MILWAUKEE, Wis. — During a candidate debate Sunday night, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., argued he would continue the fight for the Democratic nomination up to and beyond the Wisconsin primary Feb. 17, despite the large lead in delegates collected by frontrunner Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
“Sen. Kerry just said he will beat George Bush,” Edwards said at the televised debate from the University of Marquette campus Sunday night. “Not so fast, John Kerry. We’re going to have an election here in Wisconsin this Tuesday. And we’ve got a whole group of primaries coming up. And I, for one, intend to fight with everything I’ve got for every one of those votes.”
All five candidates remaining in the race attended the debate: former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Edwards, Sen. Kerry, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Rev. Al Sharpton.
Although generally focusing on the shortcomings of the Bush administration, candidates sparred occasionally, particularly about the war in Iraq. Edwards lashed out at Kerry when the Massachusetts senator said he voted to give President Bush the authority to go to war because he supported the “right way” of confronting Iraq, but that he regrets that the president rushed into the conflict unilaterally.
“That’s the longest answer I ever heard to a yes-or-no question,” Edwards said.
Kerry countered the criticism by saying he was “prepared to stand up to any attack that they come at me with.” He also defended his vote for the Patriot Act.
Sharpton spoke strongly on his anti-war platform, arguing Bush lied to the American public about the war.
“Why do people lie? Because they’re liars. He lied in Florida; he’s lied several times. I believe he lied in Iraq,” Sharpton said.
Candidates also presented their views on the role of government in higher education. Both Kerry and Dean support “pay-down programs,” which would provide financial incentives to pay for college tuition for high-school graduates who serve in their communities.
The state of the economy and job losses, which ranks as the issue Wisconsinites care most about, was discussed during the debate as the candidates were drilled on their stances on free trade and job outsourcing.
“The problem … is NAFTA, which I opposed, plus a whole series of other trade agreements, have been devastating in Wisconsin,” Edwards said, pointing to the large number of lost jobs in the state as evidence of a problem with the increasingly globalized economy.
Dean argued that though free-trade agreements are “justified,” they need to be changed to help workers overseas and American employees who are out of work.
“We’ve globalized the rights of big corporations to do business anywhere in the world,” Dean said. “We did not globalize human rights, labor rights and environmental rights, and we need to do that.”
Unlike in past debates, Dean did not directly attack Kerry, which signified to some that his fight for the nomination is coming to an end and his polls in Wisconsin will continue to remain low.
“He certainly acts like a man who was ready to throw in the towel,” said Lester Holt, a panelist for the debate and news anchor for MSNBC. “Howard Dean is at peace.”
