Bush to Ohio: 'Jobs are being created'

The president said the nation's economy is on the upswing.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- President Bush defended his administration's decision to force Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, saying the former dictator was a threat to world peace.
"We realized the history of the man," Bush said Thursday before more than 2,500 at a meeting center on this city's Northeast side. "He was a sworn enemy of America."
Clad in a blue-shirt, red tie and gray slacks, Bush said Hussein, toppled from power by U.S.-led forces last year, had used weapons of mass destruction against his own people.
Congress had seen the same intelligence, Bush said during the 1 1/2-hour campaign event, and had reached the same conclusion.
Bush, a Republican, took an obvious jab at his Democratic opponent in the November general election, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, saying: "My opponent looked at very same intelligence."
Kerry voted to authorize the war in Iraq, but has been critical of the Bush administration's policy in the war-torn country.
"I had a choice to make then ... trust a madman or take action to defend our country. Every time I will defend America," Bush said to cheers from the standing-room-only crowd.
A safer world
Bush, who is seeking another four-year term this November, said the world is safer now that Saddam has been forced from power.
"I want to be your president for four more years because I believe freedom can change the world," Bush said.
In what was billed as an "Ask President Bush" forum, the president paced around a stage set up in the middle of the meeting hall and made a pitch for congressional approval to make his temporary tax cuts permanent.
To illustrate his point, Bush called on Emily and John Jaminet of Columbus, who say they have saved $2,300 in taxes in tax year 2003 under the president's tax cuts and have bought and refinanced their first home.
"Tax relief has got to become permanent in order for this economy to grow," Bush said.
Acknowledging job losses in Ohio, viewed by many political experts as a "battleground" state in the race for the White House, the president said the nation's economy is on the upswing.
"I know people are worried. But the jobs are being created," Bush said.
Supporters
Before Bush took the stage other speakers, including Republican Lt. Gov. Jennette Bradley and former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar, praised the president.
"I think he's a great leader," Kosar, a Boardman native who played for the Browns from 1985 to 1993 and later played for the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins, said of Bush. "I couldn't think of us being in any better hands."
Brendon Cull, a spokesman for the Democratic Coordinated Campaign, said Kerry stands by his criticism of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq. "The main criticism [Kerry] has had of this president is he took us to war without a plan to win the peace," Cull said.
Thursday's trip to Columbus was Bush's 20th to the Buckeye State as president, the Ohio Republican Party said. Bush was last in Ohio this past Saturday for a bus trip through Cleveland, Canton and Cambridge.