The Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate on the Environment Ackerman Auditorium, UCLA Los Angeles, California Thursday June 26, 2003

It is time now for closing statements. And each candidate will have one minute and 30 seconds to make a closing statement; and we’re going to start with Senator Lieberman.
 

SENATOR LIEBERMAN: Thank you very much, and thanks to the California LCV for sponsoring this forum.  This has been a very important discussion. I draw from it one overriding conclusion, that the most important goal we in the environmental movement in America must have today is to replace George W. Bush as the President of the of the United States. And in that we are all united. That of course means that we must nominate democratic candidate who can defeat him. I’m hereto tell you, not surprisingly, I believe I'm that candidate.

I am that candidate because I can take this President on where he's supposed to be strong, on security and values, and defeat him where he has been weak and irresponsible, on the economy and the environment.

I'm a different kind of Democrat.  George W. Bush is an indifferent kind of Republican. Environmental protection has been a passion and priority of my public life. Needless to say, that is not so for this President.

He has called in the special interests to write his administration's environmental policy. When I was Attorney General of Connecticut I hauled those special interests into court. And that's exactly the attitude I would bring to the oval office.

I have been in my time in the Senate of the United States as strong in defending our nation’s environment as I have been strong in defending our nation's security. That balance, that mixture makes me unique among the candidates for President of the United States this year, particularly George W. Bush. That’s why I know I can defeat him. So I ask you, imagine --

WARREN OLNEY: Thank you, Senator.

SENATOR LIEBERMAN: I ask you finally -- I’ll say in a sentence -- stand with me and we can, on election day, put the polluters out of the Whitehouse and reclaim our nation's environment for the generations to come.

Thank you very, very much.

WARREN OLNEY: Closing statement from Governor Dean.
 

GOVERNOR DEAN: Whoever thought we would long for the days of James Watt.

Let me tell you first what I did when I was governor. We had a five-year plan.  That's all the things governors have deal with. Balancing the budgets. Education formula that's a 20-year plan. That’s what we did with investing in kids and making sure every kid in the state had health insurance under 18.

Then we had a 100-year plan, and that’s all environmental. We set aside hundreds of thousands of acres that would never be developed. We put in lead paint restrictions, improved water quality.  I closed 75 local landfills, which was incredibly politically difficult.

The way I'm going to win this election is the way I need to win this election, and the only way the Democrats can within this election is why I think that I'm the only candidate that can beat George Bush.

I've brought hundreds of thousands of new people into this process already. I was at a meeting in Seattle a couple weeks ago. 1200 people came to hear what I said. 600 had never been involved in politics before.

We can't win this election by trying to belike George Bush. The only way we can win is to put our stake in the middle of an electorate the way it should be and expand the electorate.  And that's what this campaign's doing. We are bringing new people in that have given up, and I'm going to allow them not to give up and vote Democratic and beat George Bush.

WARREN OLNEY: Senator Moseley-Braun.
 

SENATOR MOSELEY-BRAUN: Howard, I just couldn’t help but take this chance to laugh at the fact that if there is a candidate that's the least like George Bush at this table, it's me.

My candidacy springs from a passionate patriotism and a desire to free our country from the clutches of the extreme Right Wing that is knowing power.

As President, I will rebuild America, both physically and spiritually. Our economy can come out of this recession when we return to the economic policies of the Clinton era and invest in working people, invest in rebuilding infrastructure, reforming healthcare and restoring our environment.

This administration's hypocrisy frankly has been breathtaking. They have done everything from gutting laws that we thought we had in place, protections we thought we had, to coming up with new things to take even more of our civil liberties away from us.

In addition to what they've done to the courts, in addition to Patriot 1 and all the pandering to fear and division that they’ve resorted to, the newest announcement that came just yesterday is they have something now called an Integrated Earth Observation System, which is the replacement for Total Information Awareness that will, quote, take the pulse of the planet, using satellite and ground-based weather, climate and vegetation observation.

Well, what do these people need to look at anything for when they're destroying what we already know we have.

I believe that we have -- my candidacy does honor to our ancestors who fought for social justice and for the environment, and gives hope to our children who deserve to get no less liberty, no less freedom, no less opportunity, no less optimism --

WARREN OLNEY: Thank you, Senator.

SENATOR MOSELEY BRAUN:-- than we inherited from the last generation.

WARREN OLNEY: Reverend Sharpton.
 

REVEREND SHARPTON: I think that all of us can state why we are unique and why we are different, and I don't need to use any part of my minute to confirm my uniqueness on this panel.

But my honest opinion is that a candidate cannot be beat George Bush. A movement must beat George Bush. If we fight George Bush using clubhouse politics and slick commercials, we will be defeated. But if we stand for what is right and if we connect to every American what their interests are, George Bush cannot get away with what he got away with in 2000.

What I bring to this campaign is the ability to communicate to those areas of this country that have been disenfranchised and marginalized, that is the margin of Victory in 2004.

George Bush can be defeated. He didn’t win last time. But he cannot win this time if the people come out in unprecedented numbers and understand that air is our air, that water is our water.  We must get rid of Bush not for the Democrats, but for our ourselves.

WARREN OLNEY: Senator Kerry.
 

SENATOR KERRY: I think it's clear that the one thing we don't need is as we approach this race is a second Republican party. And as President Clinton said a little while ago, the 2002 election showed that strong and wrong beats weak and right.

I believe that the record I bring to this raise proves I can be strong and right and provide strong leadership to lead us in the right direction.

I am proud of the fact that I have the strongest lifetime 19-year voting record of LCV of those who've been measured, 96.5 percent, and the road traveled is prologue to the road to be traveled.

I led the fight against Gale Norton, led the fight with John McCain to raise campaign standards, led the fight against Arctic drilling, led the fight against Gingrich to stop him attacking the Clean Air and Clean Water Act.

I've written our fishery laws, flood insurance laws, marine mammal protection. And I am going to be a President in the best tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, President Eisenhower and Bill Clinton who put away 350 million acres.

We are going to lead this country of ours to a better place, and we are going to prove to the world that the real definition of patriotism is not going to be stolen by those who believe the flag or patriotism belongs to them.

The real definition of patriotism is how we make our country stronger for our children. The environment --

WARREN OLNEY: We’re out of time, Senator.

SENATOR KERRY:-- is a national security issue.

WARREN OLNEY: Thank you very much. I’m sorry to interrupt you, but we are simply out of time. It is over with.

Thank you for being with us. Thanks to our reporters as well.

(Whereupon, at 6:00 P.M., the debate was concluded.)
 
 

 I, NIKKI ROY, C.S.R. No. 3052, in and for the State of California, do hereby certify:

 That the foregoing proceedings were takedown by me in shorthand at the time and place stated herein, and represent a true and correct transcript of the proceedings.

 I further certify that I am not interested in the event of the action.

 Witness my hand this the day of June 30, 2003.