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VOICE ONE:
Eight men and one woman are competing for the Democratic Partynomination for president of the United States in thetwo-thousand-four election. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
Today we tell about these candidates on the VOA Special Englishprogram, THIS IS AMERICA.
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The United States elects a president every four years. CurrentlyRepublicans control not just the White House but also both houses ofCongress. So far, nine Democrats have entered the race for thechance to oppose President Bush next year.
The candidates include Senators John Edwards, Bob Graham, JohnKerry and Joseph Lieberman, and former Senator Carol Moseley Braun.Others include Representatives Richard Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich.Candidate Howard Dean is the former governor of Vermont. And, AlSharpton is a Christian clergyman and a civil rights leader.
VOICE ONE:
There may be even more candidates. Retired Army General WesleyClark may decide to run. So may Delaware Senator Joseph Biden.Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has said she will notcompete. Yet the public opinion testers at the Gallup Organizationsay Hillary Clinton has more support than any other Democrat.
VOICE ONE (CONT): The party will start to choose it presidentialcandidate early next year. This will happen during local nominatingelections and party meetings known as caucuses. This is the way boththe Democratic and Republican parties have chosen their candidatessince nineteen-seventy-two. Before then, few states held primaryelections and party leaders controlled the nominating process.
The first event is the Iowa Caucus in January. Those who fail togain much support in Iowa and the votes that follow may end theircampaigns.
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VOICE TWO:
Over the years, most people hopingto be president have been white, Protestant Christian males. Of thenine Democrats, Joseph Lieberman is Jewish. John Kerry and DennisKucinich are Roman Catholic. Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun areAfrican American.
The Gallup Poll recently asked some voters if they would vote fora woman for president. It also asked if they would vote for a memberof a racial or religious minority. Nine out of ten of thosequestioned said “yes,” if they liked that candidate.
VOICE ONE:
The Democratic candidates are now announcing their positions onissues like the economy and taxes, health care, education and theenvironment.
Senators Lieberman, Kerry and Edwards voted to support thepresident’s resolution to permit a war in Iraq. So didRepresentative Gephardt. Representative Kucinich and Senator Grahamvoted against it. Bob Graham said war in Iraq would damage the waron terrorism. He said the targets should be terrorist groups likeHezbollah in Lebanon.
Howard Dean, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton have allcriticized the war.
VOICE TWO:
The candidates held their first debate in May. Most media reportssuggested that no candidate gained a clear victory. Yetcommunications researcher William Benoit says the candidates did notcriticize each other as much as those reports made it seem.
Mister Benoit is a professor at the University of Missouri atColumbia. He found that, mostly, the candidates attacked PresidentBush. But the professor says too much of that will not make acandidate stand out from the other Democrats.
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VOICE ONE:
Bob Graham was born in nineteen-thirty-six. He is the oldest ofthe candidates. He was a Florida state representative, state senatorand governor. Mister Graham is now serving his third term in theUnited States Senate. He has criticized the lack of discovery so farof the illegal weapons that the president said were a reason toattack Iraq.
John Kerry received many honorsfor military service. He was a Navy officer during the Vietnam War.But later he opposed that war. In nineteen-eighty-four,Massachusetts voters elected him to the United States Senate. He isnow serving his fourth term. Mister Kerry says Democrats mustsupport making America safer and stronger if they are to win thepresidency.
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Many Americans know Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman from thetwo-thousand election. He was the vice presidential candidate of AlGore. Mister Lieberman has served fourteen years in the Senate. Heis a strong supporter of the war on terrorism. But he has criticizedother of the president’s policies. He says, “The administration ofGeorge W. Bush has an old economic plan for a new economy.”
John Edwards of North Carolina isthe youngest candidate for the Democratic nomination. He was born innineteen-fifty-three. Mister Edwards is a former trial lawyer. He isin his first term as a senator. He served on the Select Committee onIntelligence. As president, he says he would try to enact a plan toreduce the cost that Americans pay for medicines.
VOICE ONE:
Carol Moseley Braun became the first African American woman inthe Senate. Mizz Moseley Braun, a lawyer, was elected from the stateof Illinois in nineteen-ninety-two. She served one term. Later shewas ambassador to New Zealand. Mizz Moseley Braun sharply criticizesthe Bush administration’s economic policies.
Richard Gephardt of Missouri is the former Democratic Partyleader in the House of Representatives. He has served in the Housefor twenty-six years. He competed for the Democratic presidentialnomination in nineteen-eighty-eight. At that time, he won theimportant Iowa caucus. Some political scientists expect him to dothat again. Dick Gephardt proposes a new health care system for theUnited States.
VOICE TWO:
Representative Dennis Kucinich [coo-SIH-nich] of Ohio was theyoungest person ever elected to lead a major American city. Hebecame mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, in nineteen-seventy-seven, at agethirty-one. If elected president, he says he would work to cancelthe USA Patriot Act. Congress passed these anti-terrorist laws afterthe attacks on New York and Washington on September eleventh,two-thousand-one. Mister Kucinich also opposes the World TradeOrganization and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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VOICE ONE:
Howard Dean is a medical doctor. He served in the Vermont Houseof Representatives and later as lieutenant governor. He becamegovernor in nineteen-ninety-one, when Governor Richard Snellingdied. As president, Howard Dean says he would propose a plan thatwould provide health care for everyone in America.
Reverend Al Sharpton has been in the clergy of the PentecostalChurch since age ten. He competed several times for public office inNew York but never won. He has worked to change his image. Manypeople saw Al Sharpton as someone who incited racial and ethnicdivisions. In nineteen-ninety-one he established a civil rightsgroup called the National Action Network. Most recently he opposedthe war in Iraq.
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In early June, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute inConnecticut said Mister Lieberman had the most support among thenine Democrats. Next came Mister Gephardt and Mister Kerry.
Zogby International did a study of likely voters in the NewHampshire nominating election in January. That study found MisterKerry in the lead, followed closely by Howard Dean. The study showedMister Dean gaining popularity.
VOICE ONE:
President Bush has high public approval ratings, especially onthe issues of terrorism and foreign policy. Recent opinion studieshave found some drop, though. Still, a Zogby poll taken in earlyJune found he would defeat a Democrat forty-four percent tothirty-seven percent if the election were held today. But pollsterJohn Zogby says Democrats stand to gain if the issue is the economyor health care.
In July of next year, the party will nominate its choices tooppose President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The DemocraticNational Convention will meet in Boston, Massachusetts. Election Dayis November second, two-thousand-four.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by CatyWeaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another reportabout life in the United States on our VOA Special English program,THIS IS AMERICA.
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