We're now about a month away from the first caucus in the nomination race for president. The Democratic race in Iowa is currently neck and neck and neck. Obama, Clinton, and Edwards are all roughly even in the polls, and it's anybody's guess who will emerge the victor. This is partly due to the bizarre caucus rules in Iowa, it's partly due to the notorious instability of the state (victors often emerge late, in the last few days before the caucus), and it's partly due to the possible overestimation by all three candidates on who will actually turn out on caucus day.

Iowa caucuses are not normally well-attended events, and the percentage of eligible voters that actually turns out for the caucuses is often extremely small. But compounding this low turnout, all three candidacies are (to one extent or another) falling into the New Voters Expectations Disease, which Democrats seem to always be more susceptible to than Republicans.

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Welcome back to the weekly roundup of the good, the bad, and the ugly, and (as always) my humble suggestions of things Democrats should say in media interviews this weekend.

Because I've been away for a few weeks, I have to apologize in advance if I've missed something obvious this week (I'm still getting back up to speed on the American political scene). Hopefully I won't have missed too much!

Having said that, let's jump right in....

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Eileen Sullivan of the Associated Press wrote a shocking story this week, to which little attention is being paid. That's a shame, because it details how the effort to fight "terrorism" in America is being morphed into something else entirely. Federal dollars which are supposed to go to anti-terrorism are being used by the states pretty much any way they feel. The Bush administration gave the money to the states with no guidelines as to how to spend it, so it's really not even the states' fault that they decided to use the money how they saw fit.

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When some Americans travel to Europe these days, they are shocked at the anti-American (or more precisely, anti-Bush) attitudes expressed by the Europeans. Me, I'm used to that sort of thing, so when I heard such sentiments on my recent vacation, they didn't surprise me much. But what did shock me was the airport currency exchange counter. To buy one Euro on the day I arrived, it cost me $1.56.

It seems I was unlucky enough to be traveling during the week the Euro hit a historic high against the dollar. I have to admit, it was my first time in the "Eurozone" -- the group of countries who have adopted the Euro (€) as their currency. I had previously visited London since the Euro's introduction, but since the U.K. refuses to give up the pound sterling, I didn't handle Euros at all. Until now.

The reason a dollar-fifty-six is a shocking price for one Euro is that when it was introduced, the Euro traded around one-for-one with the U.S. dollar. It fluctuated a bit, between about $0.85 and $1.15, but during the transition period it averaged out at about even. One dollar equaled one Euro. But the really shocking thing is: this wasn't that long ago.

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While on vacation last week, I chanced upon an article in the Irish Times that I found interesting, if merely for the fact that it's the type of thing Americans just aren't going to hear about from our own mainstream media. It was a story about Bill Clinton being in Dublin for a fundraiser for his wife's presidential campaign.

From the article [Note for the culturally challenged: "Paddy" = an Irish person, "Yank" = an American]:

"The place was awash with Paddies," said one attendee. "You were left wondering where were all the Yanks."

. . .

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About the Cartoonist  |  Reprint Policy

[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

Mike Gravel

http://www.gravel2008.us/index.php

Stepping Back From Imperialism:
Redirecting American Foreign Policy

St. Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire
11/1/06

The United States is the largest economic unit in the world. Responsible stewardship of our economy requires that we maintain our superpower status, not only in terms of military capability, but in equally important areas such as the strength and solvency of our economy, the educational and physical health of our population, and a firm commitment to our moral principles and spiritual values. Strength in all these areas is vital to maintain our superpower status.

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[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

Dennis Kucinich

http://www.dennis4president.com/home/

[Note: The Kucinich campaign was unable to provide a speech transcript from Congressman Kucinich for this series. A campaign official told me that Kucinich always speaks "extemporaneously" without notes, therefore they had no speeches available. I decided to relax the rules to allow their campaign to present me with something from Kucinich, so I am reprinting a position paper from the Kucinich website here instead of a speech. If you follow the link above and click on "Audio/Video" there are Kucinich speeches available for viewing or listening to on their campaign website.]

Strength Through Peace

Dennis Kucinich is the only Democrat running for President who has voted against authorizing the war in Iraq and against funding its continuation. He has proposed a bold, new policy to re-establish America's place in the world. Diplomacy and a return to statesmanship as the path to strong international leadership. A new policy of investing in our communities and our infrastructure. A new policy of Strength through Peace.

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[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

Hillary Clinton

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/

Remarks at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Dinner

Des Moines, Iowa
11/10/07

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you Iowa Democrats. Thank you all. Thank you. What a night. What a great, great night. Thank you all. There's no better place to be than right here in Iowa with the great elected officials that you have: your governor, your lieutenant governor, your congressional delegation, our wonderful friend, Senator Tom Harkin and his wife Ruth. Isn't it a special treat to have the Speaker of the House, Madam Speaker here tonight?

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[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

Bill Richardson

http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/home

Hard Choices:
The Responsible Way Forward for Iraq and our Military

Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
10/4/07

Thank you for having me here. It is an honor to be able to share with you today my thoughts about how we can end the war in Iraq -- and also to discuss some lessons which we must learn from this ongoing tragedy.

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