walked into the back of the hall." LINK

Dean may be a done deal but other candidates continue to fight for SEIU's backing. Union officials tell The Note Edwards and Kucinich will address the Florida 1199 local's "Dignity Congress" this Thursday and Friday, with Kerry and Dean beaming in to speak to the group of healthcare workers.

Dean:From ABC News' Dean campaign reporter Marc Ambinder:

"Anger."

"It's an interesting choice of words for a campaign allegedly concerned about its candidate appearing to be too angry."

"'I get pretty mad when I hear Dick Gephardt telling everyone I hate Medicare.'"

"Dean has said this (or a slight variation of it) at least a dozen times since Monday. And Dean really is piqued about it, his aides say. It works for him as a personal motivating tool and, judging by how often he expresses it, works as a way to add passion to the rebuttal."

"'I realize,' Governor Dean said yesterday morning, 'that people are starting to believe the nonsense on Medicare.'"

"That latter point is not something his campaign readily acknowledges, but it is as good an explanation as any for the tough new television ads in Iowa and New Hampshire."

"Dean occasionally addresses the charges by credentialing himself as a doctor who actually worked with Medicare for years and telling audiences how important the program was to his patients but lately, the stress has been on his experience as an executive. That's the swing phrase in the ads."

"'Howard Dean wants to contrast a record of results with a record of nothing but rhetoric on transcripts,' a senior aide said."

"The spots refer blindly to 'my opponents.' But they are clearly aimed most directly at Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, Dr. Dean's most serious competitors in Iowa and New Hampshire."

"In recent weeks, Dean has stepped up his antagonism to against 'Washington politicians' and their 'hot air.'"

Were the ads attacks?

The New York Times ' Wilgoren and Rutenberg: "While the spots fall short of singling out Dr. Dean's opponents by name, they are unusually negative for this stage of the campaign, when biographical commercials are the norm." LINK

"The spots refer blindly to 'my opponents.' But they are clearly aimed most directly at Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, Dr. Dean's most serious competitors in Iowa and New Hampshire."

In recent weeks, Dean has stepped up his antagonism to against "Washington politicians" and their "hot air."

Lloyd Grove reports Ace Smith has been hired by the Dean campaign to head up the oppo department. LINK

Howard Dean takes a play out of Jim Dyke's playbook, according to Roll Call 's Cillizza.

"Once again seeking to capitalize on his outsider status, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's campaign is circulating a memo attacking his opponents for their spotty voting records as they pursue the presidency."