Posted on 10/26/2004 6:37:30 PM PDT by pickemuphere
President George W Bush campaigned up and down a small rural stretch of the heartland yesterday, desperately seeking to shore up his position in a once safe region where Republicans are registering the first prickles of concern about his record - and his chances.
With just a week to go before voting, Mr Bush focused his fire on Wisconsin and Iowa, two mid-western states that have become pivotal to his chances. He lost both narrowly to Al Gore in 2000 but now badly needs to win them as an insurance policy, given the state of play in Ohio and Florida, two of the three key swing states, where he is in a dead heat with his rival.
Sitting on the banks of the Mississippi, the focus of a blitz of campaigning by the two presidential candidates, two Republican businessmen in their mid-30s aired the anxieties that go to the heart of jitters among Bush supporters.
"People are worried about Iraq," said Eric Dragne, in a display of candour remarkable in a partisan climate that tends to allow for no self-doubt on either side. "Many people here know people who have lost their lives."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Whatever they're swallowing across the ponds (Pacific and Atlantic in my case) I don't want any ;-).
Wishful thinking by the Telegraph. I guess 'shoring up his base' is why President Bush is campaigning in 'blue' swing states.
Wishful thinking.
I think we ought to run interference in the next British election and see how the limey like it!
They just don't get it.
I wonder if Eric Dragne told the reporter that he was a lifelong republican?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a trollette. Methinks the DU is on the prowl tonight after AlPooGate blew up on the New York Times and sKerry.
What a load of cow pies.
What alternate universe is this reporter looking at? That's scary. Flyover country (and a lot of it is rural) is and will stay BUSH country.
Well, it could also mean he's simply going for an electoral mandate. Tony Snow said tonight that the Dems have all but given up on Fla. Gallup suggests this is probably wise, and they offer similar insight in their Ohio poll.
Are there NY Times reporters ghostwriting for the Telegraph now? What a load of garbage.
A "once safe region", where? What is this Englishman talking about? Bush is leading in Wisconsin and Iowa and at least tied in Minnesota. No Republican has won either Wisconsin or Iowa since Reagan in 1984, and Nixon was the last to win Minnesota in 1972, eight presidential elections ago.
What's with The Telegraph? It's usually a pretty good newspaper. But there's been a lot of strange stuff from them recently.
Whatever it is, it would definitely keep you wasted for at a least a week. I'll bet the hangover is really bad:)
I'll be dipped... I thought the GWB rally here in DBQ this afternoon indicated otherwise, but what do I know?
New ownership may be the reason. Two Labour-voting brothers bought the Telegraph from Conrad Black; they pledged to keep the conservative orientation of the paper, but after having read last nite's slurpy article on clinton, I began to wonder.
Yes, it's really cool here in Michigan. I'm going to the Pontiac Silverdome (seats 80,000) to see Pres. Bush tomorrow.
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