The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 27, 2004, Page 5, Image 5
Campaigns heating up in battleground states
By MARY DALRYMPLE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Democratic
candidate John Kerry accused President
Bush on Tuesday of hiding bad decisions
and raised the specter of bad news still to
be revealed. Bush invited Democrats to
cross over to his campaign as it began its
final week, arguing that their party was no
longer led by men of strength and resolve.
Kerry said a stream of bad news
coming out of Iraq showed the Bush
administration glossing over the reality
of the situation there.
“Mr. President, what else are you
being silent about? What else are you
keeping from the American people?”
Kerry said in Green Bay.
While Kerry campaigned on the east
side of Wisconsin, a state Bush barely
lost to A1 Gore in 2000, the president
sought votes from Democrats as well as
Republicans on the west side of the state.
In Onalaska, Bush said Kerry had
chosen a path of “weakness and
inaction,” putting himself “in
opposition not just to me, but to the
great tradition of the Democratic Party.”
“The party of Franklin Roosevelt and
Harry Truman and John Kennedy is
righdy remembered for confidence and
resolve in times of war and in hours of
crisis. Senator Kerry has turned his back
on ‘pay any price’ and ‘bear any
burden,”’ Bush said.
The president also renewed his
contention that Kerry would raise taxes
in a way that would cripple small
businesses “to pay for all the new
spending he’s proposed.”
The Massachusetts senator pressed
his case that Bush has bungled and
misled on the Iraq war and national
security crises generally.
“When the president is faced with the
consequences of his own wrong decisions,
he doesn’t confront them, he tries to hide
them,” Kerry said. “The truth is,
President Bush has never leveled with the
American people about why we went to
war, how the war is going, or what he is
doing in order to put Iraq on track.”
And Kerry broadened the attack to
declare, “Just as he has been warned about
his mistakes in Iraq, George Bush has been
warned time and time again about the
vulnerability of our homeland security.”
Kerry said he would spend an additional
$60 billion over 10 years on homeland
security, using the money to screen cargo
for nuclear materials at ports and borders,
add border patrol agents and more.
Bush, who lost Wisconsin and its 10
electoral votes by only 5,708 ballots in
2000, was focusing his efforts in
Democratic-leaning reaches of the state.
Warming up for that task in his last
stop Monday, in Davenport, Iowa, he
ditched his single-focus, national
security speech of earlier events in favor
of a broader pitch praising the traditions
of the Democratic Party, a theme he
returned to on Tuesday.
In a television interview aired
Tuesday, Bush said he didn’t oppose
civil unions for same-sex couples even
though the Republican Party platform
opposes them. However, he supports
banning gay marriage through a
constitutional amendment.
“I don’t think we should deny people
rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement,
if that’s what a state chooses to do so,”
Bush said on “Good Morning America”
on ABC. “I view the definition of marriage
different from legal arrangements that
enable people to have rights.”
The Republicans, meanwhile, said it
was a sign of Kerry dullness that the
Democrats were calling on former
President Clinton, who rallied voters for
Kerry on Monday after being sidelined
for weeks by heart surgery.
Karl Rove, Bush’s chief political
adviser, spoke dismissively of Clinton’s
scene-stealing pairing with Kerry. Seven
weeks after quadruple bypass heart
surgery, Clinton joined Kerry at a
Philadelphia rally that packed cheering
supporters shoulder-to-shoulder along
three city blocks.
“They had to roll Clinton out of the
operating room and onto the campaign
trail in order to basically help Kerry with
the weaknesses he has among core
Democratic constituencies,” Rove said,
taking liberties with his depiction of the
former president as a near-invalid.
In a dispute between the running
♦ Please see SWING STATES, page 6
PAUL VERNON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Barbara Bush, left, daughter of president George W. Bush, pauses
during her speech as her sister Jenna looks on. She gave her
speech at a campaign rally for the president in the Ohio Union on
the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
: AJ&WkitL
Mil Mate St. UZ-IHO
TmSm 9aun*aaa
AHMY=®=NAVY
_STORE
>The
( Princeton
—Review
Bettor Scons Better Schools
it's Not too Late to Sign Up!
HL MCAT Course starts 11/9
on USC Campus!
I or visit www.PrincetonReview.com
I • Study Area
• Lounge Area
• Multi Station
Computer Lab
• Fax & Modem Station
linked to USC Campus
V___
■ N
• Tennis Courts
• Swimming Pools
• State-of-the-art
Fitness Center
• 1-4 Bedroom
Apartments
_-'
Iioo Riverbend Drive __ . _ _ . Q
West Columbia 794-2948 |
CAROUNA & TENNESSEE FANS WFLCOMFf
■ -.--.
Turning
Pointe
COSTUME RENTALS I
AND SALES I