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Kerry, Bush nearly run into each other in GOP stronghold
Associated Press
DAVENPORT, Iowa - The stops on John Kerry's cross-country campaign trip are hardly Democratic bastions. So much so, that yesterday he and President Bush campaigned just a few blocks from each other in this Iowa city.
"It occurred to me that he could come here for a great discussion about America's future if he were really willing to just turn a corner," Kerry said at an economic summit in Davenport.
The presidential nominee was poking fun at Bush's campaign slogan, "We've turned the corner, and we're not turning back."
Fresh off his Boston nominating convention with a unified party, Kerry has been taking his Democratic campaign to Republican strongholds from Newburgh, N.Y., to Harrisburg, Pa., to Grand Rapids, Mich.
Kerry is trying to win independent and GOP voters by stressing values, fiscal discipline, middle-class tax cuts and even his love of hunting and fishing. As he campaigns in conservative-leaning areas, Kerry often asks the crowds to forget he's running as a Democrat.
"This doesn't have a political label," Kerry said yesterday in Beloit, Wis. "I know you're not just here for a label. You're not here for Democrat, Republican, independent, liberal or conservative. You're here to find out whether or not someone can lead this country with common sense and mainstream American values that make America fair."
Kerry is attracting massive crowds in places where Democrats don't often campaign. The tens of thousands who have seen him this week have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
Gordon Gould said he just found out that the Beloit schools that his three children attend don't have enough money for bus service next year, and he blames Bush.
"There's no money available anywhere after the war," said Gould, who
couldn't get into Kerry's standing-room only speech but listened outside and waited for five hours to shake his hand.
Kerry has spent the last several months jetting into big cities, which often tend to vote Democratic. Kerry's advisers say there will be more of that in the fall, but the bus trip gives him a chance to stop in the medium-size markets that were decided by a slim margin in 2000 and where Bill Clinton did well in winning the White House in 1992 and 1996.
That's especially helpful in August, when Kerry has pulled his television advertising to preserve resources for the fall. His caravan of buses grabs attention wherever it goes. Kerry's lead bus has blinking police lights and a sound system that can blast music outside.
Coming into Bush country means Kerry has crossed paths with the president's supporters. They show their opposition to the Massachusetts Democrat by putting big signs on their lawns when Kerry drives by or by protesting at his events.
Kerry's staff tries to keep them away from the candidate. As Kerry shook hands with voters behind a rope line in Monroe, Wis., he approached a small group of Bush supporters with a homemade sign that said "No flip-flops in the White House" and had a red pair of the plastic shoes attached to it. A Kerry aide saw the sign just as he was about to shake their hands and, with a whisper in his ear, guided him away just before there could have been a confrontation.
A couple hours before Bush was to speak yesterday at a rally expected to draw thousands in Davenport, Kerry was talking with 150 invitees to an economic summit in the same city. In yet another appeal to conservatives, he was announcing a list of 200 business leaders who are supporting his campaign.
Bush told several hundred farmers, ranchers and sportsmen yesterday in Iowa and in Minnesota that he plans to expand a program that pays them to keep environmentally sensitive lands out of production.
Standing in a field, Bush said the government initiatives to conserve sensitive farmlands help "the best stewards of the land become better stewards of the land."
The president lost Minnesota in 2000 with 45.5 percent of the vote to Gore's 47.9 percent.
Bush is strongly committed to expanding the nearly two-decade-old federal payments program to cover grasslands and additional wetlands, he said.
Amazing that they came to each other that close.
Associated Press
DAVENPORT, Iowa - The stops on John Kerry's cross-country campaign trip are hardly Democratic bastions. So much so, that yesterday he and President Bush campaigned just a few blocks from each other in this Iowa city.
"It occurred to me that he could come here for a great discussion about America's future if he were really willing to just turn a corner," Kerry said at an economic summit in Davenport.
The presidential nominee was poking fun at Bush's campaign slogan, "We've turned the corner, and we're not turning back."
Fresh off his Boston nominating convention with a unified party, Kerry has been taking his Democratic campaign to Republican strongholds from Newburgh, N.Y., to Harrisburg, Pa., to Grand Rapids, Mich.
Kerry is trying to win independent and GOP voters by stressing values, fiscal discipline, middle-class tax cuts and even his love of hunting and fishing. As he campaigns in conservative-leaning areas, Kerry often asks the crowds to forget he's running as a Democrat.
"This doesn't have a political label," Kerry said yesterday in Beloit, Wis. "I know you're not just here for a label. You're not here for Democrat, Republican, independent, liberal or conservative. You're here to find out whether or not someone can lead this country with common sense and mainstream American values that make America fair."
Kerry is attracting massive crowds in places where Democrats don't often campaign. The tens of thousands who have seen him this week have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
Gordon Gould said he just found out that the Beloit schools that his three children attend don't have enough money for bus service next year, and he blames Bush.
"There's no money available anywhere after the war," said Gould, who
couldn't get into Kerry's standing-room only speech but listened outside and waited for five hours to shake his hand.
Kerry has spent the last several months jetting into big cities, which often tend to vote Democratic. Kerry's advisers say there will be more of that in the fall, but the bus trip gives him a chance to stop in the medium-size markets that were decided by a slim margin in 2000 and where Bill Clinton did well in winning the White House in 1992 and 1996.
That's especially helpful in August, when Kerry has pulled his television advertising to preserve resources for the fall. His caravan of buses grabs attention wherever it goes. Kerry's lead bus has blinking police lights and a sound system that can blast music outside.
Coming into Bush country means Kerry has crossed paths with the president's supporters. They show their opposition to the Massachusetts Democrat by putting big signs on their lawns when Kerry drives by or by protesting at his events.
Kerry's staff tries to keep them away from the candidate. As Kerry shook hands with voters behind a rope line in Monroe, Wis., he approached a small group of Bush supporters with a homemade sign that said "No flip-flops in the White House" and had a red pair of the plastic shoes attached to it. A Kerry aide saw the sign just as he was about to shake their hands and, with a whisper in his ear, guided him away just before there could have been a confrontation.
A couple hours before Bush was to speak yesterday at a rally expected to draw thousands in Davenport, Kerry was talking with 150 invitees to an economic summit in the same city. In yet another appeal to conservatives, he was announcing a list of 200 business leaders who are supporting his campaign.
Bush told several hundred farmers, ranchers and sportsmen yesterday in Iowa and in Minnesota that he plans to expand a program that pays them to keep environmentally sensitive lands out of production.
Standing in a field, Bush said the government initiatives to conserve sensitive farmlands help "the best stewards of the land become better stewards of the land."
The president lost Minnesota in 2000 with 45.5 percent of the vote to Gore's 47.9 percent.
Bush is strongly committed to expanding the nearly two-decade-old federal payments program to cover grasslands and additional wetlands, he said.
Amazing that they came to each other that close.
