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Here's this mornings top news story from the Des Moines Register:

Leaders say the former vice president did his party a favor.
By THOMAS BEAUMONT
Register Staff Writer
12/16/2002

Al Gore's decision to stay out of the 2004 presidential election was the best thing for the Democratic Party's future and throws open the door to the Iowa caucuses, Gov. Tom Vilsack and other prominent Iowa Democrats said Sunday.

"He's correct that people might have had a tendency to look at him as a candidate in 2004, as a candidate of the past," Vilsack said. "I think he's done a service to the country and to the party by doing this."

Except for Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Vilsack declined to say which of the half-dozen Democrats mentioned as potential contenders Gore's move favors. Lieberman, Gore's running mate in 2000, has said he is interested, but pledged not to run against Gore in 2004.

Other Iowa party leaders say Democrats from neighboring states have a slight advantage looking ahead to the caucuses, which start the nominating process in 13 months. Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who will decide in the coming weeks whether he'll run, emphasized his familiarity with Iowa on Saturday in a visit to Bettendorf.

Dick Gephardt will be the likely front-runner in Iowa if the outgoing House minority leader from Missouri decides to run, said Rob Tully, former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party.

Gephardt ran in 1988 and won the caucuses, but failed to win the nomination. He could organize quickly in Iowa drawing on longtime connections, Iowa insiders say.

But Tully said Gephardt and Daschle might be hurt by their association with Democrats' losses in the midterm elections last month. Democrats lost control of the Senate and lost seats in the House, where Republicans held a slim majority.

Tully has thrown his early support to U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Edwards, a first-term senator, is relatively unknown and would benefit from Gore's decision, Tully said.

"I think it helps the lesser-known candidates," he said. "The focus and the cameras would have been on Gore, no matter what anyone did in the campaign. Now it's open to anyone instead of being about Gore versus everyone."

Other lesser-known prospects include U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and outgoing Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, both of whom have formed exploratory committees.

Vilsack, who has been mentioned as having potential as a national Democrat, repeated Sunday that he has no plans to run for president in 2004.

Des Moines Democrat Paulee Lipsman said Gore was right to acknowledge that voters would see his candidacy as focused on revenge rather than issues.

"In that sense it's a good thing," said Lipsman, a former member of the Democratic National Committee. "But I feel bad. For a lot of us, Al Gore won the election and deserved to be president."

With Gore's announcement, the 2004 Democratic field might resemble 1988, said University of Iowa political scientist Peverill Squire.

That year, a field crowded with U.S. senators, including Joseph Biden, Gary Hart and Paul Simon, produced Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis as its nominee.

"There are similarities, even some of the same players," Squire said, referring to Gephardt. "The action on the ground in Iowa is really going to pick up, and I don't think there's going to be a natural front-runner for some time."