The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 02, 2004, Image 1
• New England 32 Carolina
^AMEGOGK
---------- - vol. 97, No. 59
MONDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2004 Since,m
University of South Carolina MUINUm,
www.dailygamecock.com
15 candidates
get personal at
Columbia forum
BY JUSTIN CHAPPELL
T11K UAMECOCK
Six of the seven Democratic
presidential candidates answered
questions Friday morning in a fo
rum at the Township Auditorium
designed tc encourage dialogue
•th America’s families.
The Democratic hopefuls, ex
cluding U.S. Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, Connecticut, who
skipped the event to campaign in
Delaware, spoke in front of near
ly 3,000 people about the economy,
education and health care.
U.S. Sen. John Edwards of
North Carolina spoke of his south
ern upbringing and experience
with upstate textile mills. When
asked by James Holloway, a re
tired textile worker from Saluda,
about the exporting of jobs,
Edwards relied on his under
standing of local issues and his
southern drawl.
“We’re so focused on free trade;
there is no fair trade,” Edwards
said. “I grew up the way you grew
up.”
The Rev. A1 Sharpton, who
drew the loudest applause, said he
would institute a two-year tax de
ferment program that would help
get businesses on their feet in
stead of giving tax cuts to big busi
nesses moving overseas.
Regarding trade policy, “I got here
as an African because of bad trade
policy,” Sharpton said.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry,
Massachusetts, the front-runner
after winning in Iowa and New
Hampshire, mentioned his expe
rience in the Vietnam War as his
connection to the audience and ex
posure to poverty.
“Most of the kids I was with in
Vietnam came out of the south
side of Chicago, south-central Los
Angeles or the barrio,” Kerry
said.
Former governor of Vermont,
Howard Dean, who described
himself as “fiscally conservative
and socially progressive,” pre
sented a plan to make education
obtainable. Dean said his $7 bil
lion education program would
give everyone the opportunity to
go to college and that the pro
gram has a built-in loan stipula
tion that requires college gradu
ates to repay no more them 10 per
cent of their yearly income to
ward the loan each year.
Also presenting an education
plan, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich,
Ohio, said students could go to col
lege for free with an $87 billion tax
cut by repealing tax refunds to the
wealthy and ending the war in
Iraq.
♦ TOWNSHIP, SEE PAGE 4
—im ihihiiii ihi—i !■ m
PHOTO BY KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK
Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean answers questions about his platform at Friday’s forum
at the Township Auditorium.
PHOTO BY TRISHA SHADWELL /THE GAMECOCK
^Rrlus Rucker and Mark Bryan of Hootle and the Blowfish perform in support of Sen. John
Edwards, North Carolina, Friday at Jlllian’s Bar and Grill.
Edwards receives
singing endorsement
at Hootie concert
BY WES WOLFE
THE GAMECOCK
Hootie and the Blowfish made
good on its endorsement of Sen.
John Edwards for president,
when the South Carolina band
gave a fundraising performance
Friday for an overflow crowd at
Jillian’s Bar and Grill in
Columbia.
“I’ll be proud to have my good ,
friends Hootie and the Blowfish at
my side in South Carolina head
ing into February third,” Edwards
said when the concert was an
nounced on Jan. 9. “This is South
Carolina’s band, and I intend to be
South Carolina’s candidate come
primary day.”
There were so many people in
attendance that only those who
bought tickets before the concert
were admitted. Admission wasn’t
cheap, either. Student’s admission
was $35, and the non-student min
imum was $50; Contributions
could reach the federal maximum
of $2,000 to see the concert and
Sen. Edwards.
Preceding Sen. Edwards on the
stage were College Democrats of
America President Ashley Bell
and Columbia Mayor Bob Coble.
Edwards was also joined by his
daughter, Cate, a 21-year-old
Princeton student, and his par
ents, Wallace and Bobbie.
After Bell introduced Mayor
Coble, Coble warmed up the gath
ering by talking about Sen.
Edwards’s connections to South
Carolina.
“John Edwards was born in
South Carolina,” Mayor Coble
said. “He grew up in a mill vil
lage. He knows what it means to
make South Carolina a great
place.”
Mayor Coble then introduced
Edwards, who made his trade
mark entrance by working from
the back of the crowd,to the front,
shaking hands and greeting peo
ple while John Mellencamp’s
“Small Town” played over the
speakers. Edwards’s speech to
the crowd was decidedly differ
ent than what he said in his can
didacy announcement at USC on
♦ EDWARDS, SEE PAGE 4
Voter program brings Declaration of Independence
BY Z’ANNE COVELL
TIIK (1AMECOCK
Declare Yourself, a national
nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign
to motivate young voters for the
2004 presidential election, will be
visiting USC today at Davis Field
from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“We hope to encourage a whole
population of voters to know they
can facilitate change in their coun
try,” associate director Aimee
Jasculca said. “It’s really impor
tant in an election year to energize
voters, and we hope it will be very
successful.”
The event will showcase one of
the 25 remaining original copies
of the Declaration of
Independence drafted July 4,1776.
Declare Yourself founder and
producer of sitcoms “All in the
Family” and “The Jeffersons,”
Norman Lear, bought the copy in
an online auction.
Jasculca said the copy was orig
inally found at a flea market be
hind a picture in a frame. “A man
bought the picture just because he
liked it, and when he removed the
frame, he found the Declaration
of Independence,” Jasculca said.
Lear was determined that if his
bid were successful, he would
share the historic document with
the nation.
“When I learned it was going to
be auctioned, I thought if I could get
it, it was going to travel,” Lear said.
“It wasn’t going to just sit around. I
wanted the people to see it.”
Declare Yourself evolved from
Lear’s Declaration of
Independence Road Trip, a cross
country tour of the auctioned
copy. After seeing people’s re
sponses to the tour, Lear decided
to use his copy of the Declaration
as an inspiration to voters.
Declare Yourself particularly
targets college-age voters to help
them develop a lifetime habit of
voting.
“Our research shows if a per
son votes at an early age, they are
more likely to become a lifetime
voter,” Lear said.
♦ DECLARE, SEE PAGE 4
Kerry
boasts
support
BY MICHAEL LAFORGIA
THE GAMECOCK
U.S. Sen. John Kerry em- •
phasized his military service
in Vietnam when he spoke in
the Russell House Ballroom
Friday morning in an effort to
drum up support before
Tuesday’s primary.
The Massachusetts senator
upset some Southern
Democrats in New Hampshire
last week when he said in
three speeches that candidates
often make the “mistake” of
concentrating on the South.
When asked about the com
ments during a debate in
Greenville Thursday night,
- Kerry denied using the word
“mistake” and said he was
talking about the mathematics
of an election.
wnen Kerry appeared in tne
Russell House Friday, he was
accompanied by the Veterans
Brigade, a group of Vietnam
veterans assembled to cam
paign with the senator.
Also on hand to support
Kerry at USC were U.S. Sen.
Fritz Hollings, U.S. Rep. James
Clyburn, Former U.S. Sen.
'Max Cleland, Georgia, and for
mer College of Charleston
President Alex Sanders.
For his part, Hollings
scoffed at those who labeled
Kerry a “liberal from
Massachusetts,” and took the
opportunity to distinguish
Kerry from Gen. Wesley Clark,
who is also a veteran.
“I want to emphasize right
now I’m a Washington insid
er,” Hollings said. “In South
Carolina, we believe in insid
ers.” Clark has emphasized
that he is a political outsider
while campaigning in South
Carolina.
Hollings also compared the
Iraq situation to the Vietnam
conflict.
“We’re in trouble again —
real trouble. It’s Vietnam all
over again,” Hollings said.
Cleland, who lost his legs
and an arm while serving in
V ietnam, said he feels a special
connection with Kerry, be
cause the two fought for the
same cause.
Also appearing to speak on
Kerry’s behalf was the Rev.
David Alston of South
Carolina, who served on
Kerry’s boat in Vietnam.
When Kerry addressed the
crowd, he praised his Southern
supporters and told them he
has relied on the Veterans’
Brigade to help his campaign
in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“These are the same band of
brothers that I relied on 35
years ago, some of them,”
Kerry said. “We may be a little
bit older, we may be a little
grayer, but we still know how
to fight for this country.”
Kerry also took the opportuni
ty to praise the South for its
ability to overcome past ad
versity.
If elected, Kerry said he
would roll back the tax cut for
those earning more than
$200,000 a year, establish uni
versal health care and crack
♦ KERRY, SEE PAGE 4
*, •
♦ PILGRIMAGE STAMPEDE
244 die in hajj to Saudi
Arabia . FOR MORE SEE
PAGE 5
♦ CAR BOMB Nine Iraqis die
L in bombing. Three U.S.
f soldiers killed in separate
incident. FOR MORE SEE
PAGE 5
♦ WELL-ADJUSTED John
Tyler warns against judging
home-schooled students.
FOR MORE SEE PAGE 6
♦ BALLOTS MATTER Why
USC should give students a
day off to vote. FOR MORE
SEE PAGE 6
♦ STICK IT TO ‘EM Students
use bumper stickers to
express allegiances. FOR
MORE SEE PAGE 7
♦ AT THE STATION The
»
.,, ., *
Station Agent’ presents
unique character study. FOR
MORE SEE PAGE 7
♦ BIG MAN 6-foot, 5-inch,
310-pound offensive lineman
commits to USC. FOR MORE
SEE PAGE 10
♦ REBELLION Men's
basketball upset by Ole Miss
on the road. FOR MORE SEE
PAGE 10
Index
Comics and Crossword 9
Classifieds__ 12
Horoscopes 9
Letters to the Editor 6
Online PoH 6
Police Report 2
Entertainment News 2
USC Calendar 2
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