Democratic presidential hopeful Richard A. Gephardt greets audience members after his taping of “Hardball” at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum in the Kennedy School yesterday.

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt blasted President Bush on foreign policy while defending his initial support for the war in Iraq at a taping of MSNBC’s “Hardball” at the Kennedy School of Government last night.

The Democratic presidential contender, who has made headlines by labeling Bush’s foreign policy a “miserable failure,” continued to criticize the commander in chief, declaring him “incompetent” and calling the war in Iraq a “horrible mistake he is committing for the American people.”

“It’s been five months since he landed on an aircraft carrier and he still can’t figure it out,” Gephardt, D-Mo., said, eliciting applause from the packed studio audience in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.

An hour earlier, about 100 students gathered in the Kirkland House Junior Common Room (JCR) for a more intimate meeting with the candidate. The audience was treated to a veritable preview of that night’s “Hardball” taping; many of Gephardt’s responses in the Kirkland question and answer session were identical to the ones he later gave Chris Matthews, the show’s fast-talking, pugnacious host.

At the outset of both appearances last night, the candidate eagerly volunteered his reasons for changing his stance on the war. Some critics have called Gephardt onto the carpet for voting in favor of a U.S. invasion of Iraq and subsequently criticizing the war effort in the course of his campaign.

Skirting a storm of criticism, Gephardt attempted to remain glib.

Upon setting foot on the “Hardball” stage last night, Gephardt joked to Matthews, “What are you doing here? Neither of us could have gotten in [to Harvard].”

But the friendly rapport between interviewer and interviewee quickly disappeared, with Matthews berating Gephardt on his decision to vote in favor of the Iraq war, hardly allowing the Democrat to get a word in edgewise.

“I would not have voted to go to war if we knew at the time that there weren’t any nuclear programs [in Iraq],” Gephardt finally told Matthews. He also added that he had conferred with numerous intelligence officials before casting his vote on the matter.

For a candidate best-known for his expertise on domestic issues, Gephardt spent a large amount of time discussing foreign policy and national security. Following Oval Office hopeful Howard Dean’s surge in popularity this summer, the field of Democratic contenders has taken to Dean’s harsh critiques of the current administration.

On the domestic front, Gephardt reaffirmed his commitment to universal health insurance coverage, workers’ rights and labor unions.

Matthews challenged Gephardt on the latter issue, asking whether he would repeal Right to Work laws that prohibit unions from requiring membership for all of a company’s workers. After a heated exchange, Gephardt insisted that he was against the laws, and would pass legislation to repeal them if he could.

The congressman’s support of unions falls into a broader social agenda that composes the domestic base of his platform.

“We need to return to programs and ideas that will lift up the poor,” Gephardt said, reminding viewers that scholarships and government programs helped him attend college. “We’ve had a president who’s been there for big business, we need a president who will be there for workers.”

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