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Text File | 1992-01-19 | 7KB | 124 lines

                          Tom Harkin

    Frank Capra, the film director of Meet John Doe and
 Mr Smith Goes to Washington, never made a movie about a
 presidential candidate. But he did help create the American
 myth that little guys with big hearts and good ideas can
 triumph over an entrenched political establishment.
    Sen Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) fits that quixotic Capra mold.
 He says he's running for president to save America for the
 little guy. Against the advice of political experts, he has
 launched and plans to sustain a head-on frontal assault on
 George Bush's economic and social policies.
    Harkin is not your typical Democrat: He's a liberal and
 very proud of it.
    While many Democratic leaders argue that the party must
 moderate its traditional liberal views and adopt a more
 conservative agenda to appeal to the US middle class, Harkin
 scoffs. "That's just nonsense," he says. "It's time to get
 off our knees and fight back."
    That feistiness is just what many Democrats have long
 been waiting to hear. The party's identity crisis has seen
 the Republicans define its agenda to the US electorate ever
 since Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976.
    Harkin's style is blue-collar populism. His wit is
 acerbic. His tongue, razor sharp. He was 1 of 6 children
 raised by a widower coal miner. His brother Frank is deaf.
 Harkin is a champion of greater civil rights for the
 disabled. And one commentator has said Harkin grew up "with
 a chip on his shoulder for the rich."
    Harkin always refers to the incumbent as George Herbert
 Walker Bush--to taunt the president's patrician roots. At
 his campaign kickoff he said: "I'm here today to tell you
 that George Herbert Walker Bush has got feet of clay and I
 intend to take a hammer to them."
    Harkin, 51, is a 4th generation Iowan. His mother died
 when he was 10. As a boy he was shuttled around Iowa to live
 with relatives. He graduated from Iowa State with a BS
 degree in 1962.
    He flew Navy jets during the Vietnam era. He met his wife
 Ruth in Japan where she was working for the USO. Ruth Harkin
 is now a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington.
    He took night courses and graduated from Washington's
 Catholic University Law School in 1972. From 1975-85,
 he served in the House of Representatives, and he is the
 first Iowa Democrat to be elected to 2 terms in the Senate.

                       Harkin's Program

    A Roman Catholic, Harkin is an advocate of abortion
 rights. He voted against military action in the Persian
 Gulf; he favored economic sanctions against Iraq.
    Congressional Quarterly reports that Harkin has opposed
 Bush's policies more often than only 1 other US Senator.
 Harkin criticizes Bush's preoccupation with foreign affairs,
 saying: "We need a president who knows the threat to
 national security is not halfway across the world but
 halfway down the street."
    In the early stages of his campaign, Harkin's plan to
 cure America's ills is not yet well articulated. One thing
 is clear, however: Harkin feels America's quality-of-life
 concerns must come first.
    He said: "If you believe like I do that Europe is [rich
 and powerful] enough to defend itself...[that] we can take
 some of your wealth and invest it in America--and build
 better roads and highways, better energy systems, educate
 our kids, have better health care--then you take your ballot
 and you put it in the Harkin box."
    Harkin says he wants to replace Bush in order to champion
 the future of "the hard-working men and women of America,
 our farmers, our small-business people, the people who pull
 the load and pay the taxes."
    At his campaign kickoff, Harkin said: "For the last
 4 years, we've had a different vision of America coming out
 of the White House." The Republicans, in his view, pit "race
 against race," "class against class" and believe that "the
 few at the top are privileged and deserve special treatment
 and favors from the government."

                     The Harkin Campaign

    Harkin kicked off his campaign in New Hampshire, where
 he told a small crowd outside an unemployment office that
 President Bush has created class warfare in America.
     He declared: "The message we've been getting from the
 White House is one of, `Get what you can while the getting's
 good. Don't bother how you get it. The heck with everybody
 else.'" Harkin formally entered the contest for the
 Democratic presidential nomination Sept 15.
    The 2-term senator again accused Bush "of pitting race
 against race, class against class, old against young."
     Harkin, stressing class conflict in America, contrasted
 his own upbringing as a coal miner's son with that of Bush
 and told jobless workers: "I understand what's happening to
 ordinary, hard-working Americans because I've been there."
    Harkin visited New Hampshire the day after he declared
 his candidacy for the White House at his annual steak fry
 for 2000 supporters on a farm in Winterset, Iowa.
    He is considered a favorite-son shoo-in to win the Iowa
 caucuses in February. Sen Bob Kerrey (D-Neb) is his only
 serious challenger. So Harkin and other Democratic
 contenders are focusing on New Hampshire in February.
     Harkin stressed employment, a major theme of his
 campaign, early on--and displayed a bit of his blunt
 speaking style. New Hampshire's jobless rate, which averaged
 well under 3 % in 1986-'87, was 6.9 % in July. He said New
 Hampshire had lost 40,000 jobs in 3 years and is among the
 states hardest hit by the recession.
    "Here's the state that gave Bush his big break [in
 1988]," Harkin said. "Here's the state whose former governor
 is chief of staff, and yet is near the bottom in return of
 federal tax dollars. If he's doing that to New Hampshire,
 think what he's doing to the rest of the country."
     Passionate and pointed, Harkin has been called the best
 stump speaker in the Democratic field. But his strategy is
 risky. His target: the extreme liberal wing of the party,
 the sector that dominates primaries. Labor leaders like him
 for his promises to put health care and education ahead of
 defense spending as well as for his pledge to create jobs by
 rebuilding the nation's crumbled infrastructure.
    His liberalism could hurt him in the South and in the
 general election. His evocation of class inequities in
 America, as he appeals to the unemployed, may alienate the
 middle class in a general election.