Battlespace
October 21, 2004, 11:20 AM
From USA Today. Pretty sad.
Kerry began his day Thursday by going goose hunting in Ohio, but his real target was the voters who may harbor doubts about him. He returned after a two-hour hunting trip wearing a camouflage jacket and carrying a 12-gauge shotgun, but someone else carried the bird he said he shot.
"I'm too lazy," Kerry joked. "I'm still giddy over the Red Sox. It was hard to focus."
The Massachusetts senator was referring to Boston's American League championship Wednesday night. He stayed up late cheering his hometown team onto victory, then got up for a 7 a.m. hunting trip at a supporter's produce farm.
Kerry adviser Mike McCurry said it's important in the final days of the campaign that voters "get a better sense of John Kerry, the guy."
While the Democrat campaigns as an all-American, his political opponents are working to leave voters with a different impression. Bush tells voters that Kerry is on the "left bank" of society, opposing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Kerry does not support gay marriage but says the matter is for states to decide, and he favors civil unions for same-sex couples.
"We stand for marriage and family, which are the foundations of our society," Bush said Wednesday in Mason City, Iowa. "We stand for the Second Amendment, which protects every individual American's right to bear arms."
The National Rifle Association said it bought a full-page ad in Thursday's Youngstown newspaper that says Kerry is posing as a sportsman while opposing gun-owners' rights. Kerry has denied NRA claims that he wants to "take away" guns, but he supported the ban on assault-type weapons and requiring background checks at gun shows
"If John Kerry thinks the Second Amendment is about photo ops, he's Daffy," says the ad the NRA said would run in The Vindicator. It features a large photo of Kerry with his finger on a shotgun trigger but looking in another direction.
Meanwhile, labor unions have been circulating fliers among workers that say Kerry won't take away guns. "He likes his own gun too much," says one of the fliers from the Building Trades Department of the AFL-CIO that features a picture of Kerry aiming a shotgun.
Later Thursday, Christopher Reeve's widow, Dana, plans to join Kerry in Columbus, Ohio for a campaign speech about the importance of science, research and innovation.
Reeve supports Kerry's intention to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research. The campaign said she approached the Massachusetts senator about making what probably will be her only campaign appearance.
Christopher Reeve became an advocate of spinal cord research, including looser restrictions on stem cell research, after a horse riding accident that left him a quadriplegic for the last nine years of his life.
Kerry knew the "Superman" actor for about 15 years through family and activist connections. Reeve left him a long telephone message the day before he died, thanking him for campaigning on behalf of medical research.
His death has since reverberated on the campaign trail, as Kerry battles President Bush over the ethics of stem cell research using embryos destroyed for research. Bush restricted federally funded research to lines already existing before his 2001 executive order, a decision criticized by some scientists and research advocates.
Yesterday, Bush and Kerry accused each other of misjudging the stakes and lacking the leadership to deal with Iraq and terrorism as they campaigned 60 miles apart Wednesday in Iowa, a state Bush narrowly lost four years ago.
"The next commander in chief must lead us to victory in this war and you cannot win a war when you don't believe you're fighting one," Bush said in Mason City, a northern Iowa farming community. "My opponent also misunderstands our battle against insurgents and terrorists in Iraq, calling Iraq a 'a diversion from the war on terrorism.'"
Kerry, campaigning in Waterloo, said Bush failed to grasp what the United States faces in Iraq, where more than 1,100 U.S. soldiers have been killed. "If President Bush cannot recognize the problems in Iraq, he will not fix them. I do recognize them and I will fix them."
With time running out before the Nov. 2 election, national polls say the race is very close, with some showing a slight advantage for Bush. Polls in key swing states like Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin also show the two candidates running about even.
Iraq and terrorism dominated the debate Wednesday as Bush focused on Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin — all states that went against him four years ago and where polls show him in a close race with his Democratic rival.
After Iowa, Kerry held a rally in Pittsburgh with supporters, including singer Jon Bon Jovi, actor Ted Danson and Hall of Fame football player Franco Harris, before retiring to Ohio for the night. Four years ago, Bush lost Pennsylvania and won Ohio; this year the race is tight in both states.
"The president says he's a leader. Well, Mr. President, look behind you, there's hardly anyone there," Kerry said, pointing out considerable allied opposition to the war. "It's not leadership if we haven't built the strongest alliance possible and if America is going almost alone."
Bush, trying to depict his opponent as lacking the credentials to be commander in chief, said Kerry was guilty of "a fundamental misunderstanding of the war we face and that is very dangerous thinking."
He said the threat posed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist who has pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and is believed behind beheadings in Iraq, "shows how wrong" Kerry's thinking is.
"If Zarqawi and his associates were not busy fighting American forces, does Senator Kerry think he would be leading a productive and useful life?" Bush asked. "Of course not. And that is why Iraq is no diversion."
While Kerry and Bush traded charges, there was a moment of embarrassment — and an apology — from the senator's wife over her remarks about first lady Laura Bush.
Teresa Heinz Kerry, in an interview published by USA TODAY, had said she didn't know if Laura Bush had ever had "a real job." She apologized for having forgotten about the first lady's 10-year stint as a schoolteacher and librarian.
:fire: :fire:
Kerry began his day Thursday by going goose hunting in Ohio, but his real target was the voters who may harbor doubts about him. He returned after a two-hour hunting trip wearing a camouflage jacket and carrying a 12-gauge shotgun, but someone else carried the bird he said he shot.
"I'm too lazy," Kerry joked. "I'm still giddy over the Red Sox. It was hard to focus."
The Massachusetts senator was referring to Boston's American League championship Wednesday night. He stayed up late cheering his hometown team onto victory, then got up for a 7 a.m. hunting trip at a supporter's produce farm.
Kerry adviser Mike McCurry said it's important in the final days of the campaign that voters "get a better sense of John Kerry, the guy."
While the Democrat campaigns as an all-American, his political opponents are working to leave voters with a different impression. Bush tells voters that Kerry is on the "left bank" of society, opposing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Kerry does not support gay marriage but says the matter is for states to decide, and he favors civil unions for same-sex couples.
"We stand for marriage and family, which are the foundations of our society," Bush said Wednesday in Mason City, Iowa. "We stand for the Second Amendment, which protects every individual American's right to bear arms."
The National Rifle Association said it bought a full-page ad in Thursday's Youngstown newspaper that says Kerry is posing as a sportsman while opposing gun-owners' rights. Kerry has denied NRA claims that he wants to "take away" guns, but he supported the ban on assault-type weapons and requiring background checks at gun shows
"If John Kerry thinks the Second Amendment is about photo ops, he's Daffy," says the ad the NRA said would run in The Vindicator. It features a large photo of Kerry with his finger on a shotgun trigger but looking in another direction.
Meanwhile, labor unions have been circulating fliers among workers that say Kerry won't take away guns. "He likes his own gun too much," says one of the fliers from the Building Trades Department of the AFL-CIO that features a picture of Kerry aiming a shotgun.
Later Thursday, Christopher Reeve's widow, Dana, plans to join Kerry in Columbus, Ohio for a campaign speech about the importance of science, research and innovation.
Reeve supports Kerry's intention to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research. The campaign said she approached the Massachusetts senator about making what probably will be her only campaign appearance.
Christopher Reeve became an advocate of spinal cord research, including looser restrictions on stem cell research, after a horse riding accident that left him a quadriplegic for the last nine years of his life.
Kerry knew the "Superman" actor for about 15 years through family and activist connections. Reeve left him a long telephone message the day before he died, thanking him for campaigning on behalf of medical research.
His death has since reverberated on the campaign trail, as Kerry battles President Bush over the ethics of stem cell research using embryos destroyed for research. Bush restricted federally funded research to lines already existing before his 2001 executive order, a decision criticized by some scientists and research advocates.
Yesterday, Bush and Kerry accused each other of misjudging the stakes and lacking the leadership to deal with Iraq and terrorism as they campaigned 60 miles apart Wednesday in Iowa, a state Bush narrowly lost four years ago.
"The next commander in chief must lead us to victory in this war and you cannot win a war when you don't believe you're fighting one," Bush said in Mason City, a northern Iowa farming community. "My opponent also misunderstands our battle against insurgents and terrorists in Iraq, calling Iraq a 'a diversion from the war on terrorism.'"
Kerry, campaigning in Waterloo, said Bush failed to grasp what the United States faces in Iraq, where more than 1,100 U.S. soldiers have been killed. "If President Bush cannot recognize the problems in Iraq, he will not fix them. I do recognize them and I will fix them."
With time running out before the Nov. 2 election, national polls say the race is very close, with some showing a slight advantage for Bush. Polls in key swing states like Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin also show the two candidates running about even.
Iraq and terrorism dominated the debate Wednesday as Bush focused on Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin — all states that went against him four years ago and where polls show him in a close race with his Democratic rival.
After Iowa, Kerry held a rally in Pittsburgh with supporters, including singer Jon Bon Jovi, actor Ted Danson and Hall of Fame football player Franco Harris, before retiring to Ohio for the night. Four years ago, Bush lost Pennsylvania and won Ohio; this year the race is tight in both states.
"The president says he's a leader. Well, Mr. President, look behind you, there's hardly anyone there," Kerry said, pointing out considerable allied opposition to the war. "It's not leadership if we haven't built the strongest alliance possible and if America is going almost alone."
Bush, trying to depict his opponent as lacking the credentials to be commander in chief, said Kerry was guilty of "a fundamental misunderstanding of the war we face and that is very dangerous thinking."
He said the threat posed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist who has pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and is believed behind beheadings in Iraq, "shows how wrong" Kerry's thinking is.
"If Zarqawi and his associates were not busy fighting American forces, does Senator Kerry think he would be leading a productive and useful life?" Bush asked. "Of course not. And that is why Iraq is no diversion."
While Kerry and Bush traded charges, there was a moment of embarrassment — and an apology — from the senator's wife over her remarks about first lady Laura Bush.
Teresa Heinz Kerry, in an interview published by USA TODAY, had said she didn't know if Laura Bush had ever had "a real job." She apologized for having forgotten about the first lady's 10-year stint as a schoolteacher and librarian.
:fire: :fire:
