For Gephardt, Congress Role Is Both Platform and Hurdle By ROBIN TONER, NYTimes

”My name is Dick Gephardt, I’m going to win the Democratic nomination, and I’m going to beat George Bush in November,” he says.

”Everything we care about is vanishing before our eyes.” …

But Mr. Gephardt, a 62-year-old Missourian, decided to run anyway. To him the question was different: How could he not? He has worked under five presidents, “and I just know I can do this,” he said. “And I know I can do it better than the present occupant.” …

“My philosophy is different from W’s,” he says in his basic stump speech. “We’re all interconnected, dependent on one another. I would not have accomplished what I’ve accomplished without a lot of help.” …

“I’ve watched him up close and he’s not a bad person, he’s a fine person, but he’s not doing the job,” Mr. Gephardt said. “In some ways, he’s inexperienced. In other ways, he’s unknowledgeable. In other ways, he’s rigid and unwilling to change policies that I think just obviously need to be changed.”

During the first Democratic debate (here in Albuquerque), I appreciated Dick Gephardt saying the ‘Bush is a miserable failure.’ mjh

NPR : A Conversation with Rep. Richard Gephardt

NPR’s Michele Norris talks with Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri about the importance of labor unions and the state of his presidential bid.