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
It's probably the first time an American president has said the words "whiz with." But they passed the lips of President Bush during a campaign speech Tuesday at the Boeing factory in Ridley Park, Pa. It's where they make Chinook helicopters, among other things.
Mr. Bush noted it was his 32nd visit to Pennsylvania since taking office – a state he lost in 2000 but by just over 4 percent of the vote.
He told his audience: "A lot of people wonder why I'm coming so much. It ought to be obvious to you. I like my cheesesteak 'whiz with.'"
In neighboring Philadelphia, people order their cheesesteaks "whiz with." That means with cheese whiz and onions.
The comment might also have been a swipe at John Kerry, who recently ordered his cheesesteak with Swiss cheese not cheese whiz.
The president also used his speech at Boeing to make a rare reference to his anti-missile defense program.
Without referring to Kerry, Mr Bush said "those who oppose this ballistic missile systems really don't understand the threats of the 21st century." Sure sounded like he was talking about Kerry.
Mr. Bush went on to say, "We want to continue to perfect this system so we say to those tyrants who believe they can blackmail America and the free world, 'You fire, we're gonna shoot it down.'"
Boeing is one of the defense contractors on the missile defense program.
Wednesday, it's back on the campaign bus. Mr. Bush takes a re-election drive through Wisconsin and Minnesota, He lost both states in 2000and both my narrow margins: 2/10 of a percent in Wisconsin and 2.4 percent in Minnesota.
But the Bush campaign thinks both states are winnable for the president in November.
Mr. Bush ends the day at his Texas ranch where he'll stay for at least a week, and perhaps longer, in the run up to the Republican National Convention starting at month's end.
--Mark Knoller
SEN JOHN EDWARDS, D-N.C.
John Edwards dropped by Fort Smith, Ark., Tuesday for a town hall meeting; a stop that was scheduled in lieu of his planned visit to Ft. Meyers, Fla., which was postponed due to hurricane recovery efforts.
In front of some 200 workers at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith, the senator addressed the Kerry/Edwards plan to "end middle class squeeze," which was remarkably similar to Monday's unveiling of how to bring "hope to the heartland."
"What we need to do is create jobs and bring jobs to the places where they've been lost and hang onto the jobs that we've got," Edwards declared. To do this, the candidate said a Kerry administration would enforce a trade policy that "works for American workers," end tax loopholes that benefit companies that send jobs overseas, provide venture capital and incentives for small businesses, and end dependency on Middle East oil. Edwards also stressed the need to reduce healthcare, childcare, and tuition costs while minimizing the gap between wages and costs.
"The people at the top are doing very, very well and everybody else is struggling and having a hard time getting by," Edwards noted, adding "This is actually the result and the intended result of the policies that we've seen for the last 3½ years from this administration."
Harkening back to the 1980s, Edwards referred to the Bush tax cuts as a form of "trickle down" economics. "This is rerun for most of us. We've seen this before-didn't work before, it's not working now," he said.
Edwards then flew to Birmingham for a fundraiser at the swanky, downtown Summit Club, a private business club. In his visit, the candidate delivered his standard speech to wealthy Democrats, but didn't rally Alabama's "everybody else's" he referred to earlier in the day. With a little help from local Congressman Arthur Davis, however, the campaign managed a virtual event.
In his introduction, Davis described Edwards' motorcade zipping through a poor Birmingham neighborhood as schoolchildren were walking home. "If John Edwards could have gotten out of his car and looked in the eyes of those children, he would have seen so much innocence and so much hope. And if he could have talked to those families and asked them their dreams, they would have told them that they have dreams for their children and they have dreams for this country of ours."
After a New Orleans fundraiser Wednesday, Edwards will wrap up his six-day, nine-state campaign swing and head to Washington for two down days. A welcome relief for the press but not a necessity for the candidate himself. When Arkansan Ruth Wilson asked how Edwards keeps his "young look with that schedule you've got going?" Edwards replied, "You know, that's the easiest question I've had. I'm havin' fun. That's the truth, I'm havin' fun."
--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. Last week, 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