Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) delivers a speech(AFP/Hector Mata)
Posted on 10/17/2004 8:27:20 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WEST PALM BEACH, United States (AFP) - George W. Bush and challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) will duel for votes in Florida, where early polling opens in a deadlocked race soured by memories of the 2000 election debacle.
The rivals will both be in the southern state, hoping to whip up enthusiasm among voters who can be among the first in the United States to make their choice in an early balloting system for the November 2 election.
Bush owes his presidency to the 537 vote margin he eked out in Florida over Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites) four years ago, when the US Supreme Court halted recounts in the state after a bitter five-week constitutional battle.
Bush blitzed Florida on Saturday before returning to the US capital, but was due to fly in for a campaign dinner late Monday after a stop in New Jersey, before a day of intense campaigning planned for Tuesday.
Kerry jetted in from another battleground state, Ohio, on Sunday, and planned to stay overnight in West Palm Beach before crisscrossing the state Monday.
"You have got to get out and vote tomorrow," Kerry told several thousand supporters soon after he arrived, and pounced on a quote attributed to Bush in The New York Times magazine which suggested he would privatize social security.
"We are fighting for the character of our country," Kerry said.
Bush asked for the votes of supporters in a string of Florida rallies on Saturday, in which he depicted the veteran Massachusetts senator as unfit to lead.
Sunday was "the one-year anniversary of Senator Kerry's vote against funding our troops" in Iraq (news - web sites), the president told a crowd in the town of Sunrise.
"He abandoned our troops in combat by voting against the funding," Bush added.
Kerry -- who voted in favor of the 87 billion dollars on a procedural vote, but opposed its final passage -- has defended the move by saying he wanted some of the reconstruction aid to oil-rich Iraq to be in the form of loans.
Both Republicans and Democrats are looking to get core supporters out early in Florida -- which now lets citizens vote up to 15 days before the election -- so they can devote themselves to undecided voters.
"We want to say to people get out and vote early, tomorrow," said Kerry campaign spokeswoman Allison Dobson. "The candidate's time is so precious now we are absolutely looking for key states where we can gain some new ground."
Three new opinion polls out on Sunday showed Bush and Kerry still locked in a statistical tie.
The Washington Post put the president up 50 percent to 47 percent, Newsweek's poll of registered voters put Bush on 48 percent and Kerry on 46 percent, while a Zogby International tracking poll had Bush up 46 to 44 percent. The gap in all three polls was within the margin of error.
Kerry aides said they were delighted how their candidate was shaping up in battleground states, especially Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, which many pundits believe could decide the election.
African-Americans are a key constituency in the election, and Kerry visited a black Baptist church in Columbus, Ohio earlier Sunday to preach a message of change and to claim Bush had lost touch with everyday Americans.
"We have got a lot more loving of our neighbor to do in the United States of America," Kerry said.
"I look around me. I see jobs to be created, I see housing to be built, I see seniors who are cutting pills in half in order to be able to survive."
As he arrived in Florida, Kerry accused Bush of standing by while "genocide" raged in the Darfur region of Sudan.
"The Bush administration ... has done nothing effective to halt this genocide. Words without deeds are meaningless especially when people are dying every day."
"Rarely have the costs of the Bush Administrations inaction and failed leadership been clearer.
The attack will be seen as an appeal to African-American voters in the state, just as a bill Bush signed Saturday aimed at battling global anti-Semitism shortly before he arrived in Florida, was seen as a bid to court the state's large Jewish population.
Kerry on Sunday picked up endorsements from The New York Times and dailies in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Boston, while papers in Dallas and Chicago backed Bush.
Kerry's "wide knowledge and clear thinking" are the makings of "a great chief executive," The New York Times said in an editorial.
While Kerry's candidacy initially seemed mostly to tap into public dissatisfaction with Bush, over time "we have come to know Mr Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo," said the Times, which was the first daily with a national leadership to announce its preference.
Hail Mama T,, Full of raisins. hic
Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), covers her heart after speaking at the at the United Jewish Communities 2004 International Lion of Judah Conference opening day, Sunday, Oct. 17, 2004 in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) speaks during church services at the Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, October 17, 2004. Kerry trails President Bush (news - web sites) by 2 points with just over two weeks to go before the Nov. 2 election, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released Sunday. Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters
"We are fighting for the character of our country," Kerry said.
US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) (L) waves as he leaves St. John's Episcopal Church with Reverend Dr. Luis Leon after attending Sunday morning church services(AFP/Paul J. Richards)
"The Bush administration ... has done nothing effective to halt this genocide. Words without deeds are meaningless especially when people are dying every day."
"Rarely have the costs of the Bush Administrations inaction and failed leadership been clearer.
And where pray tell, Senator Kerry, was the Clinton administration during the Rwanda debacle? Better yet, Where were you?
And heaven forbid, dare I ask where the UN was? The UN being the very same organization that is full of your kind of folks.
Shame on you, Senator.
I'm not as worried about Florida as I was. My sister called tonight. She's a rabid Democrat and we argued bitterly in 2000. She told me tonight that she's voting for Bush. She said that Kerry has souless eyes and she knows Bush will do what he says he'll do in regards to terrorism. She also said that the Democratic party has changed from when she first started voting 20 years ago. She thinks they are too vicious and have become more like "nazis" (her words, not mine) She says she saw a special on Hitler and that Kerry has the same eyes. She also said that quite a few people that she knows that voted for Gore are now voting for Bush.
I certainly hope so. My sister said everyone she knows is certain Bush is going to win. She said he's a wartime Pres and now is no time to change horses.
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