Cheney touts optimism of Bush administration

July 05, 2004|Associated Press

PITTSBURGH -- Vice President Dick Cheney, winding down a bus trip through Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, painted the November election as a choice between the administration's rosy outlook and what he termed John Kerry's pessimism.

"On issue after issue, the choice on Nov. 2 is very important," Cheney said yesterday. "It's a choice between President Bush's hope and optimism and Senator Kerry's pessimism."

The vice president hit that theme often during the two-day campaign sprint through the three swing states, which hold 46 of the 270 electoral votes at stake in 2004. Pennsylvania went for Al Gore in 2000; Bush took Ohio and West Virginia. Polls show the race is close in all three this year.

Bush has made 29 trips to Pennsylvania since taking office -- he plans the 30th Friday -- and Cheney promised yesterday that the pace will continue. "The president and I have spent a lot of time in this state working hard to earn your support," Cheney said at the Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial.

Cheney's remarks came in a city that Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, considers home turf, because he and his wife own a residence near Pittsburgh. The traditionally Democratic city hasn't elected a Republican mayor since the Depression.

At a downtown rally, leaders of the Allegheny County Labor Council maintained that the economy under Bush reached depths not seen since the Great Depression.