Here is the Confrontation between Ted Koppel and Dennis Kucinich in case you didn't hear it.
It raises dramatic questions about the media. Please note that not one single vote has been cast in any primary.
Scroll down to the stuff about Kucinich
from the Transcript: Democratic Presidential Debate in Durham, N.H.
Tuesday, December 9, 2003; 8:44 PM
SPEAKERS: TED KOPPEL, ABC NEWS, SCOTT SPRADLING, WMUR-TV
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK (RET.),
FORMER GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN (VT)
U.S. SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS (NC)
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE RICHARD GEPHARDT (MO)
U.S. SENATOR JOHN F. KERRY (MA)
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DENNIS KUCINICH (OH)
U.S. SENATOR JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (CT)
FORMER U.S. SENATOR CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN (IL)
THE REVEREND AL SHARPTON
TO GIVE YOU A FLAVOR FOR THE TONE OF THE DEBATE, KOPPEL BEGINS THE NIGHT WITH THIS:
KOPPEL: This has been an extraordinary day for Governor Dean. As we all know, he got the endorsement of former Vice President Al Gore. Things are going very well for him in the polls. Things are going very well for him in terms of raising money.
So I would like all of you up here, including you, Governor Dean, to raise your hand if you believe that Governor Dean can beat George W. Bush.
(no one raises their hand)
KERRY: For the very simple reason, Ted, that I believe in my candidacy and I believe in my vision for the country, and because every indication is that I can beat George Bush. And that's been shown in some of the national polls. etc.
then
GEPHARDT: Well, I'm sure that all of us think that we have the best chance to beat George Bush. But I think we're all united in wanting to replace George Bush with a much better president. etc.
then to Lieberman:
KOPPEL: Senator Lieberman, you've got a bit of a shot to the solar plexus today. You had to be surprised by it; you have to be a little disappointed by it.
Fact of the matter is, someone has got to win the primaries and the caucuses and, ultimately, the Democratic nomination before they can hope to win the presidency against George Bush.
Have your chances received a bad shock today?
LIEBERMAN responds.......
then Sharpton comments:
SHARPTON: Well, I think that -- I think all of us have an opportunity to beat Bush if we do not break and chase away from our party the people that we're going to have to mobilize to come out.
What I start hearing today is dangerous. That's why I didn't raise my hand.
Al Gore went to New York today. He should have noticed Tammany Hall is not there anymore. Bossism is not in this party. To talk about people ought not run and that people ought...
(APPLAUSE)
... to get out of this race is bossism that belongs in the other party.
We waited four years after some of us were disenfranchised, some of us in Duvall County couldn't vote, so we can express ourselves. And we're not going to have any big name come in now and tell us the field should be limited and we can't be heard.
(APPLAUSE)
The Republicans shut us up four years ago. Al Gore -- no Democrat should shut us up today. Let the people decide on the nominee. Bossism shouldn't happen.
I know that Governor Dean and Al Gore love the Internet; www.bossism doesn't work on my computer.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
Carol Moseley Braun, John Edwards and Wesley Clark are all asked about the endorsement of Howard Dean by Al Gore and respond.
Later, Koppel turns to KUCINICH: (asking about Gore's endorsement of Dean)
KOPPEL: Congressman Kucinich, I remember you when you were the boy mayor of Cleveland. You've been at this for a very long time.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on what endorsements like this mean or don't mean.
When you hear some of your colleagues here -- you know, I get a little bit of a sense of sour grapes here, that if anyone else on this stage had gotten Al Gore's endorsement, he would have been happy to have it. What do you think?
KUCINICH: Well, I can't say I was really counting on it.
(LAUGHTER)
But let me say, Ted, let me say -- let me say that some of the best talent in American politics is on this stage right now.
(APPLAUSE)
And with all due respect to you, Ted Koppel, who I've admired over the years greatly...
KOPPEL: There's a zinger coming now, isn't there?
KUCINICH: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
To begin this kind of a forum with a question about an endorsement, no matter by who, I think actually trivializes the issues that are before us.
(APPLAUSE)
For example, at this moment there are 130,000 troops in Iraq. I mean, I would like to hear you ask during this event what's the plan for getting out. This war is not over. I have a plan, which is on my Web site at kucinich.us, to get the United States out of Iraq.
KUCINICH: I want to talk about that tonight, and I hope we have a substantive discussion tonight and that we're not going to spend the night talking about endorsements.
(APPLAUSE)
LATER IN THE DEBATE:
KOPPEL: This is a question to Ambassador Braun, Reverend Sharpton, Congressman Kucinich. You don't have any money, or at least not much. Reverend Sharpton has almost none. You don't have very much, Ambassador Braun.
KUCINICH: We've raised $4.5 million. I mean, that's not nothing.
(LAUGHTER)
KOPPEL: You've got about $750,000 in the bank right now, and that's close to nothing when you're coming up against this kind of opposition. But let me finish the question.
The question is, will there come a point when polls, money and then ultimately the actual votes that will take place here in places like New Hampshire, the caucuses in Iowa, will there come a point when we can expect one or more of the three of you to drop out? Or are you in this as sort of a vanity candidacy?
Reverend Sharpton, you go first.
SHARPTON: Well, first of all, I think the fact that I'm doing so well in many states in the polls and ahead in national polls of people with far more money shows that I know how to deal with the national deficit probably better than anybody on this stage.
(LAUGHTER)
So I think that in all seriousness the problem is that we are reducing politics to people with money. I think that Americans want people with ideas.
(APPLAUSE)
The suggestion is that if you can't buy your way now, that you can't seek the highest office in the land. That is to really sell the White House.
I think that people with no money that can generate the kind of support I'm generating, that can galvanize a lot of young people, a lot of people that left this party and voted for Ralph Nader, this is what wins elections. I refuse to allow us to continue to act like the person with the best dollar -- or the biggest dollar -- has the best message.
If money is going to win this, Bush is going to win. Nobody up here is going to raise the money Bush raises.
KOPPEL: You're out of time.
SHARPTON: What we must do is raise the votes he can't get. And you can't buy those votes.
(APPLAUSE)
KOPPEL: We're talking about two things. We're talking about money and we're talking about ultimately standing in the polls. There are only a couple of ways that you can measure how someone is doing at this stage in the election process, money and polls. You're not doing terribly well with money; you're doing even worse in the polls.
KOPPEL: When do you pull out?
KUCINICH: After I -- when I take the oath of office, when you're there to cover it...
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
... and I can tell you, Ted, you know, we started at the beginning of this evening, talking about an endorsement. Well, I want the American people to see where the media takes politics in this country.
To start with endorsements...
(APPLAUSE)
We start talking about endorsements, now we're talking about polls, and then we're talking about money. Well, you know, when you do that, you don't have to talk about what's important to the American people.
Ted, I'm the only one up here that actually...
(APPLAUSE)
... I'm the only up here on the stage that actually voted against the PATRIOT Act and voted against the war -- the only one on this stage.
I'm also...
(APPLAUSE)
... I'm also one of the few candidates up here who's talking about taking our health-care system from this for-profit system to a not-for-profit, single-payer universal health care for all.
(APPLAUSE)
I'm also the only one who has talked about getting out of NAFTA and the WTO and going back to bilateral trade...
(APPLAUSE)
... conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and the environment.
Now...
KOPPEL: Congressman?
KUCINICH: ... I may be inconvenient for some of those in the media, but, you know, I'm sorry about that.
(APPLAUSE)
KOPPEL: Ambassador Braun, I never realized what a capacity I had to unite the Democratic Party.
(LAUGHTER)
MOSELEY BRAUN: Thank you for that.
And I want to start off thanking both Dennis and Al Sharpton for defining the issue. All three of us are doing better in the polls than some other people on this stage who have more money. So it really is about money.
Later in the debate, Koppel says:
KOPPEL: Senator Kerry, at the risk of exposing myself to yet another lecture -- not from you, from Congressman Kucinich and the others down here...
(LAUGHTER)
... what is it that Governor Dean has done right? Whether or not people want to acknowledge it, he does have more money than anybody else in this campaign; he is doing better in the polls than any of the rest of you. He's got to be doing something right. Is there anything to be learned from his campaign?
________________
Note: Of the over 15,000 words in the total debate transcript, more than half of them relate to polls and money rather than issues.
The next day, ABC ended the reporters being with the Kucinich, Sharpton and Braun campaigns. The reporters themselves said this was a surprise and they had no warning this was coming.
This debate occurred more than 40 days before any voters in the country have had any opportunity to vote. The first vote take place in the Iowa caucus January 20, 2004.