Dean-Gephardt Now In Hard Battle In Iowa

A non-partisan Zogby International poll of union members in Iowa indicates they favor Dean over Gephardt, 24 percent to 20 percent. The poll, conducted Sept. 8-9, put Dean's lead among all likely voters at 23 percent, with Gephardt following at 17 percent, Kerry running third at 11 percent and no one else in double digits.

But another poll has some good news for Gephardt. Harstad Strategic Research, a Democratic polling firm, surveyed people who had attended caucuses between 1984 and 2000 and found that Gephardt led the pack among those voters with 25 percent, with Dean and Kerry tied at 15 percent and Lieberman at 11 percent.

The Dean defense -- "What Dick is not telling people is that Vermont has Little Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws, a minimum wage of $7 an hour, and it's not a right-to-work state," Dean said. "Also, I have a 100 percent [AFL-CIO] record. My position on trade has changed because WTO and NAFTA aren't working. It is a siphon for the trade jobs. When I wasn't running for president, I wasn't spending time in the Midwest."

"Frankly, I've done a lot more for health care than Dick Gephardt has ever thought of doing," Dean said. "Dick is a wonderful person. But Congress has produced virtually nothing on health care."

On Social Security, Dean acknowledges that he has said in the past that he might consider increasing the retirement age, but has now come to the firm conclusion that raising the age is not necessary to shore up the system.