Living Politics: Bush, Democrats Play 'Base Game'

ALL EYES ON IOWA

What's at stake for the Democrats is primacy in Iowa, where the party's first caucuses will be held Jan. 19. The Iowa caucuses will start the winnowing process. Rep. Dick Gephardt, a union-friendly candidate who won the caucuses in 1988, is playing to the same crowd again. He was the first out of the box with a sweeping health-care proposal. Howard Dean, a physician, followed suit; Sen. John Kerry is coming next.

In one way or another, all of the Democrats are (or will be) in favor of a plan that seeks to reach the El Dorado of "universal coverage."

The AFSCME members, 19,000 of whom live in Iowa, will be listening carefully. And they have a track record of making a difference. In 1991, AFSCME became the first union to endorse Bill Clinton--then a relatively obscure governor of Arkansas--for president.

© 2003