Candidates stress their ability to compete with Bush in the South

GREENVILLE — As John Kerry of Massachusetts repeatedly stressed his S.C. credentials in Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate, it became difficult to tell which U.S. senator was the “local boy.”

Immediately after introducing the seven men at the Peace Center here, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw took the issue right to the senator from New England: Does he have the credibility with Southern voters to win not just Tuesday’s S.C. primary, but the November general election against President Bush.

“I’ve always said I will compete in the South. I’ve always said I think I can win the South,” said Kerry, winner of the first two votes in Iowa and New Hampshire who is gaining ground in South Carolina polls.

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, meanwhile, stressed that he doesn’t need help relating to Southerners: He is one. The loss of manufacturing jobs in South Carolina and across the region is “personal to me,” the Seneca native said.

“You know, 40 miles from here, when I was born 50 years ago, my parents brought me home to a mill village,” said Edwards, who narrowly lost the Iowa caucuses to Kerry and finished fourth in the New Hampshire primary.

At the top of the debate, Edwards said South Carolina “is a place where I believe I can and should win,” but did not take Brokaw’s bait about whether Tuesday’s vote “is a do-or-die” election.

Edwards and Kerry were not the only candidates directing answers to South Carolinians and other Southerners.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is black, kept issues of race at the fore of the discussion, which was laden with policy dialogues and rarely confrontational.

“I’ve been inspired in this campaign hearing John Edwards talk about he’s a son of a mill worker,” Sharpton said. “Well I’m the son of a man who couldn’t be a mill worker because of the color of his skin. But his son can be the president of the United States.”

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has pulled all his advertising from South Carolina and the other six states voting Tuesday, mentioned South Carolina as well. He pointed out that unlike in his home state, “in South Carolina there are 102,000 kids with no health care.”

But it was Kerry who most often brought the subject back to South Carolina, perhaps because it was Kerry who was viewed as having the most work to do here.

While he launched his national campaign from Mount Pleasant in September (a fact he mentioned in the debate), Thursday was his first visit here since then.

Twice he mentioned that he had been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina.

Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon said after the debate that Kerry “is really trying to backtrack off his previous message that he can do without the South. He’s trying to let South Carolinians know ‘I was supported by some of the people you respect, and I respect you, too.’”

The war in Iraq, its root causes and effects, was a common subject with disparate views from the candidates. While all criticized Bush for his handling of the war, their differing views on whether the war ever should have been waged were exposed again.

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a Chicago native raised in Arkansas, said Bush “is playing politics with national security.”

“There should never have been a congressional authorization for the president to have a blank check to take this country to war, because everybody knew that’s what he intended to do,” Clark said. “And they knew what the timetable was.”

There were few direct confrontations between the candidates, perhaps because Brokaw reminded them they were in the South, “where there’s a premium on politeness.”

Dean was the main exception to the genteel nature of the night. He often directly criticized Kerry’s positions, and his staff churned out “instant spin” press releases slamming Kerry as the night went on.

“In 19 years in the Senate, Senator Kerry sponsored 11 bills having to do with health care and not one of them passed,” Dean said.

For Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, Thursday night was more about stressing his continued optimism in the face of a fifth-place finish Tuesday in New Hampshire, and emphasizing his centrist credentials.

“I always said that the primary in South Carolina and the six other states (on Tuesday) would be the first big test of my presidential candidacy,” Lieberman said.

He said his endorsement from the Arizona Republic, that state’s largest newspaper, “had a message for the voters here to be bold. Don’t just be an echo of New Hampshire.”

The debate was the first time all the candidates have been together in South Carolina since May. That was for another debate, when there were eight candidates — Clark hadn’t yet declared, and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt was still running.

For several candidates, the debate ended a day of retail campaigning in the state.

Edwards and Sharpton appeared at a community center in Greenville.

Kerry was in Columbia, where he picked up the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., the state’s top black elected official.

All seven candidates will also be back together in Columbia this morning, when they appear at a forum at The Township.

The forum is sponsored by the Center for Community Change in Washington and is geared toward issues facing low-income families and minorities.

While the candidates will all be there, they will not be appearing together. One by one, they will meet a group of individuals or families and answer their questions.

The city of Greenville, the heart of the state’s Republican base, was welcoming to the candidates. Main Street, site of both the Peace Center, where the debate took place, and the Westin Poinsett Hotel, where the media were headquartered, was adorned with banners — for the event itself and for individual candidates.

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com.