President Rolls Through Battleground States

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — President Bush on Monday embraced the populist symbolism of a bus tour through the country’s politically divided heartland, acknowledging that the region’s economy was weaker than it should be but promising better times ahead.

Even the slogan affixed to Bush’s red, white and blue motor coach -- “Yes, America Can” -- implied room for improvement in a section of the country that has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs since 2001 and promises to be one of the most important battlegrounds of the president’s reelection effort.

“I fully understand that there are some people in this part of the world who still hurt,” Bush, clad in a workman-like shirt and tie, told a friendly gathering at a high school gymnasium in Niles, Mich.

“The statistics are good, but they’re not good if people are looking for work. The president has got to make sure there’s an environment in which there’s jobs being created.”

In Kalamazoo, Bush contrasted himself with his presumptive Democratic opponent, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, whom the GOP campaign has characterized as “waffling” on key issues.

Bush chided Kerry for telling voters in Michigan, a major auto-manufacturing state, in February that “we have some SUVs,” while telling environmentalists on Earth Day last month that he didn’t own a gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle -- although he conceded later that some members of his family did.

“What this country needs is a leader who speaks clearly, and when he says something, he means it,” Bush said.

Monday was the first of a two-day swing for Bush; the tour continues today in Ohio. The buses will roll again Friday through Iowa and Wisconsin.

Strategists for both campaigns believe that this year the race could be decided in the Midwest, where voters tend to be culturally conservative -- but where high numbers of lost manufacturing jobs and other economic woes make Bush vulnerable.

Although Bush aides insist that their travel plans were laid long ago, the “Yes, America Can” express follows a similar tour by Kerry last week designed to hammer away at the nearly 2.8 million manufacturing jobs lost nationwide since Bush took office.

Kerry campaigned in Ohio and Michigan as well, along with Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

But although bus trips by challengers are commonplace, especially in the final days and weeks of campaigns, there was something striking about Bush and his wife, Laura, climbing aboard a rock star-style motor coach so early in the year. According to campaign press secretary Scott Stanzel, Bush’s coach has three rooms, black leather couches and chairs, a DVD player and a kitchenette.

Aides said the bus trip put Bush in small towns and neighborhoods noteasily accessed by Air Force One and a presidential motorcade -- towns such as Niles, near the Indiana border, half an hour from South Bend.

“I find it really fun to go to a place where people didn’t expect the president to come,” Bush said to applause.

The tour’s theme and Bush’s words illustrate the need for nuance as he attempts to campaign as a warrior with resolve but also as a domestic leader who can relate to the troubles of average people -- even as Democrats say he favors big business and tax cuts for the rich.

The president made it clear he understood that job creation would be a key issue. He defended the tax cuts he pushed into law as a boost for the economy, giving businesses more money to hire new workers and expand production. Despite the years of losses, Bush noted that more than 300,000 jobs had been created in the last six months. “Manufacturing is coming back,” he said in Kalamazoo.

For Bush, the tour marked the first full-fledged, multiple-day campaign swing of the year. It was notable for a new and potentially risky format -- “Ask the President” -- in which he called on audience members to ask anything they wanted. Campaign officials said the questions were not planned, although there were no tough questions and Bush seemed prepared for each one. Bush took nine questions from the audience in Niles, ranging from why he came to Michigan to a query about how long U.S. troops would remain in Haiti.

“Our troops will stay there ... until United Nations peacekeepers will move in, which we hope is relatively quickly,” he said.

Bush used the question to touch on his 2000 campaign theme, which has been lost amid the focus on war and the economy: his claim to be a “compassionate conservative.” To that end, he said, the U.S. is providing aid to curb HIV and AIDS in Haiti as well as in Africa.

Kerry’s campaign chided Bush for what Democrats said was a sudden shift in tone.

Last week, the Bush team heralded its “Winning the War on Terror Tour,” which kicked off with a speech in Missouri by Vice President Dick Cheney attacking Kerry for his voting record on defense and a multistate ad blitz accusing the Democrat of voting against weapons systems.

Kerry aides took note of the current tour’s name: “Yes, America Can.”

“Did President Bush have second thoughts about shamelessly exploiting the war on terror for political gain?” a Kerry campaign release asked. “Has President Bush backtracked yet again? Did President Bush realize that his failure to address key homeland security measures continues to leave America vulnerable?”