Candidates Use Their Muscle, Hone Messages in Final Days

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger harnessed his star power to President Bush’s reelection campaign Friday, telling a roaring crowd in this must-win battleground state, “I’m here to pump you up to reelect President George W. Bush.”

In a lengthy introduction, the governor praised Bush for his strength and determination in fighting terrorism and helping the nation recover from the Sept. 11 attacks. He made no reference to the issues on which the two men differ, such as whether to ban gay marriage.

“If you flex your muscle on Nov. 2, I guarantee you that President George W. Bush will be back,” Schwarzenegger said, echoing a trademark line from his “Terminator” films.

Bush, who is normally impatient at long introductions, appeared not at all to mind the praise. Schwarzenegger’s rousing words seemed a high point for the president and his campaign, coming after a difficult day and difficult week.

“You lifted our spirits,” Bush told the crowd and the governor when he took the lectern. “Four days to go, and we’re counting on your help.”

After days of controversy over missing munitions in Iraq, a Friday morning rally in Manchester, N.H., was dampened by Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s last-minute decision to cancel his scheduled appearance with the president. And the afternoon was shadowed by the release of a new videotaped statement from Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Bush campaign aides clearly hoped that Schwarzenegger’s visit would help compensate for the more than 35,000-strong crowd drawn by rock star Bruce Springsteen in Columbus a day earlier to support Sen. John F. Kerry.

Bush and Schwarzenegger filled the Nationwide Arena to the rafters. It holds 20,000.

“Gov. Schwarzenegger is a star in the party. He’s a great voice that I think will appeal to independents and discerning Democrats,” said White House communications director Dan Bartlett.

Ohio is one of three states -- along with Florida and Pennsylvania -- that many analysts believe may tip the election result to one or the other candidate. Recent polls have shown Kerry with a narrow lead in the economically hard-pressed state, although Bartlett said internal campaign polls showed Bush in the lead.

The campaign calculus has moved the president to pour attention on two other Midwestern swing states -- Wisconsin and Iowa. With 17 electoral votes between them, winning the two would go a long way toward compensating if Bush loses Ohio’s 20 electoral votes. Bush is scheduled to visit Wisconsin today, and both states Monday during a final blitz.

On Friday morning, Schilling begged out of the Manchester rally at the last minute, saying his doctors had advised him not to travel because of his injured ankle.

Schilling, who had expressed his support for Bush on national television, issued an e-mail apology to fans.

“While I am a Bush supporter and I did vote for him with an absentee ballot, speaking as I did the other day was wrong,” he wrote. “While I hope to see him reelected, it’s not my place, nor the time for me to offer up my political opinions unsolicited.”

Bartlett asserted that Schilling’s withdrawal only generated more media coverage that underlined the popular ballplayer’s support for the president.

At the event in New Hampshire, Bush sought to turn the campaign’s focus back to the Sept. 11 attacks, appearing with several relatives of victims of the terrorist strikes and highlighting their sacrifices. But the event was interrupted twice by demonstrators, and by the premature release of fireworks and confetti -- accompanied by a series of explosive pop sounds -- that startled many inside the sports arena, including Bush himself.

In a rare departure, Bush did not mention his opponent, and he devoted only a small segment of his speech to the economy, citing economic indicators while asserting that his across-the-board tax cuts were working.

“Today our economy is strong, and it is getting stronger,” he said.

As Bush introduced relatives of Sept. 11 victims and lauded the heroic deeds of their loved ones, he segued to his own actions in the aftermath of the attacks, which political strategists believe remain his strongest suit in his reelection bid.

“On the day of that tragedy, I made a decision,” Bush said. “America will no longer respond to terrorist murder with half-measures and empty threats. We will no longer look away from gathering dangers and simply hope for the best. We’re pursuing a comprehensive strategy to fight the terrorist enemy and defend America. We will not relent, and we will prevail.”

In Columbus, Schwarzenegger’s appearance was somewhat reluctant on the governor’s part and painstakingly negotiated with the Bush campaign.

Preoccupied with the upcoming election in California, Schwarzenegger had given Bush what amounted to a take-it-or-leave-it offer: He would make just one out-of-state campaign stop for the president. The day would be the Friday before the election, and the place would be Columbus.

Devoting more time to Bush’s campaign posed risks for the governor. For one, he has taken positions on 15 of the 16 statewide initiatives on Tuesday’s ballot and is campaigning for several GOP Assembly candidates. Having invested his popularity in so many California campaigns, the governor now has a heavy stake in the outcome.

Schwarzenegger is keenly aware of the political realities in California, none of which favor Bush. The president, he conceded with a rueful laugh earlier this week, is certain to lose the state.

Moreover, aggressive campaigning on Bush’s behalf might offend Democratic and independent voters whose backing the governor seeks. And the two have openly disagreed over a number of policy issues, most notably the debate over stem cell research, which the governor supports.

But for the Bush campaign, Arnold is a gift -- a tough-guy celebrity of unvarnished charisma who is popular with white working-class swing voters.

In a radio interview this week, Schwarzenegger said, “I was sent to Sacramento to work for the people of California. But I will go to Ohio and campaign for President Bush and do this one stop, because I am a Republican and I want to support my Republican president.”

As a location, Columbus made sense for both the president and the governor. Not only is Ohio important to Bush’s election strategy, it’s a city where Schwarzenegger has long-standing business ties. He owns a shopping mall in a Columbus suburb, and each year he is the host of a massive fitness convention in downtown Columbus dubbed “The Arnold.”

“Obviously, Ohio is an important swing state,” explained Rob Stutzman, the governor’s communications director. “As the governor said, it’s also what he considers his second home.”

It was not Schwarzenegger’s first campaign foray into the state. In 1988, Schwarzenegger campaigned here with the president’s father, George H.W. Bush. That event was also held on the Friday before election day.

Jim Lorimer, Schwarzenegger’s business partner in the Columbus fitness convention, said the younger Bush had not been able to develop the same close relationship with the governor.

“There’s been different agendas, you know, but Arnold’s friendship with the first president continues strong and close,” Lorimer said. “The same interchange has not taken place with the second president. And that doesn’t mean anything other than that the same opportunities have just not been there.”

Vice President Dick Cheney, campaigning in Wisconsin and Michigan, expressed optimism that the reelection campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort would be key to defeating Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that come Nov. 2, George Bush is going to be president for four more years,” Cheney told about 200 volunteers at a phone bank in Eau Claire, Wis.

In Dimondale, Mich., Cheney was interrupted three times by protesters -- a rare occurrence. One shouted “stop killing ... “ before she was drowned out by chants of “Four more years” by the crowd of about 1,000 at a sports complex. She and the others were escorted out of the hall.

Times staff writer Edwin Chen in Columbus and James Gerstenzang in Dimondale, Mich., contributed to this report.