Saturday, October 30, 2004
'America is back,' the California governor said in Ohio.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
COLUMBUS -- For a brief moment Friday, President Bush was outshone by a fellow Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the larger-than-life California governor who took the stage to promote Bush's re-election -- and his own bodybuilding event.
But Schwarzenegger's message was a most welcome one to Bush. The Hollywood tough guy assured Ohio Republicans that Bush is the political tough guy to take on terrorists.
"President Bush knows you can't reason with people that are blinded by hate," Schwarzenegger told thousands of raucous Bush backers at a rally in this crucial electoral state.
"But let me tell you something: Their hate is no match for our decency, their hate is no match for America's decency, and it is no match for the leadership and the resolve of George W. Bush."
In his lone campaign appearance with Bush, the governor told raucous Republicans: "I'm here to pump you up to re-elect President George W. Bush."
Speaking in a hockey arena here, Schwarzenegger jabbed the air with a finger as the president and Laura Bush smiled behind him.
He playfully wove in variations of some of his most famous lines.
"We have gone through a lot, but I can tell you there is no two ways about it, America is back," he said, a play on the Terminator's "I'll be back."
"America is back from the attack on our homeland, back from the attack on our economy and we are back from the attack on our way of life."
"If you flex your muscles Nov. 2, I guarantee President Bush will be back," he said.
Kerry's campaign
Sen. John Kerry spent Friday campaigning in Florida, where he abandoned the week's harsh rhetoric that Bush had failed in Iraq in favor of a hopeful message focused on the future.
"I believe we begin by making certain that the American people have the truth and we do whatever it takes to lead our troops to success and bring them back home," he said.
"And when they do come home -- and they will when I'm president -- I believe we begin by rebuilding an America with a strong middle class, where everyone has a chance to work and to work in a job that allows you to pay your bills, get out of debt, get ahead and do well in America."
Kerry avoided new lines of attack on the president. He called his speech "the summary of my case" on how to change the nation. He borrowed heavily from the upbeat language and themes used by his running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
"No one can afford to stand on the sidelines and sit this one out," he said. "Wake up, America! Wake up! The middle class of America is paying a higher tax burden as a share of the tax burden under George Bush, and lower wages, and the millionaires and the richest people in the country are earning more money and getting a lower tax burden. You have a choice."
The Bush campaign termed that a cry of desperation.
"Telling America to 'wake up' is not a message for the future, it is the cry of a flailing candidate who has no momentum and is reaching the end of the line," Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt said. "He has resorted to lecturing the American people."
Edwards returned to his home state of North Carolina to vote Friday, becoming the first candidate on either of the presidential tickets to cast a ballot in an election that polls show is extraordinarily tight.
"That may be the deciding vote," the Democratic vice presidential nominee said with a grin as he chucked his thumb behind him on his way out the door of the polling place. Kerry will be voting Tuesday in Boston.
Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, voted ahead of Tuesday's election, jumping in front of about 70 fellow voters standing in line at the community arts center. Outside, about 100 onlookers gathered on a leaf-strewn parking lot. Most held Kerry-Edwards signs, although a large Bush-Cheney campaign poster hovered above the crowd.
Shortly after voting, Edwards reminded 7,000 people packed to the rafters of a state fairgrounds arena of his Carolina roots. As he was voting, Edwards said he thought about the state and the values of its residents.
"George Bush and Dick Cheney do not hear the voices of the people we grew up with," Edwards said. "I grew up with you. We hear your voices. We lift you up."
Cheney speaks
Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday the invasion of Iraq will go down in history, along with the war in Afghanistan, for its "brilliance."
The vice president's comment came as he portrayed the controversy over hundreds of tons of missing explosives in Iraq as a battle pitting Kerry against U.S. troops, with Cheney siding with the military.
At an airport rally at a hangar in Montoursville, Pa., Cheney said the U.S. invasions of "Afghanistan and Iraq will be studied for years for their brilliance."
Up to 120 million people are expected to cast ballots Tuesday, about 60 percent of the eligible voters and an increase from 105 million in 2000, when turnout was 51 percent. As the intensity of the presidential race draws wide attention, political parties and interest groups are making dramatic efforts to get people to the polls.
Long lines
Evidence of high turnout is already emerging in states such as Oregon, where 38 percent of the mail ballots sent to all registered voters have already been returned. In Florida, polling stations that opened statewide Oct. 18 are drawing long lines.
"Who ever heard of lines for early voting?" said Yale political scientist Donald Green, co-author of a new book on voter turnout. Green estimates that parties and other groups will spend $300 million in unprecedented year-long efforts to identify potential supporters, stay in touch through phone calls, visits and e-mails, and make sure they vote.
"There's been a massive emphasis on voter mobilization instead of voter persuasion," Green said.