Iowa Governor Begins His Bid For President

"I'm confident that by the end of the process, we will have convinced a lot of Iowans that I have the capacity and the capability to do this job and I deserve to be on that stage, and I think that they will support me," he said in the interview.

He also said he will attempt to force a competition of ideas with his rivals. "There may be people with better ideas, and if they have better ideas then they deserve to win," he said.

Experience as a governor has shown to be a surer route to the White House than experience in the Senate has been. And Vilsack's advisers believe that, in addition to his record as governor, his personal story will prove compelling.

Orphaned as an infant, he was adopted into the home of a mother who battled alcohol and drug addiction and eventually abandoned her family. His mother later overcame her addictions, and the family reunited.

"She relied on her faith and her family and her friends," he said. "And in doing so, she taught me a very valuable lesson. And that is that the courage to create change can overcome the largest of obstacles, and that community can give you the confidence and the support to try and to succeed."

Vilsack, who turns 56 this month, was born in Pittsburgh and came to Iowa through marriage. He and his wife, Christie Vilsack, settled in this small town (population about 8,700), where she was raised, and he practiced law with his father-in-law. He served as the town's mayor and later as a state senator.

In 1998 Vilsack ran for governor, won the primary in an upset and entered the general election as an underdog. He overcame a substantial deficit in the polls and was elected as Iowa's first Democratic governor in three decades. He will leave office with Democrats holding the governor's office and both houses of the state legislature for the first time in four decades.

Vilsack also has played on the national stage. He served as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, earning a reputation as a serious student of public policy and a hard-charging politician. He is the current chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, where he has helped to bridge the gap between the centrist and labor wings of the Democratic Party.

Vilsack brings limited national security experience to the presidential campaign but has said he believes that his executive experience and his ability to make good decisions outweigh that gap in his résumé.

Vilsack opened his speech Thursday with a rebuke of the Bush presidency, saying, "We have in the White House a president whose first impulse is to divide and to conquer, who preys on our insecurities and fears for partisan gain, who has robbed us of the assets that have made this country great: our collective sense of community, optimism and the can-do spirit that has built tomorrow's hopes and dreams."

He charged that the country is less safe today than it was six years ago. "Our way of life, our quality of life, our national security has been compromised and put at risk by a national government that's been fiscally irresponsible and by a country that has grown far too dependent on oil, foreign oil from foreign countries, some of which despise us, harbor terrorists, but gladly take our money," he said.

He called energy security a critical challenge in the fight against terrorism and global economic competition. "Energy security will revitalize rural America, reestablish our moral leadership on global warming," he said.

On Iraq, he said it is time to begin to withdraw U.S. troops while redoubling reconstruction efforts. He said the next president must rebuild U.S. alliances around the world to combat the threat of terrorism and isolate enemies.