Edwards confident about win in Ohio

The Bush administration's policies 'devastated' Ohio, the Dems' VP candidate says.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The tight race for the presidency in Ohio doesn't surprise U.S. Sen. John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, a bit.
"Ohio has tended to trend Republican, and I think it's a very divided state," said Edwards during a telephone interview Monday with The Vindicator. "That's reality, and that's what we're facing."
Many Ohio polls among likely voters have the presidential race a statistical dead heat.
When Ohio voters go to the polls next week, they should think about how their lives were adversely impacted by the Bush administration, Edwards said. Since Bush was sworn in as president in January 2001, Ohio has lost almost 250,000 jobs, health-care costs have soared, and the president has diverted attention from fighting the war on terror to the war in Iraq.
Edwards said that the policies of President Bush have "devastated" the Ohio economy, and that the president and Vice President Dick Cheney are doing a poor job because they aren't focused on the important issues.
"People will continue to move toward us," Edwards said on his way to Milwaukee from a rally in Racine, Wis. "We feel confident and good about Ohio."
Edwards said the Bush-Cheney campaign and their supporters are spending millions of dollars in Ohio "on side issues to divert attention from their problems. I remain confident we're going to win Ohio."
Kerry's plan
Edwards said he and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, would eliminate tax breaks to companies that leave the United States in favor of other nations, and would provide tax incentives to companies to open shop in struggling cities, such as Youngstown. The Kerry administration would also enforce trade policies, something Edwards said the Bush administration has failed to do.
Edwards said Republicans are correct when they said the health care plan that he and Kerry promote would cost more money than the one proposed by Bush.
"You're not going to solve the health care problem with a Band-Aid," he said. "It costs something to fix this problem. They've done nothing to make the health care system work during the past four years."
Bush administration officials and supporters repeatedly say that Kerry and Edwards are wrong for Ohio because they would increase taxes and regulations.
Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, recently said Bush has a "growing empathy" for Ohio's struggles, and has several plans in place to stimulate the state's economy in addition to the programs and tax cuts already implemented.
Missing explosives
Before speaking to Edwards, Vindicator reporters and editors interviewed Rand Beers, the Kerry campaign's senior adviser for national security and homeland security, by telephone.
Beers blasted the Bush administration after The New York Times reported 380 tons of powerful explosives have been missing for more than a month from a former military installation near Baghdad, Iraq.
"The administration has failed to protect Americans, and in this case, U.S. forces in Iraq," Beers said. "It's another clear indication that the administration didn't do their homework."
Beers was a member of the National Security Council under the past four presidents, three of them Republicans.
He left the Bush administration early last year, and eight weeks later volunteered as Kerry's national security and homeland security adviser.
skolnick@vindy.com