Posted on 07/20/2004 1:03:58 PM PDT by presidio9
President Bush is squeezing in some campaigning before the political spotlight turns to next week's Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Bush's twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, were to accompany him Tuesday. It's the first time they have made joint appearances with their dad on the campaign trail, although they each have traveled separately with him on other outings. The twins also will take part in an online chat Friday on Bush's re-election Web site.
Bush flies to re-election rallies in Iowa and Missouri, toss-up states that he and Democratic rival John Kerry are fighting hard to win this year. Bush narrowly lost Iowa in 2000, but won Missouri by about 3 percentage points.
Bush is scheduled to speak at an "Ask President Bush" event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before heading to a rally at the Family Arena in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles on his 19th presidential visit to Missouri.
His visit to the Show Me State comes a day after Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites)'s sixth trip to Missouri, where on Monday he told a friendly audience at a lumber company in Columbia, Mo., that the nation's economy is on the rebound.
On Thursday, Bush speaks about homeland security in Glenview, Ill., and attends a GOP fund-raiser in nearby Winnetka.
Campaign finance reports filed Tuesday by the Bush campaign showed the president had raised nearly $230 million by July and spent about $160 million through June. At least $84 million went to ads, and another $32 million went to mail-related costs. Bush began July with about $64 million in the bank.
Aides say the president will stay out of sight at his Crawford, Texas, ranch from Friday evening until the Democratic convention concludes July 29. He's expected back on the campaign trail the day after the convention.
His campaign, however, will send about a dozen people to Boston to rapidly respond to Democratic critics — a "thorn-in-their-side" delegation, as one Bush adviser put it.
"We'll have a strong presence in Boston to respond to all of the charges and the negativity and pessimism that comes out of John Kerry's and John Edwards' campaign," campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
Bush plans to charge back out to the campaign trail on July 30, the day after the Democratic convention ends, heading straight to four battleground states in two days.
Although Bush will be idle during the Democratic convention, Vice President Dick Cheney plans a West Coast campaign swing. He will continue headlining re-election rallies and delivering policy speeches contrasting Bush's records with Kerry's, they said, declining to provide details. Cheney also will appear at fund-raisers for Republican congressional candidates.
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Oh yeah? I spent all but the last year and a half of the Clinton presidency working 1 block from the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Every time BJ decided to visit NY it made my life miserable.
I haven't had to be anywhere near a Presidential motorcade lately. Thank goodness.
The only time I was anywhere near one, I was actually in it, so it was just fine!
President George H.W. Bush came into town for a golf tournament and I was on one of the ambulances being used.
Didn't get to meet him though. That didn't seem fair!!!!! :)
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