I. Introduction by Marian Wright Edelman and video.
II. One-minute opening statements.
III. "Lightening" round--responses of "30 seconds or less than a minute" to question on the war.
IV. First round of questions and follow ups from the panelists.
V. Second round of questions and follow ups from the panelists.
VI. "Lightening" round--question on affirmative action.
VII. One-minute closing statements.

Transcript (II)
FROM THE CDF TRANSCRIPT

JUDY WOODRUFF: I am just going to say very simply that I am pleased to be part of this forum. I know that our three panelists are as well. You're going to be hearing from them in just a moment.  Issues surrounding children are important to all of us, all of us in this room, all who are watching on television, and even though we know the first presidential primary is more than nine months away, it is never too early to start to focus on the issues of importance to children and their families.

So, we're going to get right to it. We are fortunate that all nine of the declared Democratic presidential candidates are with us tonight, and I'm going to begin by introducing them from right to left. On the right, from the State of Illinois, former United States Senator Carol Moseley Braun; from Vermont, former Governor Howard Dean; from North Carolina, United States Senator John Edwards; from Missouri, United States Representative Dick Gephardt; from Florida, United States Senator Bob Graham; from Massachusetts, United States Senator John Kerry; from Ohio, United States Representative Dennis Kucinich; from Connecticut, United States Senator Joe Lieberman; and from New York, the Reverend Al Sharpton.

Our questioners are Juan Williams, senior correspondent of National Public Radio and political analyst for the Fox News Channel; Michelle Martin, ABC News Nightline news correspondent and contributor to This Week; and Mark Shields, syndicated columnist, political analyst on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and moderator of CNN's Capital Gang.
Before we begin the questions, each candidate is going to have an opportunity to make an opening statement of one minute, so with a sharp eye on the clock, we're going to ask you to do that now starting with Senator Braun.

FORMER AMBASSADOR CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN: Thank you very much.

Thirteen million American children live in poverty, 13 million children. They have no votes, they have no lobbyists, but they do have a voice, and that voice is represented best by the Children's Defense Fund. I am so pleased to have been invited to join in this forum, and pleased that all of you are here to participate in this critical decision about the kind of country we will have, about the kind of people we are, because surely how we deal with children will represent our legacy as a generation to the world.

I am the only candidate in this race who has not only borne a child and raised one, but borne the battle for children over the years from the very beginning of my career as a state legislator. I fought for children in the Illinois House to provide them with food. I fought to provide them with living subsidies. As a member of the United States Senate, I fought to see to it that no child's limit was cut off from living subsidies with the welfare bill that eliminated the national safety net. I believe that we have a responsibility, all of us as Americans, to see to it that every child is cared for, given health care and opportunity for an education, a secure family environment, and a chance to grow and contribute to this great nation to the best of their abilities. And that is what I will fight for as President of the United States.

(Applause)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Governor Dean.

FORMER GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN: Tonight I think we're beginning a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, as well as for the soul of America. I don't think we can win the White House if we spend all our time talking about the Patient's Bill of Rights instead of insisting that we have health insurance for every American, as we do for every child under 18 in Vermont. I don't think we can win the White House by voting for the No Child Left Behind Bill, which should be called the No School Board Left Standing Bill, instead of funding childcare for most children as we do in the State of Vermont. I don't think we can vote for $350 billion tax cuts that prevent us from balancing the budget, prevent us from funding early education as we do in the State of Vermont. And I don't think that we can vote for a new doctrine of presidential preemptive war and still keep American values.

(Applause)

FORMER GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN: I'm Howard Dean, and I'm here once again to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Thank you.

(Applause)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator Edwards.

SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS: America's families are working harder, earning less, and spending less time together every single day. The poverty rate is going up again for the first time in a decade. We have to make a national priority of strengthening America's families. I wish I could tell you tonight that we can have everything. We can't. We need to be honest. Here's what I would do. First, a $2500 refundable tax credit for family leave so that every parent of a new child can spend time with that child. Second, making after-school available to every one of our 7 million latchkey kids who need access to after-school. Third, in addition to holding mothers of kids on welfare responsible, holding fathers of kids on welfare responsible, helping them get jobs but making sure they pay their child support at the same time. And lastly, college for everyone--a proposal I have that says, if you're willing to work 10 hours a week your first year of college, we'll make sure you can go to a state university or community college tuition-free.

Thank you all very much. (Applause)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Representative Gephardt.

REPRESENTATIVE RICHARD GEPHARDT: All of us know the importance of this organization. I want to thank Marian Wright Edelman for what she's meant to this organization through the years. We all know that we've got to not just look at statistics about children, we've got to look at each individual child, and consider that they are our own, because they are. When my son was two he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The doctors were able to use experimental treatments to save his life, because we had good health insurance. I met a lot of parents when we were in radiation and chemotherapy treatments who did not have health insurance to take care of their kids, and I vowed when I went through that, that we had to get everybody in this country covered with health insurance. This centerpiece of my campaign, the centerpiece of my campaign will be to add money to children's health, to give tax credits to business to require each business to offer plans to their employees. We have got to get everybody in this country covered with health insurance. It is the moral thing to do, and it's the right thing to do for this country. And as president I will see that it's done.

(Applause)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator Graham.

SENATOR BOB GRAHAM: Thank you, and I also wish to extend my thanks to Ms. Edelman and for all of you who are giving us the opportunity tonight to tell you why we think we should be the next President of the United States. I think I should be the next President of the United States because this nation faces unusual challenges-a war, a stagnant economy, declining resources for health and education. I think the question before us is what should be our priority. My priority will be our children. The question is, do we have the courage of our convictions? Eloquence will not do it alone, it takes clarity of action. I voted to eliminate all of President Bush's tax cuts.

(Applause)

SENATOR BOB GRAHAM: A massive tax cut at a time of war, which not only eliminates resources for our children, but assures that they will end up paying the gigantic deficits that we are creating, is fundamentally unfair; it is not what we do in America. I am the grandfather of 10, and 3 of my 10 are with us here tonight. I will be guided by the goal of assuring that those grandchildren and all of those in their generation have an opportunity to grow up in a better, safer America that offers greater opportunity.

Thanks.

(Applause)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator Kerry.

SENATOR JOHN KERRY: We're not just here tonight to fight for the soul of our party, we're here to fight for the conscience and the soul of our country. We saw today on television the most extraordinary photographs. The world saw these photographs of the power of America to liberate people in a far off land from tyranny. I am running for President of the United States because it is long, long since time that we put that power to use here at home, to liberate our children from the indifference and from the neglect that engulfs their lives. Marian talked a moment ago about the America that we are. We're two Americas, the one politicians talk about, and the one we really are. And the one we really are has millions of our children who have no health care; they are homeless; they are having problems of nutrition; and it is long since time we had a president who made real the words "leave no child behind." I am running for president to hold this president accountable for making a mockery of those words, and instead of spending $70,000 a year to house kids in prison, we need to spend the money on Early Start, Head Start, Smart Start, and put them into full citizenship in our lives.

(Applause)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Representative Kucinich.

REPRESENTATIVE DENNIS KUCINICH: Thank you very much. My memories of an inner city childhood in Cleveland are still fresh-the oldest of 7 children living in 21 different places by the time I was 17, including a couple of cars, family having trouble making ends meet, constant evictions, and wondering about where the next meal was going to come from, overcrowded living conditions. I know what Langston Hughes meant when he said, "life for me ain't been no crystal stair." People in so many neighborhoods we lived in had a lot of the same problems. I remember where I came from. That's why I authored a bill for universal free kindergarten, which provides for early childcare and educational enrichment. That's why I worked tirelessly to increase the childcare development block grant to $20 billion over 5 years. That's why I co-authored a bill for universal health care. I'll be a president who knows what families go through, who knows how they struggle to make ends meet, who knows how they work to have a decent roof over their head. I remember where I came from, the crossroads of hope and despair, many American children are at that crossroads today, and we need to help them make the move to the path of economic justice.

(Applause)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator Lieberman.

SENATOR JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: Thank you, Judy. Thanks to Marian, and thanks to the Children's Defense Fund. Our children are growing up in a world today that we could not have imagined just three years ago. War against tyranny abroad, the threat of terrorism, and a stagnating economy here at home. Challenges are difficult, but today, thanks to the bravery and skill of the American military, we have a little bit of hope. As I saw that statue of Saddam Hussein falling in Baghdad, I could feel the hopes of the children of Iraq for a better life rising, and I could feel the hopes for the children of America for a safer life rising, as well. Now we have to come back home and not only help our children have a safe life, we have to help them have a better life, and that means reordering our priorities, not financing trillion-dollar tax breaks on the backs of America's children. Let's invest that money in reviving our economy so American parents can take care of their children; let's invest it in better schools, better health care, better childcare. And let me set this goal as your next president. Yes, it's important to leave no child behind, but this is American. We can do better than that. Let's help every American child get ahead.

(Applause)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Reverend Sharpton.

REVEREND AL SHARPTON: I, too, join in saluting the work of the Children's Defense Fund. Sometimes you learn the best defense is an offense, and we need to go on the offensive, which is why I'm running for president. We need to go on the offensive against an administration who will give tax cuts to the rich, cut aid to public education, cut aid to daycare, turn around and use the rhetoric of "leave no child behind," while they leave the budget behind their own proposals of leaving no child behind. This president has in many ways perpetrated a political fraud on the American public at the expense of American children. We have young men and women that tore down the statue of Saddam in Iraq today, and have now been part of those that will promise universal health care to children in Iraq, who will come home and can't get universal health care to their own children in America.

(Applause)

REVEREND AL SHARPTON: I just got warmed up, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We'll give you an opportunity to say more as the evening wears on. I've been very
easy on all of you. We let you go long for your opening statements, but we're going to crack the whip as we get to these questions coming up...