Dem Presidential Candidate Vilsack Visits for Fund-Raiser

By Jennifer Connic

WestportNow.com

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack hopes Democrats vote for what he views as rock solid over the rock star when they head to primaries and caucuses to pick a candidate for the 2008 presidential race.

Vilsack, who served two terms as Iowa’s chief executive before leaving office last month, was in Westport Thursday (Feb. 8, 2007)  to attend a fund-raiser reception at a private home. He met with the press before the event at a local office building and addressed subjects from the war in Iraq to education.

In a crowded field for the Democratic nomination, he said he’s not a rock star, but he’s rock solid.

“We’re in what I call the American Idol stage of the nomination process,” he said. “The focus is on the better known people. If I keep talking, I’ll get plenty of attention. I believe when people head to the primaries and the caucuses they’ll vote for rock solid over rock star.”

One of the things he’s talking about is the war in Iraq, and he believes the attention should be focused back on Afghanistan.

There needs to be plans to attack specific terror threats, he said, and the mission in Afghanistan needs to be completed.

The continued U.S. presence in Iraq, he said, prevents Iraqis deciding if they want democracy and peace.

“Our presence makes it hard for peace,” he said.

The insurgency and civil war cannot end through military means, Vilsack said, but only through political negotiations.

The money being spent on Iraq—which is hundreds of billions of dollars—will make it difficult for Congress to spend on special education programs or health care programs, he said.

Congress should not renew the No Child Left Behind Act, Vilsack said, because it is the wrong model for education.

“We are becoming a nation of standardized test takers,” he said. “One assessment does not determine if we are doing a good job.”

The expectations need to be different towards the public education system, he said.

The system is like an assembly line, he said, because when the education system started its intention was to train people to work on the assembly line.

“That’s not the type of economy we have today,” he said. “Our kids need to be capable to solve problems.”

The system to evaluate school systems shouldn’t be punitive, but rather there should be best practices with an accountability shared by everyone.

Vilsack said there also needs to be more energy security in a plan that will help create more jobs for the economy while providing healthier communities.

He plans to unveil his program in a speech next week, he said.

There need to be aggressive goals to lower the carbon monoxide emission levels, he said.

The country is at risk by depending on other countries for its oil, he said.

“We rely on oil production from countries that want to do harm to us or filter their money to those who want to do harm to us,” he said.

The conversation on health care needs to change so that it is about wellness, lowering costs and not about insurance coverage for everyone, Vilsack said.

“It means a restructuring in what doctors and nurses do,” he said. “They have to understand their job is to prevent disease rather than treat it.”

When elected Iowa’s governor in 1998, Vilsack, 56, was the first Democrat elected to the state’s highest office in 32 years.

An attorney, he served as a state senator for six years before becoming governor. Before that, he was mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, a community of about 9,000 persons in the state’s southeast corner.

His 1986 entry into politics stemmed from a tragedy. After the mayor of Mount Pleasant was shot to death by a disgruntled constituent during a town council meeting, the late mayor’s father appealed to Vilsack to run for the office and carry on his son’s work.

Vilsack, who announced he was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination on Nov. 30, was the first Democrat to declare his presidential intentions officially.