PART I - Introduction and Opening Statements
PART II - Six General Questions Posed by Selected AFSCME Members
PART III - Questions from the Floor
PART IV - Closing Statements
 

We'll now -- we're going to thank you for your patience, too. We're now going to move to closing comments.
Each candidate will have two minutes, and I'd like you to answer the following questions.
Why should our union support you particularly over the other candidates?  How about electability?  Do you have a road map in terms of how you get to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?  Indeed, what is your strategy to beat George W. Bush?
We begin -- determined the order by lottery.  Let's begin with Representative Kucinich and the rest of you I believe know and will follow each other in that pre-determined order.
Representative Kucinich?

KUCINICH: Thank you very much.  I'm pleased to be first, and I'm hopeful that's the way the primaries will turn out too.
(LAUGHTER)
What kind of a Democrat am I?  I think that's the question that every candidate ought to be answering.  I'm an FDR Democrat.  I'm a Paul Wellstone Democrat.
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I'm a Democrat with a 100 percent AFSCME voting record, the only one up here.
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Why can I win?  Because I took a congressional district that was 66 percent Republican and turned it into a 74 percent Democratic district..
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... 21 points above the ticket.  I come from Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio -- 19 electoral votes.  I can carry Ohio and those 19 votes.  I'm the Democrat who can.  I have proven I can get votes there.
As mayor Cleveland, I replaced a Republican incumbent.  Elected to the state senate in Ohio, I replaced a Republican incumbent in the middle of a Republican landslide.  In running for Congress, I replaced a Republican incumbent.
And as your nominee for president, I'm going to replace a Republican incumbent again.
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Now how am I going to do that?  Well, we've set up a web site -- Kucinich.US.  It's already causing thousands of Americans to come to help us organize across this country, and those same Americans are helping us raise funds.
The bottom line is, brothers and sisters, because I actually hold a card in the AFL-CIO as a member of the IATSE -- brothers and sisters, you must win if I win, and you will win with a candidate who is ready to challenge the entire political establishment by saying that it is time for fully funded, guaranteed universal health care, Medicare for all.
It is time to say no to the privatization of Social Security and to take the retirement age back to 65.  It is time to say cancel NAFTA, not just trim around it and fix it, but cancel it and repeal the WTO.
It is time to say cancel the Patriot Act.  It is time to say let's create a workers' White House where the rights of workers are enshrined and let's replace this corporate White House and bring the government back to the people.  That's what I stand for, and with your help, that's the kind of country...
MCENTEE: Thank you.
KUCINICH: ... we'll create.  Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
MCENTEE: Thank you.  It's time to say, Dennis, your time is up.
Who is next?

GEPHARDT: I think I am.
MCENTEE: OK, all right.
GEPHARDT: Thank you for having us here today.  I really always enjoy coming to this great union.  You do a great job for our country and our people.  You are the workers. You are the people that make this country great.
I'm going to win this election against George Bush because I'm going to give the American people real choices on health care, on taxes, on the economy, on jobs, on education, on energy and environment, foreign policy and defense.
We're not going to beat George Bush if our candidate is trying to be Bush-light.  We're going to beat George Bush by giving the people a real choice, and we're going to beat George Bush, and I'm going to beat George Bush because I'm going to reveal to the American people in those final debates and meetings, my values and my heart and why I care so much about these issues.
Thirty-one years ago this month Jane Gephardt and I got a diagnosis on our son that he had terminal cancer.  The doctors said he wouldn't live six weeks. We went home that night, knelt down by the bed and prayed all night that we could find an answer to his problem.
The next day the doctor came in and said they had found experimental therapy that they were going to try.  He said, "Don't get your hopes, but we're going to try."
We went through three years of chemo and radiation, 10 operations.  Today Matt is 32-years old and he's married and he lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
(APPLAUSE)
He's a gift of God, he's a gift of God.  We met a lot of parents in that hospital when he was being treated whose kids had cancer, and they did not have health insurance some of them.
If you want to see terror in somebody's eyes, you look at somebody who's got a sick kid or a sick loved one and they do not have health insurance.  I am bound and determined, when I am your president, to get everybody in this country covered with good health insurance that can never be taken away.
I'm going to beat George Bush.  We're going to change America. We're going to make America better than it's ever been.
(APPLAUSE)
MCENTEE: Thank you.  Thank you, Representative Gephardt.
(APPLAUSE)
Next?

SHARPTON: I'm running for president because I believe that we not only need a new director in the county, we need a new direction, and we need a new direction by those that are not afraid to stand and represent what they believe in.
Why are we in the Democratic Party in the state we are now? Because there have been far too many of us running around the country as elephants wearing donkey jackets thinking people would not see us bursting at the seams.  We need to stand up for the principles that made this party what it was in the first place.
There was a reason people chose Roosevelt.  There was a reason people chose John Kennedy. There was a reason they chose London Baines Johnson.  Because they stood for what was right.
I want to see George Bush defeated not just because he's a Republican, but because he's wrong.  He's wrong about tax cuts.  He's wrong about having wars that are unjustified.  He's wrong about limiting our right to organize.
We've got go to the American public with what is right and a track record that we will stand by what's right even if the polls say temporarily we are wrong.  We can turn the polls if we can show the American people what is right, and what is in their best interests.
We cannot beat George Bush just running a traditional campaign. We can't beat him with career politics.  We've got to bring the disaffected back, the disinterested back.
Most voters are not voting at all.  I'm leaving here going south doing voter registration.  We need to get those millions of voters that left the party, some that voted independent.  We need to bring them home.  I'm the candidate that can.
The Republicans played a shrewd strategy.  They beat us by doing an old boxing technique.  They cut off the ring, and we started fighting their fight.
Thirty years ago, Mohammed Ali in 1974 developed a strategy that won. He decided not to let Foreman cut off the ring.  He decided the ropeadope (ph) theory.  He used the ropes.  He used the whole ring. He brought in all of the things that people said don't bring in, and he won.  We need to ropeadope (ph) next year.
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We need to win by using the whole American political ring and bring everybody in and win for America.
(APPLAUSE)
MCENTEE: Thank you.  Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you very much.
Next?

GRAHAM: We've had some excellent pieces of advice, that which has just been given by Reverend Sharpton.  That which will Mr. Bill Lucy stated earlier.  I want to say we are not running against each other.
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We are committed to one goal: to save the American people from another four years of this administration, which has so disserved them.
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And on January the 20th of 2005, to all contribute to the cost of a bus ticket to send George Bush back to Crawford, Texas.
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Jerry, and a couple of newspaper stories this week, has said that electability is an important part of your consideration as to who you are going to support, because you share that same view.
Let me tell you why I think Bob Graham is the moist electable candidate.  First, I am prepared to take George Bush on straight face- to-face.  I'm doing it now, calling the fact that he has engaged in a cover-up of important information that will tell the American people what happened before 9/11, what's happened since 9/11 and who has yet to be held accountable for 3,000 deaths.
Second, I've been governor of the fourth largest state, a very complicated state, in America.  Four of the last five presidents to be elected had that kind of executive experience.
I am now a senator and for the last 10 years have served on the Intelligence Committee, the last two years as chair.  Therefore, I've had a front seat on the national security issues.
But I've also had a tradition of listening to Americans as I worked with Americans.  I have now have over 388 different jobs.  May say something about my stability.
(APPLAUSE)
I have been a sanitation worker.  I've been a nurse.  I've been a corrections officer.  I've been a child-benefit enforcement officer. I have been a Head Start aide, and in all of those I've been listening to what America wants and then carrying out what I have heard.
My name is Bob Graham.  I am from the electable wing of the Democratic Party.
(APPLAUSE)
MCENTEE: Thank you.  Thank you.
Next?

MOSELEY BRAUN: I'm Carol Moseley Braun and I'm running for president of the United States.
When reporters and other people ask me, "What makes you different than the other candidates," I have traditionally just responded with an answer about the economy or taxes or security or diplomacy or civil liberties, an answer about a program.  But the fact of the matter is, that the thing that makes me different is really the most obvious.  I am a woman and we do things differently.
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We believe...
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... women focus in on the harmony and the security of the whole community.  We try to find balance and fairness in the way that we approach issues, and I bring to this race a perspective to this campaign that is different than the other candidates.
MOSELEY BRAUN: I have the qualifications, the life experience, the professional expertise and credentials and a plan to bring Americans together for peace, prosperity and progress.  I want to rebuild America.
I'm running for president because I believe our generation has a sacred duty to give the next generation no less than we received from the last one.
We have a responsibility to see to it that we turn over more freedom, not less, more prosperity, not less, more opportunity, not less.
I for one as not prepared to stand by and watch as our environment is ruined forever, as our children lose their optimism, as our standard of living declines and as liberty and privacy become things of the past.
If you believe as I do that we must hold on to hope and preserve the blessings of liberty for ourselves and for our prosperity, then you will join me in this fight for America's future.
I can make a difference.  I want to rebuild America not only physically, but spiritually.
As senator, I built a consistent record of productivity and service, not only for my state but for people everywhere who believe in social justice and opportunity.
I was a voice for women and people of color and the working class in America's most exclusive club.  As president, I will draw on my experience as a law maker and as a diplomat to work for a renewed America and for our world.
America needs and deserves leadership that will bring us together as one country, as one people, to build a country that we'll be proud to leave as our legacy.
I need your help.  When the people want change, they can make it so. If you believe that it is time for a change, time for our generation to put this country on a path to restore the promise that our ancestors fought and died for, time for us to come together and build on the strength of America, then I ask you to believe that I can be your president.
And if you do, I ask you to call on three friends and speak nicely about my candidacy, get two people registered to vote and stand with me for a real patriotism that will transform America and the world.
It is time for a woman.  Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
MCENTEE: Thank you.
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It shouldn't be too hard.  There's only two left.

DEAN: Well, I agree with Bob Graham that the next president is going to be a former governor and it's not going to be a Republican governor.
(LAUGHTER)
But I don't agree with Bob Graham about one thing.  As the recipient of the Wellstone, I'm very proud to be a member of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, and if we worry so much about electability, that they can't tell the difference between the Democratic and the Democratic Party and the Republicans, then we're going to be in a lot of trouble in this party.
We need to win this election by standing up for who we are and speaking our peace.
Now as a former governor, I can say that I'm the only one that's actually delivered universal health care to a significant number of our people, and my health care plan will pass because it's inexpensive.  And it will give Americans the same health-care plan that the members of Congress have.
I don't think we can win this election by voting for tax cuts.  I don't think we can win this election by voting for No Child Left Behind and then saying it's only bad because it's unfunded.  I don't know a teach in America who thinks that's a good bill.  It labels good schools as failing schools.  It's the wrong thing to do.
I went to Seattle a couple of days ago.  Twelve hundred people showed up to hear me speak.  I stopped my speech in the middle of it and I said, "How many of you all haven't been in politics in the last 10 or 15 years?" Half of the room stood up.  We're not going to win this election in this room.  We're going to win this election talking to people who want hope again, who want hope in America, who are going to stand up.
It's not just going to be Democrats that win this election.  It's independents who want jobs again.
The biggest lie that people like me tell you is, "If you elect me I'm going to solve all of your problems." The truth is that you have the power to change this country, that you have the power to make a difference to nominate somebody in this party who can bring those 50 percent of the people who have given up on the political process back in, that we can win and we can mobilize again.
Abraham Lincoln said that a government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth.  The truth is that this president has forgotten about ordinary people, and that you have the power to take this country back.  You have the power to take this party back and you have the power to take the White House back in 2004.
Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
MCENTEE: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you, Governor.

Senator Edwards?
EDWARDS: In 2000, George Bush did not get the most votes.
(APPLAUSE)
But that has not stopped him from acting like he has a mandate, a mandate to shred our values and act in an irresponsible way and walk away from the things that matter most to the American people.
He has mortgaged our future to give money to people who don't need it.  His fiscal policies have put Medicare and Social Security at risk.  His management of the economy has cost us millions of jobs.
I've talked today about some of things I want to do. College for every young person in America who is willing to work for it.
Making available -- stopping the price gouging on prescription drugs by pharmaceutical companies, stopping insurance abuse and putting you, working people, in America's corporate board rooms, by creating a real worker and shareholder's bill of rights.
In Washington, D.C., they talk about these things as issues, but out there in America, they're about real people's lives.
This is where I come from.  I told you earlier that my dad worked in a cotton mill his whole life.  I used to work there when I was young.  I will remember as long as live the faces of the men and women who went into that mill every day, worked long tedious hours, grease on their face, lint in their hair, just for the hope that they would be able to build a better life for themselves and for their families.
When my father left the mill after 35 years of work, my family was without health care.  My mother had to leave a shop that she's spent years building and go to work at the Post Office so that my parents could have health care.
Thank God for the union, because that's the only reason my parents were able to get health care at that time.
(APPLAUSE)
I want you to know that this is personal for me.  Sometimes people say to me, "Why run now? You've got plenty of time." No, I don't.  You don't.  America doesn't.  This election could be the most important election in American history.
I want you to know that I will take this fight right at George W. Bush, and I will not concede a single vote in America, and I will not concede a single state in America.
And when I'm elected president of the United States, I will work up -- wake up every morning going to work for working people.  I will fight for the interest of working people.  Their values are the values I was raised with.  Their fight is the fight I have fought all of my life.  Their cause, your cause is my cause.
This president is out of touch, out of tune and come November of 2004, he will be out of town.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you all very much.
(APPLAUSE)

MCENTEE: Thank you very much, everybody.
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Candidates, candidates all, we appreciate your thoughtful answers, your patience, your willingness to be with us here today.  We also appreciate our own folks, their attendance.  Very good.
We should all applaud them.
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We thought the questions from our members, from our activists, were incisive and thoughtful questions, and we hope that not just with your answers here today but you'll continue to think about those questions, which indeed is the path to a better America.
After lunch, which begins at noon, we will continue our townhall meeting with Senators Kerry and Lieberman, and then we're going to move to our members-only townhall meeting, where we together will discuss what we heard this morning.
Because we're meeting with Senator via satellite, we're going to start at 1:30 sharp.  So please, please, be here on time.
We want to thank all of your very much, particularly the candidates.  And we know that any one of these candidates, by God, would be better what we have in the White House today.
Thank you, thank you.
(APPLAUSE)