DNC Round 1: Power to the people

By Jim Tankersley

VIENNA, Va. - The first three candidates to hit the stage at the Democratic National Committee fall meeting pitched themselves as champions of American workers and jobs, and they promised to revamp American foreign policy to repair what they called the damage of the Bush Administration.

Bill Richardson, John Edwards and Barack Obama all gave modified versions of their standard stump speeches. None of them criticized a rival by name. But each of them argued strongly that he would give Democrats the best chance to win the White House next year.

Richardson, first up, stressed his experience as a diplomat and a governor, framed the election as a referendum on candidates' history of accomplishment and told his opponents, "I'll put my record up against any one of you."

He chided the Democratic field for not focusing enough on job-creation and bowed deeply to organized labor, pushing to support key union-backed legislation. Saying education and job creation go hand in hand, he vowed to scrap the No Child Left Behind federal education bill.

He also promised action on climate change, health care and foreign affairs - starting with pulling all American troops from Iraq. "Until we deal with Iraq," RIchardson said, "it will be nearly impossible to deal with anything else."

Edwards tweaked his populist, people-against-the-powerful campaign pitch by declaring “There’s a wall around Washington and we need to take it down."

"The American people are on the outside," he continued. "And on the other side, on the inside, are the powerful, the well-connected and the very wealthy."

Edwards used that "wall" as a foil for his proposals on health care, tax reform, education, energy policy and ending the Iraq War. He vowed to fight to bring the wall down and bring power to American workers, and he suggested that other Democratic candidates - no names needed; Edwards has been slamming Hillary Clinton for accepting lobbyist contributions for months - shared blame for what he called a "rigged system."

"It's not just Republican who built this wall," Edwards said. "Democrats helped. Too many politicians from both parties have chosen self-preservation over principle, compromise over convictions."

Edwards blew through a 23-minute speech. Obama took about 10 minutes less for his promise to throw out "the old Washington textbook campaigns" and bring change to Washington.

Focusing on electability, Obama pledged to "transform" the electoral map, saying he won in "red" counties in Illinois and campaigned last year for Democrats in Republican-leaning states. He pitched his plans to reduce health costs, raise teacher salaries, eliminate tax breaks for companies who outsource jobs and end the war.

He offered a heavy dose of hopefulness for healing the nation - "I don't want to spend 2008 re-fighting the same fights that we had in the 1990s" - and urged his fellow Democrats to eshew poll-driven positions "because we're worried what Mitt (Romney) or what Rudy (Giuliani) might say about it."

"If we're really serious about winning this election, Democrats," Obama said, "we can't live in fear of losing it."

The afternoon session will include Dennis Kucinich and Joe Biden. A hostage situation at one of her campaign offices in New Hampshire has caused Hillary Clinton to cancel her scheduled speech.