(8 Feb 1996) English/Nat
With the critical Iowa caucus less than a week away, the U-S Republican candidates are stepping up campaigning in the American Midwest.
While Senator Phil Gramm said he'll drop out if he doesn't finish at least third in Iowa, both Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes were optimistic for their chances.
With just five days to go before the state's critical G-O-P caucuses, Republican contenders stepped up their Iowa campaigning.
Senator Phil Gramm attended a rally at the state capital in Des Moines, originally planned to celebrate a Louisiana victory.
Instead, he found himself trying to explain away his humiliating loss to conservative commentator Pat Buchanan one day earlier, and his missing of a crucial vote on the farm bill.
While farm legislation draws little attention in many places, it's viewed as essential in Mid-western states like Iowa.
Gramm claimed that he had lost a battle, not the war, but acknowledged a difficult route ahead.
SOUNDBITE:
"My interpretation also is: I won eight delegates. So I'm 992 delegates away from the goal line, but I'm eight delegates closer to the goal line than Bob Dole is."
SUPER CAPTION: Phil Gramm
Buchanan, speaking at a news conference, was visibly buoyant over his upset.
SOUNDBITE:
"Following that, yesterday, we won a landslide victory over Senator Gramm in his own back yard; a state, some of his aides said, he would sweep with all 21 of the delegates, and he would come out with all of them. We defeated Senator Gramm I think relatively handily, and quite frankly the size of our victory -- the fact of our victory -- surprised even us."
SUPER CAPTION: Pat Buchanan
Still, Buchanan said Iowa remains "a very tough fight," that Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole remains the front-runner and that Gramm still has good organization here.
Steve Forbes, who like Dole and most other G-O-P candidates boycotted Tuesday's Louisiana contest out of deference to Iowa, conceded the possibility that the Louisiana results had given Buchanan a boost here.
But he chose to take that as an encouraging sign for himself.
SOUNDBITE:
"What it says is that they don't want Washington insiders, it is a blow to Senator Gramm, as we saw in Alaska both Buchanan and I beat Senator Dole, and so what I think this shows is that the people want somebody from the outside who's not part of the Washington establishment.
Question: Not Pat Buchanan?
Not Pat Buchanan, Pat Buchanan believes in the fortress America. I believe in an America as a shining city on the hill. He's the pessimist, and I'm the optimist."
SUPER CAPTION: Steve Forbes
Later, Forbes encountered sceptical questions on his flat-tax proposal in a meeting with a group of Des Moines business leaders.
Dole, meanwhile, chose to court Iowans from afar, staying in Washington to help marshal Senate passage for the farm bill.
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