Democrats debate in Iowa: The Spin Room is open

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

by Mark Silva, and updated with debate

"The era of cowboy diplomacy is over,'' said Sen. Hillary Clinton, promising as president to deploy envoys around the world to deliver a new message about the United States.

"Forty years ago, Dr. King urged America to act on what he called the fierce urgency of now,'' said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. "I feel that urgency.''

And John Edwards, the former senator from INorth Carolina, said he has been fighting special interests all his life, and winning, and will carry that fight to the White House.

This was a tough-call, Swamp-fans: At 2 pm EST the Democratic candidates for president started debating in front of Iowa Public Television cameras.

And at the same time, former Sen. George Mitchell explained the findings of his investigation of drugs in baseball. The investigator promised to name names.

So the allegiance of true Swamp afficionadoes will be tested here, as the conversation starts among three Democrats who are virtually tied in their pursuit of the Iowa caucus-goer -- Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards.

Add to that the Des Moines Register's intention to keep these debates -- the Republicans assembled yesterday -- on a serious-minded tack, and a true test was underway here.

As always, the Spin Room is open and will remain open -- long after the dust settles on home plate. CNN aired it, the Register streamed it live at its Web-site and will replay it for you at the click of your mouse. And your comments, as always, are welcome here in the Swamp.

Would it be a priority of yours to balance the budget every year, the candidates were asked?

“Over the last seven years, what we’ve seen is an economy that is out of balance, because of the policies of George Bush and Republicans in Congress,’’ said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. “What I want to do is get the long-term fundamentals right, which means we are investing in education, investigating in infrastructure… and we are also ending the war in Iraq.’’

But what about balancing the budget, Obama was asked.

“We are not going to be able to dig ourselves out of that hole in one or two years,’’ Obama said, but “I think we can return to a path of a balanced budget.’’

The White House maintains that the federal budget -- $163 billion out of balance – will reach a balanced state again by 2012.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson noted that he already has a balanced budget – his state, like many, requires it by law.

“I think it’s pretty straightforward,’’ Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware said. “It’s about priorities. Just by eliminating the war, eliminating the $200 billion of tax cuts (for the rich and making other cuts)… you can save $350 billion.’’

“The federal government is much different than a state government, with all due respect to Gov. Richardson,’’ Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said. “We can begin to put that discipline back into our process which all Americans are looking for.’’

“First of all, what we have to do is get rid of the structural deficiencies in the American economy,’’ said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

“Fiscal responsibility is a very high priority for me,’’ said Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York – whose husband left the White House with a balanced federal budget. “The economy will grow again when we start acting fiscally responsible… The results will take a while for us to actually see.’’

* * *

How will they pay for all their own new ideas, they were asked?

“We shouldn’t buy into this Republican paradigm, to use the fancy word my conservative friends use,’’ Biden said. “You can take $20 billion a year out of the Defense Department just by not building weapons systems… You can pay for every one of these initiatives, but as my dad used to say, what are your priorities?’’

“Every proposal I have put forward in this campaign, we have paid for,’’ said Obama. “Right now, we’ve got a whole host of corporate loopholes and tax havens… If we close some of those loopholes, that helps me to pay for an offset on the payroll tax that helps all Americans.’’

Richardson: “I detailed $57 billion in military reductions, which involve missile systems. (But) the Iraq war has depleted our military… We need to recruit, train and equip to keep the voluntary military going. There are some military… priorities that America and the next president need to address.’’

* * *
How might entitlement spending be changed, or is it not a problem?

“It is a problem,’’ Clinton said. “It’s a particular problem with Medicare… It’s a longer-term problem with Social Security. We have to deal with both…

“We’ve got to have a health care reform that will bring costs down,’’ she said. “That will help Medicare.’’

And when she is president, she said, she will convene a “bipartisan commission’’ to find a solution for Social Security.

“Just to emphasize how important prevention in cost savings can be… if we went back to the obesity rates that existed in 1980, that would save Medicare a trillion dollars,’’ Obama said. “Unless we change the politics, we are going to continue to see the waste we are seeing in our health care programs.’’

Richardson, citing the costs of diabetes, said it’s time to ban, as he did, junk food in the public schools

* * *

In the free-standing, brief speeches allowed in these Iowa debates:

“Forty years ago, Dr. King urged America to act on what he called the fierce urgency of now.. I feel that urgency,’’ Obama said. “We can only do it if we have the courage to change.’’

“So much at stake in this election – what makes America America is at stake, jobs, the middle class, providing health care,’’ said Edwards, saying that he has been fighting special interests all his life and will do so as president.

Edwards pledged to leave the nation in a better place than he had left it – er, make that, found it, he added with a laugh at his misspoken words. Clinton, too, tossed her arms with a smile – whatever. You know what I meant, Edwards said. Yes, they did, said the moderator.

* * *
“Folks talk about this election being about experience or change. It’s really about action,’’ Biden said. “Leadership is also about knowing who you are, what your priorities are… In my case, I’ll stop that war in Iraq…. It’s time to raise this country up. The American people are genuinely ready to do that.’’

Richardson, saying he wanted to thank Iowans for putting them through “this good process,’’ noted that the war in Iraq had not been discussed the day before -- something which the debate sponsors said they specifically wanted to avoid because Iowa voters already know the candidates' posiitons on the war and are concerned about other matters.
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“This war has divided us enormously,’’ Richardson said. “Thirty eight Americans died in November. We’ve got thousands… with mental trauma and PTSD… As I’ve gone to every one of the 99 counties in Iowa, this is the No. 1 issue facing not only this entire country but also Iowa caucus-goers.’’

* * *
There was precious little criticism of one another in this forum in front of Iowa voters who don't much care for mean-spiritdness. But when talk turned to climate change, Clinton got a little shot in at the Republicans who had appeared on stage the day before.

Register Editor Carolyn Washburn had asked for a show of hands among the GOP's candidates -- who believes global warming is a problem? Republican Fred Thompson protested that they weren't going to do any hand-raising here, and his rivals agreed that they were tired of that debate tactic -- and if he could not get 60 seconds to address the issue, Thompson said, he wasn't going to answer the question. They did go on to talk about it.

."Carolyn,'' Clinton asked the editor-moderator today, "do you want us to raise our hands on global warming?… You had a problem with the Rrepublicans on that yesterday…. We all believe in it. We want to do something about it.;''

* * *

What might they realistically accomplish in their first year as president.

"In a careful and responsible way, end this war in Iraq,'' said Obama.

End the mistreatment of prisoners in U.S. facilities and in rendition, Biden said.

"I'd end the war,'' said Richardson. "I'd make a major effort, and I think we could, to pass universal health care in the first year.''

"First thing I'd try to do is change the discourse, the shrillness of the conversation in this country,'' Dodd said. "I'll do whatever I can by executive power to give you back your Constitution.''

"There are an awful lot of promises being made in the first year of the presidency,'' Edwards said. "I will end the war, I'll close Guantanamo and I'll restore peoples' civil liberties... (And he will begin work on health care, he said.) But none of those things are going to happen unless we have a president who calls on Americans to take this country back.''

"The era of cowboy diplomacy is over,'' said Clinton, promising to dispatch envoys around the world with a new message about the U.S. "I'll ask the Congress to send me everything that Bush vetoed, like stem cell research and the children's health care program... Because you have to move quickly to get a good start, and that's what I intend to do.''