Trail Bytes
As the presidential race heads into the home stretch, CBS News reporters are out on the road traveling with the Bush-Cheney and Kerry-Edwards campaigns.
Read their dispatches and keep up with the latest campaign news in Trail Bytes, updated daily on CBSNews.com
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Another day, another two battleground states in which to campaign – and it's still only August.
In fact, this month alone, President Bush has campaigned in Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, New Hampshire, Virginia, Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington – three of them more than once.
And Mr. Bush has yet to be formally nominated..
Tuesday, he heads to Pennsylvania for a political visit to the Boeing helicopter plant in Ridley Park, a Philadelphia suburb. Mr. Bush will tour the facility and deliver a campaign speech to workers there.
Our CBS News tally shows that this will mark Mr. Bush' 32nd visit to Pennsylvania. That's more visits than to any other state but his home state of Texas and D.C. neighbors Virginia and Maryland. It certainly reflects the political importance he places on Pennsylvania, a state he lost four years ago but is aggressively trying to win in November.
This evening, Mr. Bush addresses another rally at a high school in West Virginia, a state he won in 2000 but not by enough to take for granted this year. So he's been trying to energize his grassroots operation there.
It will bring to six the number of visits Mr. Bush has made to West Virginia this year alone.
--Mark Knoller
SEN JOHN EDWARDS, D-N.C.
At his "Backyard Visit" to J.M. and Nancy Crighton's farm in Willard, Missouri, John Edwards spoke to 29 voters (and 6 children), and as many in the media, about his plan for the heartland. Wearing blue jeans and a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, the senator indirectly accused the Bush administration of neglecting rural America, saying, "The key to this is to have a president and a vice president who don't think of rural America as place you fly over between New York and California." In his Southern drawl, Edwards continued, "There is a danger way of losing our rural way of life in this country."
In the same breath, Edwards proposed revamping that "rural way of life," most commonly associated with farming and agriculture, so that more businesses and capital come to Small Town, U.S.A. To do this, Edwards claimed a Kerry/Edwards administration would create a "growth initiative" to get more venture capital for small business startups, keep them on the cutting edge of "innovation and technology in manufacturing," and develop broadband, high-speed Internet that extends into rural America.
From the farm to downtown Atlanta, Edwards held a rally for about 2,000 people on a sunny day inside Georgia's International Convention Center. The candidate stayed on message, not straying from his standard stump during the 24-minute speech. Rather, it was former Gov. Roy Barnes who gave a prediction that would become one of the more memorable lines of the day.
"I want to send a message right now that in November, John Kerry and John Edwards are going to take the state of Georgia," he said triumphantly to the exuberant crowd, whose state typically votes Republican in national elections. [Democrats do better on a statewide level: Barnes was the first incumbent Democratic governor to lose to a Republican since Reconstruction.]
Later that evening, Edwards spoke to a more sedate crowd donning not Kerry/Edwards T-shirts, but cocktail dresses and suits at a million-dollar fundraiser. The 300 who attended barely made a dent in the large hotel ballroom, but Edwards' trip director, Sam Meyers, transformed the event into an intimate gathering when he set up a makeshift stage in the center of the room. Edwards spoke to the crowd in a theater-in-the-round-type setting while the original stage in the front of the room went unused.
His speech varied little from the one given just hours before at the rally, save for a more conversational tone. But about 50 of the well-to-do, who paid a minimum $2,000 to get in, appeared to be more interested in the snacks and open bar than the senator's speech.
Supporter Mark Tate readily admitted he wasn't listening to the senator, but added, "I've known Sen. Edwards for a long time, since before he was a senator. I know what he has to say."
Audience member Susan Kahn, wife of Georgia's Democratic Party chairman, heard the chatter in the background, but claimed the noise didn't detract from Edwards' message, at least for her. "It was fine. I've got kids, so I'm used to it."
For others, it wasn't the ruckus in the back of the room that was distracting. Atlanta attorney and Democratic delegate Jenna Moore has heard Edwards' speech before – at the convention. When Edwards passed her on the rope line following the event, Moore claimed she advised the candidate, "You need to pick that microphone back up and tell these people why Georgia matters."
According to Moore, "He said I was the 50th person who said that."
On Tuesday, Edwards will attend campaign events in Arkansas and Alabama, where it is unknown if he will tailor his stump for these Southern states.
--Bonney Kapp
SEN. JOHN KERRY, D-MASS.
Thursday afternoon, Kerry and his traveling cabal played the waiting game at the airport in Long Beach, Calif., as the group spent over an hour frolicking on the tarmac, while his wife Teresa wrapped up a series of personal meetings.
Kerry spent most of the time tossing a baseball and, later, a football around with staffers and reporters.
Realizing he had more time to kill, he headed over to the hangar and chatted with several California Highway Patrol motorcycle cops, telling them he spoke with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday - on the phone - and ribbing them for riding BMW bikes instead of Harleys.
The cops replied that it was a contract issue and that the BMWs were the only motorcycles that had the kind of brakes stipulated in the contract.
Prior to Kerry's arrival at the airport, one of the VIPs who was standing by on the tarmac to greet him wound up breaking her leg as she stepped of the stairs to the jet.
Long Beach City Councilmember Bonnie Lowenthal was put in an ambulance and moved several hundred feet from the plane. When informed about Lowenthal's injury, Kerry ambled over to the ambulance in an effort to boost her spirits.
Spokesman David Wade, who always seems to be on message, explained the situation by playing off one of Kerry's slogans.
"When John Kerry arrived at the airport," said Wade, "help really was on the way."
--Steve Chaggaris
VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY
Vice President Cheney likes the "town hall" style campaign stops and enjoys the Q&A sessions. He's done three of them recently sitting by himself in the center of several hundred people. On Wednesday, though, he made it a family affair.
He was introduced by his daughter Liz Cheney Perry to the audience in Joplin, Missouri, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in this hotly contested state.
"On the way here on the plane I asked my Mom and Dad, 'You know, I'm going to be introducing you. Do you have any words of wisdom?" she opened. "They came up with this very loving parental advice: 'Liz, Missouri is so important, please don't screw this up.'"
The crowd laughed but soon erupted in cheers as the vice president and Lynne took the stage, grabbed the two mics and sat down. They let everyone know that they were both there to answer questions.
"This is really fun for us because, you know, it's kind of unpredictable, unexpected," she said.
Both of Cheney's daughters and his wife have taken active rolls in the campaign this election year. Lynne often introduces the vice president before rallies, treating the audience to cute stories about how the two met or their early dating life back in Wyoming forty years ago.
Cheney's daughter Mary is part of his staff and at times can be seen pacing just offstage as her father addresses supporters.
But it's his eldest daughter Liz that literally brings a little special something to this week's campaigning. Philip Richard Perry, the vice president's five-week-old grandson is participating in his first election. Liz carries him on and off Air Force Two in his infant car seat, and he was spotted offstage today, enjoying a bottle during his grandpa's speech.
It didn't matter that it was the vice president of the United States speaking: it was time for Philip's fill-up.
--Josh Gross