Democrat John Kerry capped a stunning political comeback on Monday with a victory in Iowa's caucuses that dramatically reshaped the Democratic presidential race and ended Richard Gephardt's White House quest.
In the first test on the road to find a challenger to US President George W. Bush, Kerry won 38 percent and John Edwards scored a surprise second-place finish with 32 percent of the vote. One-time favorites Howard Dean, the front-runner for months, and Gephardt trailed badly with 18 and 11 percent, respectively.
The win was a huge momentum boost for Kerry, the four-term senator from Massachusetts and decorated Vietnam War veteran who weeks ago was given up for dead but roared back into the race with an emphasis on his foreign policy and war experience and his ability to beat Bush.
PHOTO: AP
"We came from behind and we came for the fight and now I have a special message for the special interests that have a home in the Bush White House: We're coming, you're going, and don't let the door hit you on the way out," Kerry told roaring supporters in Des Moines.
Kerry and Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, benefited from perceptions that they offered the best chance to beat Bush, which television network caucus polls showed was a crucial issue for Iowa Democrats.
The result turned the Democratic race upside down, sending Kerry and Edwards roaring into the next primary state of New Hampshire and dealing harsh blows to Dean and Gephardt, one-time favorites who were left behind by their rivals' surge.
Gephardt, the congressman from neighboring Missouri and one-time leader in Iowa polls, canceled his planned flight to New Hampshire and dropped out.
"My campaign to fight for working people may be ending tonight, but our fight will never end," said an emotional Gephardt, who won Iowa during his first presidential bid in 1988 and had said a loss here would end his campaign.
The loss by Dean, the former Vermont governor who had been considered the party's front-runner based on big fund raising and a series of major endorsements, turned what was shaping up to be a quick Dean victory into a dogfight.
"We will not give up," a fiery Dean said, letting out a whoop as he recited the states with later primaries that he promised to compete in. "We have just begun to fight."
At his side was Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, whose recent endorsement did little to help Dean.
Edwards, the senator from North Carolina who also was mired in the single digits in polls just weeks ago, vastly exceeded expectations in Iowa and described his campaign as "the little engine that could. We made this work and the reason it worked, I think, was the message."
Edwards had stressed a positive agenda and stayed out of the increasingly bitter exchanges between the front-runners.
About 120,000 Democrats braved sub-freezing temperatures on Monday night to attend one of nearly 2,000 local precinct caucuses around the state and publicly declare their support for a candidate. The turnout was double the 60,000 Democrats who showed up in 2000.
Kerry and Edwards have risen in the polls in the past week as voters took a fresh look at the candidates after the holidays, evaluating which one had the best chance to beat Bush in November and responding negatively to an exchange of harsh attack ads by Dean and Gephardt.
"For Iowa Democrats, the key question was who could beat President Bush?" Iowa State Democratic Party Chairman Gordon Fischer said. "Electability was everything in Iowa."
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary