Medicare. Social Security. Hurricane relief. Anti-Semitism. The president hits hot buttons on the state's east coast.
By BILL ADAIR
Published October 17, 2004
SUNRISE - With a new poll showing the election in Florida is a dead heat, President Bush blitzed up the east coast on Saturday, emphasizing issues with special appeal to Floridians.
For senior voters, he touted his Medicare drug plan and vowed to protect Social Security. For hurricane victims, he said the federal government would help with rebuilding. For Jewish voters, he said he had just signed a bill that requires the U.S. government to track anti-Semitic acts around the world.
"This nation will keep watch," he said at a campaign rally in a Broward County arena. "We will make sure that the ancient impulse of anti-Semitism never finds a home in the modern world."
Saturday's bus tour - and one scheduled Tuesday in Pinellas and Pasco counties - is part of the Bush campaign's renewed emphasis on Florida. Four hurricanes put the presidential campaign on hold for nearly two months, but Bush is once again barnstorming through the state that decided the 2000 election.
Saturday's campaigning took him to Broward and West Palm Beach, both Democratic strongholds. He later visited Daytona Beach in Volusia County, which is more evenly divided between the parties.
At the rally in Broward, former Florida Republican chairman Al Cardenas reminded the crowd of the state's importance. "If we win Florida we win the presidency."
A new Washington Post poll shows the race in Florida tied at 48 percent, with 3 percent undecided and 1 percent for Ralph Nader. The poll found Bush is getting strong support from Hispanic voters, even among non-Cubans who are traditionally Democratic.
Bush aides say they are paying extra attention to counties hit by the hurricanes.
"It's something we do worry about because all four hurricanes made landfall in Republican counties," said Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser. He said the campaign is targeting individual households in those counties "to make sure we get every one of our voters to vote."
The rallies in Broward and Palm Beach counties were part of an effort to reach South Florida's large Jewish population, which has usually voted Democratic.
"The reason we would come into a Democratic stronghold (such as Broward) is because we've made significant inroads with the Jewish vote," said Reed Dickens, a campaign spokesman.
Bush also made appeals - subtle and not so subtle - to other groups in his three campaign stops Saturday.
For seniors, he said he had proved he would protect Social Security: "You might remember the 2000 campaign, all those ads that told our seniors if George W. gets elected, he's going to take away your check. I want the seniors to remember they got their checks."
He said the retirement program was "in pretty good shape" for baby boomers, but that it must be strengthened for younger people. He has proposed allowing workers to make their own investment choices.
Bush said he had kept a promise he made in the 2000 campaign to create a Medicare drug plan. "The results are clear," he said. "Seniors are already getting discounts on their medicines."
But so far, the Medicare drug plan has not been the political bonanza Bush aides hoped. Critics say the plan, which provides discount cards, offers paltry benefits, and the full plan won't start until January 2006.
He praised his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, for being a strong leader after the hurricanes and said the federal government will "continue to help Florida rebuild."
At a rally in Daytona Beach, he accused Kerry of ignoring his administration's opposition to a military draft, but the president stumbled over his words.
"I made it very plain: We will not have an all-volunteer Army," he said, mistakenly adding a negative. The crowd shouted to correct him, but Bush kept going.
Then he caught on: "We will have an all-volunteer Army. Let me restate that: We will not have a draft."
Bush also tried to fire up his conservative base with subtle lines affirming his opposition to abortion and gay marriage.
"We stand for a culture of life in which every person matters and every being counts," he said in Broward. "We stand for marriage and family, which are the foundations of our society."
He also said he would appoint federal judges "who know the difference between personal opinion and the strict interpretation of the law."
In Daytona Beach, he said, "We know that freedom is not America's gift to the world. Freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world."
The crowds were large and enthusiastic. One teenager wore a T-shirt that said "Friends don't let friends vote Democratic." A woman wore a bumper sticker on her back that said "Impeach the Media."
"He seems to be a real person, rather than a Washington politician," said Dominic Coppola, 35, a police officer in Coconut Creek in Broward who attended the rally.
Two anti-Bush protesters were removed from the Broward event, but in West Palm Beach, the audience members who interrupted were pro-Bush.
When the president tried to deliver his standard line that Kerry is a liberal - "There is a word for that attitude ... " he began - he was interrupted by an energetic supporter who suggested Kerry was more than just a liberal.
"Socialist!" the man hollered.
Bush aides say they are braced for a close election in Florida. Rove said there will be more campaign visits.
"We'll be here frequently, covering the state like the morning dew."
