Most Candidates at Urban League

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean brought the crowd to its feet by saying: "There are lots of white politicians who go before black groups and talk about race. We need white politicians who go before white groups and talk about race."

Seven of the nine announced Democratic presidential candidates attended the Urban League forum. The no-shows were Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Bob Graham of Florida.

Bush accepted the Urban League's invitation to speak after repeatedly spurning the better-known NAACP at its annual gatherings. The Urban League, founded in 1910 to help blacks who migrated to northern industrial cities from the rural South, is generally considered less confrontational and less political than the NAACP.

While Bush received a warm reception, the fiery rhetoric from Democrats was greeted with loud applause, whoops and laughter.

"More than 3 million Americans have lost their jobs. As far as I'm concerned there's only one American who should lose his job, and that's George W. Bush," Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Ct., said at a forum for Democratic candidates hours after Bush spoke.