Politics

It's Official: Nancy Backs Bush

August 12, 2004 / 9:18 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Despite their differences over the use of stem cells for medical research, former first lady Nancy Reagan is supporting President Bush.

Accompanied by his wife Laura, the president spent about 30 minutes with Mrs. Reagan at her Bel Air home, then emerged to tell reporters he was "honored" to pay his respects. As Mrs. Reagan stood by, Bush said he admires her "strength and her love of a great president."

As CBS' Mark Knoller reports, after meeting with Mr. Bush, the former first lady issued a written statement saying she fully supports the president's re-election. A spokesman says the issue of stem cell research did not come up in their meeting.

Former President Ronald Reagan died in June at age 93 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Mrs. Reagan, who turned 83 last month, has indicated she favors Bush's re-election -- despite his limits on federal stem cell research.

In Boston, the ex-president's son, Ron Reagan, addressed the Democratic convention on the subject. Republicans say another son, Michael Reagan, will speak to the GOP convention in New York, probably on opening night.

Also Thursday, Mr. Bush on Thursday defended his decision to use Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump, an unpopular move in a swing state that he won four years ago.

"I said I would make a decision based upon science, not politics. I said I would listen to the scientists, those involved with determining whether or not this project could move forward in a safe manner and that's exactly what I did," Bush told supporters in this city 90 miles southeast of the proposed waste site.

Bush accused Democratic Sen. John Kerry of pandering to Nevada voters by playing both sides of the issue, part of a broader effort to cast the Massachusetts senator as someone who bends to the political winds.

"He says he's strongly against Yucca here in Nevada, but he voted for it several times," Bush claimed.

That is not exactly true.

Each time Kerry has faced the simple choice of voting whether or not to send waste to Yucca Mountain, he has voted against it. But he has voted for some measures that had provisions to allow nuclear dumps there. Some 16 years ago, Kerry voted for an overall budget bill that included a provision favoring putting the nuclear waste in Nevada.

Kerry visited Las Vegas earlier this week, and said that Bush broke a campaign promise to ensure science and not politics determined his decision whether to ship waste to Yucca Mountain.

Dozens of scientific studies remain incomplete and a recent federal appeals court ruling raised questions about whether the waste repository will be built, or at least meet its target of 2010 to begin operation.

Bush said he was pleased to "allow this process to be appealed to the courts and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

"I will stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Bush said.

Bush's visit here was his second in two months. Though Nevada has only five electoral votes — a tiny slice of the 270 needed to win the presidency — it has become a hotly contested prize in an election that is so close.

A poll of likely Nevada voters in late July showed the race essentially tied.

From Nevada, Bush was jetting to Santa Monica, Calif. for a Republican National Committee fund raiser, his 12th visit to California. He has not been there in five months, a measure of the pessimism in Bush's camp about winning California's 55 electoral votes.

Recent polls show Kerry holds a lead of about 11 percentage points, despite Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in last year's gubernatorial recall election. Schwarzenegger was introducing Laura Bush at Thursday night's fund raiser.

Kerry also campaigned in Southern California on Thursday, saying Bush's tax cuts failed to spur job creation.

Bush defended the tax cuts in his speech at a Las Vegas union hall, which the Bush campaign packed with hundreds of Republican supporters.

"All I ask is to be careful about all of this talk about taxing the rich," Bush said. "The so-called rich hire accountants and lawyers to maybe not pay as much. And therefore in order to meet all of these promises, guess who ends up getting stuck with the bill? The working people."

It was Bush's latest attempt to court a friendly labor union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Most labor unions lean strongly Democratic.