Kerry Face the Nation transcript 1/4/04

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Sen. KERRY: I'm trying to run a campaign on the issues and on the differences between us, not a personal one. It makes a difference to people in America whether they're going to pay additional taxes. I don't want the middle class to pay additional taxes. Howard Dean and Dick ki--Gephardt are both willing. They want to raise taxes on the middle class. That's what campaigns are about. You want to tax me? Don't you want to tax me? How will you protect me? How will you not protect me? These are the issues on which you decide the presidency. And I've had a lifetime record of standing up and fighting against special interests. I think it's important that I've tried to close tax loopholes in places like Bermuda and tried to make the tax system fair so the average American isn't paying taxes while CEOs and companies are walking away with the store. Howard Dean opened up Vermont and tried to make it a snowy Bermuda, as a tax haven for insurance companies. I think it's important for people to know that the things you do in the course of your career define the things you may do later on as a leader. That's what leadership is about. That's what an election is about. That's why we have campaigns. That's why we have debates. And nobody should shy away from a-- from--from articulating the legitimate differences between us on issues that make a difference to the American people.

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SCHIEFFER: What would be good for you in Iowa, to finish second, finish ahead of Gephardt? What would you call success?

Sen. KERRY: Well, I'm--I'm not going to play that--I'm not--I'm not going to play that game. David Yepsen, who's the sort of premier observer of Iowa politics, has always written that there are three tickets out of Iowa. I'll take my ticket of I--out of Iowa, and then I'll go on from there. I'm going to do the best I can. I'm going to meet every voter I can. We did a 24- hour tour of the state the other day. Notwithstanding everybody's conventional wisdom and preconceived notions, I trust the people of Iowa. And I'm out there meeting people every single day, and they're responding because they know I have a plan to lower the cost of health care for them. They know that I have a plan to lift our schools up, to help rural America, to stop agribusiness from crushing small family farms. They want somebody who's going to stand up and fight for them. And long before Howard Dean got into politics or other candidates in this race stood up, I've been fighting consistently over 35 years to make our government work for people. And that's exactly what I'm going to do as president.

The complete transcript: http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/facekerry.pdf