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from a Chicago Sun-Times article from January 12, 2004: "Still blond and even boyish at 62, Gephardt has changed little in style and physical appearance. Although he joins obligatory criticism of Bush by calling him a ''miserable failure,'' he sometimes slips by referring to him as ''President Bush'' instead of calling him just ''Bush'' in the current Democratic style. The old pro-life, pro-tax cut (urging a 30 percent top marginal rate) Gephardt disappeared long ago, but he still evokes moderation and restraint."

“I want to say a special thank-you to every member of every labor union in this country who has stood by my side throughout my career,” Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) said as he gave up his presidential campaign Monday night. “Your fight is my fight, and it will always be that way.” It’s no surprise that Gephardt, who had just finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses, reserved a special place in his concession speech for the unions. God knows he has owed them big time over the years. But this time, they couldn’t deliver. Media entrance polls revealed that only...

<p>January 21, 2004 -- THE negative ads of Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt succeeded brilliantly: They both lost Monday in Iowa. The winners - John Kerry and John Edwards - both abstained from negatives and won. The history of politics has always suggested that when one candidate attacks the other and the fire is returned, they both go down and the third - and fourth - candidate soars into the lead. Never has this been more true than it was in Iowa.</p>

<p>ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, the former House Democratic leader and a 14-term congressman, said yesterday that he was abandoning his second bid for the presidency after a fourth-place showing in the Iowa caucuses.</p> <p>"I gave this campaign everything I had in me," Mr. Gephardt said at a news conference, his voice breaking at times. "Today, my pursuit of the presidency has reached its end. I'm withdrawing as a candidate and returning to private life after a long time in the warm light of public service."</p>

Even a bad primary weeds out the losers It took the voters of Iowa to make me realize what a heroic figure Richard Gephardt truly is. Until last night I had considered the beetle-browed congressman from the Show Me State a distillation of the many vices career politicians are heir to. It was only after his crushing, humiliating defeat in what supporters and commentators with expansive definitions of the Midwestern mindset had described as his home country that Gephardt began to receive the praise he apparently deserves. Erstwhile rivals and televised talking heads joined in singing his fundamental decency, his...

Democratic presidential candidates preach hate The Augusta Chronicle By: Herman Cain December 28, 2003 WHAT HAS HAPPENED to "united we stand?" Yes, as Americans, we can disagree and have the right to voice those disagreements, but destructive rhetoric about the war in Iraq for the purpose of self-promotion is demoralizing to our troops and the American people. Unfortunately, we can expect nothing more from the candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Their words and their actions are unpatriotic. Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri actually said, "The president is a miserable failure (on foreign policy)." In...

Gephardt Is History Faced with a crushing defeat in Iowa, Rep. Dick Gephardt is dropping out of the race for the Democrat presidential nomination, the Associated Press and Fox News Channel reported tonight. AP quoted a party official as saying Gephardt would quit. Fox News said the announcement could come Tuesday morning. The lame-duck congressman himself hinted as much during a concession speech. "My campaign to fight for working people may be ending tonight, but our fight will never end," he said. He offered congratulations to his rivals and admitted one of them would wind up with the nomination. Gephard...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark (news - web sites) wasted no time in going after former supporters of Dick Gephardt (news - web sites) on Tuesday, a day after Gephardt's distant fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses pushed him toward abandoning the race. AP Photo Latest headlines: · Clark Moves to Court Gephardt Supporters AP - 2 minutes ago · Bush, Iraqi interim leader discuss election optionsAFP - 14 minutes ago · Delegates Won by Each Candidate in Iowa AP - 20 minutes ago Special Coverage   Gaining in recent New Hampshire polls, Clark scrambled to maintain...

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Richard Gephardt's poor showing in the Iowa caucuses on Monday brought an abrupt end to his White House bid and pushed the longtime U.S. lawmaker toward an earlier-than-hoped political retirement. "Well, this didn't come out like we wanted," Gephardt, who finished fourth with just 11 percent of the vote, told a tearful gathering of about 200 supporters, many of them from 21 international unions that had endorsed his populist bid. "Tonight I congratulate the other candidates for their strong campaigns here in Iowa," Gephardt said. "One of them will wind up carrying the banner of...

A lot of light was shed by the performances of five Democratic candidates after the Iowa results came in. General Wesley Clark pulled rank on John Kerry, insisting that Kerry as a military man was far lower in rank than he, and talking arrogantly and incessantly down to Senator Robert Dole, his opponent in the "conversation" they were supposed to be having on Larry King Live, as if Dole were not one of the bravest veterans the nation has known, and as if the senator's political observations counted for nothing. General Clark is very full of himself. Dick Gephardt was...

<p>It wasn't only Iowa Dems who voted. The liberal media have too. And to judge by the performance of Katie Couric and Matt Lauer on this morning's Today Show, Dean is dirt and Kerry's the man.</p> <p>"A pretty impressive showing," said Katie with a smile regarding Kerry's victory at the top of the show.</p>

<p>DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Rep. Richard A. Gephardt signaled his withdrawal from the Democratic presidential race last night after a devastating fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.</p> <p>"My campaign to fight for working people may be ending tonight, but our fight will never end," Mr. Gephardt said in a post-caucus speech that sounded like a political farewell. Aides said he would formally drop out of the race at a St. Louis news conference at midday tomorrow.</p>

ORGANIZED LABOR WAS THE BIGGEST LOSER IN IOWA’S caucuses on Monday night.  Despite the polls, pundits had assured America, in this strong union state labor would prevail by marching in the minions under its command to dominate these lightly-attended gatherings of neighbors. The blue collar unions had bet their chips on longtime AFL-CIO puppet Rep. Richard Gephardt of neighboring Missouri. The mostly-government-employee white collar unions AFSCME (the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) and SEIU (the Service Employees International Union), after much soul-searching, bet their credibility and future on former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. (Shortly after endorsing...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Rep. Dick Gephardt scrapped plans to fly to New Hampshire for next week's primary after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, a source said Monday night, possibly signaling the end of his presidential campaign. The source said Gephardt would fly to St. Louis, adding, "everything's on the table" with respect to his future plans. Gephardt won the Iowa caucuses in 1988, when he first ran for the White House, and aides had said openly that he needed to match that this year if he was to remain in the race.

Faced with what looks like a crushing defeat in Iowa, presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt is canceling plans to travel to New Hampshire tomorrow and heading home to St. Louis instead, reports the Fox News Channel. With more than 70 percent of precincts reporting, the former House Minority Leader seems destined for a humiliating fourth place finish, garnering just 11 percent of the vote in a state that was considered a must win for the Missouri Democrat. Only a few short days ago, Gephardt was locked in a dead heat with Howard Dean for first place, according to most polls. "After...

Study: Every Democrat Presidential Candidate's Platform Would Boost Budget Deficits 1/19/04 12:36:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk Contact: Drew Johnson or Pete Sepp, 703-683-5700, both of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- No matter who's left in the Presidential race after tonight's Iowa caucus, taxpayers will face sharply higher federal deficits if any of the remaining Democrat contenders' budget policies become law, according to a study from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF). By supporting annual spending hikes of between 7.6 percent and 59.5 percent, every one of the eight hopefuls would worsen...

Iowa's nickname of the "Hawkeye" state is thought to either have been first applied by a newspaper writer as a tribute to Chief Blackhawk, or some think it was taken from the name of the scout, Hawkeye, in James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans." Those things have, for some reason, evolved into what the word has come to symbolize today – a bird of prey. The transformation of the meaning of the word must have started around the time politicians arrived for the first Iowa caucus. I don't live in Iowa, but if I did, on the night...

CAPTION RICHARD GEPHARDT

Dick Gephardt: “I Will Concede Ten Times Sooner Than My Opponents” 1/19/2004 - Dirk McQuickly -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DES MOINES – As Democratic candidates for the 2004 Presidential election wrap up their campaign drives heading into the all-important Iowa primary, the tightly contested race was ratcheted up a notch today when candidate Dick Gephardt challenged his opponents on their “punctuality of concession.” “The failure of Al Gore to shut the hell up and go back to the farm hurt us as a political party very badly,” said Gephardt. “I promise America right now that I will concede the 2004 Presidential election within...

A CBS News/New York Times poll shows that the election year is starting with a White House race that resembles the ultra-close and hotly-contested race of 2000. If the November presidential election were held today, 45% of voters say they would vote for the Democratic candidate and 43% would vote to re-elect President Bush.