Kerry, Edwards end first swing on familiar turf

The NAACP is again asking President Bush to speak at its convention.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Presidential hopeful John Kerry and running mate John Edwards asked supporters Saturday in the vice presidential candidate's hometown to help put Republican-leaning North Carolina into the Democratic column in November and them into the White House.
"Let me ask you a favor," Kerry asked a massive crowd. "Will you let me borrow John Edwards for at least four years?"
The crowd responded with chants of "eight, eight, eight."
Chuckling, Kerry remarked: "I said 'at least.'"
"How about 16?" he continued, sending the crowd into cheers at the notion of a favorite son possibly following a two-term Kerry presidency with two terms of his own.
'Welcome home'
Promoted as a "welcome home" celebration for Edwards, the rally ended the Kerry-Edwards inaugural joint campaign swing that covered six states in four days. It was meant to start introducing the ticket before its coming-out party later this month at the Democratic convention Boston.
Police estimated that at least 19,000 people, many waving Kerry-Edwards signs in sweltering 90-degree heat, packed a sprawling courtyard at North Carolina State University, one of Edwards' alma maters. The campaign pegged the number at 25,000, the largest attendance at a rally yet.
"We probably should let the rest of the country know that about half of you are related to me," Edwards said laughing.
In one of many nods to his hometown, Edwards mentioned that North Carolinians always say "he's with me" when they bring friends home. "I came here to tell you that this man right here," he said, pointing to Kerry, "I'm with him!"
Criticism
Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory -- in a statement released by the Bush-Cheney campaign -- accused Kerry and Edwards of having priorities and values outside of mainstream America.
"John Kerry has been ranked the Senate's most liberal member, and in choosing Senator Edwards, he chose the Senate's fourth most liberal member," McCrory said. "The voters of North Carolina wouldn't have sent John Edwards back to the Senate, and they're not going to send John Kerry to the White House."
Appealing to Bush
Meanwhile, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume asked President Bush on Saturday to reconsider his decision against addressing the black civil rights group's convention in Philadelphia this week.
There was no immediate response from Bush, who said Friday that he would not appear because he'd been offended by barbed criticism from the NAACP's leaders.
A snub of the country's largest civil-rights organization would make Bush -- who last spoke to the NAACP in 2000 when he was seeking election -- the first president since Herbert Hoover not to address its convention. Many delegates responded angrily to Bush's decision, some going so far as to say that it would be hailed among some factions of white voters.
Mfume, at a press conference Saturday morning at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, urged Bush to "take a higher road," then added this barb: "If as president his new mantle for dialogue is to only meet with those who agree with him, we are getting closer to the previous regime in Baghdad than we are to a democracy."
"Every Republican is not our enemy," Mfume continued. "I am hoping the president will change his mind and show America he is bigger than that. I have left time on the calendar on Thursday."
Told of the renewed invitation, White House spokesman Allen Abney said he had nothing to add to Friday's comments by press secretary Scott McClellan.
McClellan said the NAACP's leaders had made "some rather hostile political comments about the president over the past few years."
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