Clinton-Gore Tour in Midwest Profits From Anti-Bush Fervor : Campaign: Cheers show the frustrations of many who support the barnstorming Democratic ticket because of a dislike for the rival incumbents.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — At their first glimpse of Democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the restive crowd outside the Quaker Oats plant Thursday erupted into a full-throated cheer: “No More Bush.”

The refrain--or some variation--resounds at nearly every stop along the bus journey through small towns in the Midwest, where the candidates are greeted by thousands of enthusiastic people. But, in a curious and reverse show of support, such spontaneous chants express the frustrations of many Americans who are attracted to the Democratic presidential ticket because they detest the incumbent Republicans.

One sign held aloft at a Wednesday evening rally of about 10,000 people near the Burlington, Iowa, McArthur Bridge read: “We’re not lazy. We’re not tired. We’re just Bushed.”

Before motoring here for the campaign rally on the Quaker Oats parking lot, Clinton and Gore served up their agricultural and economic policies during a question-and-answer rally at an aluminum manufacturing plant in Davenport, Iowa.

Praising the waste-recycling policies of their host, the Nichols-Homeshield aluminum casting plant, Clinton and Gore cited the plant as an example of job-producing firms that blend well with the environment. “What we have not done in America, in my view, is provide enough national direction to generate these kinds of high-wage, high-growth jobs in our country,” Clinton told the workers assembled in neat rows on the barn-like shop floor.

Clinton reminded them that he comes from a farm-dependent state and understands why agricultural policies are dear to many families who work on the seamless green fields of corn and soybeans blanketing this state, which has many Republican strongholds. He also said he would aggressively seek foreign markets for U.S. farm products, protect family farmers from unfair foreign producers and streamline government policies by creating a “one-stop shopping” program of federal subsidy programs.

“We need to take a stand for the family farmers that are out there, that are productive and can make a living,” Clinton said.

But even as Clinton and Gore were busy selling themselves in retail fashion across the Midwest, campaign staffers were hustling to crank out messages that countered Bush’s attacks on them.

From the Clinton-Gore headquarters in Little Rock, Ark., George Stephanopoulos, the campaign’s communications director, issued a five-page rebuttal to Bush’s attack on Clinton’s economic proposals. Responding to selected quotes from Bush’s address at a seminar on domestic policy in Colorado Springs, Colo., Stephanopoulos answered every charge the President leveled at Clinton and cited Bush for having “the worst economic record of any President since (Herbert) Hoover.”

The campaign’s purpose is to respond quickly to any charge from the White House, hoping to keep GOP attacks from hurting the Clinton-Gore ticket.

Judging by the turnout along the bus route, that strategy appears to be moving some voters.

Ernie Henning of Bettendorf, Iowa, said he voted for Bush in 1988 “because at the time I thought he was going to be the best man for the job.”

But in four years, his opinion has changed. “I’m just losing my confidence in the man,” he said as he stood on a folding lawn chair to catch sight of Clinton and Gore when they arrived at Jumers Castle Lodge in Bettendorf. “He just doesn’t seem to have the country motivated.”

Henning, who works at the John Deere plant in Davenport, added that he, like the nation, “is quite a bit disillusioned right now. People are unemployed. The cost of health care is all out of control.”

For others, however, the large turnout--the Bettendorf rally attracted Henning and about 3,000 others, who waited hours to see the Democrats--reflects the fact that only a few celebrities come to many of these places.

John Sheets, a software engineer in Cedar Rapids, scanned the chanting crowd at Quaker Oats before predicting that up to half were probably Republicans--like himself--who came to see celebrities. “Cedar Rapids doesn’t see a lot of big names,” he said. “It isn’t every day that someone famous, someone who’s on television, comes so near us.”

But there’s more than star gazing to the favorable reaction Clinton and Gore have generated at nearly every campaign stop along the way. Anti-Bush fervor is a key component driving crowds out of their homes and into the streets for an opportunity to wave at the Democratic ticket.

Interviews with many of those coming to see and hear Clinton and Gore reveal nearly as much disenchantment with the incumbents as excitement with the challengers.

“I really haven’t made my mind up yet,” said Sheets, one of the few in the T-shirt and blue-jeans crowd who was wearing a button-down shirt and a tie.

A self-described Republican, Sheets said disenchantment with Bush spurred him to attend the first Democratic political rally in his life. Moreover, he said, he’s considering voting for Clinton and Gore because “Bush doesn’t seem to care as much about domestic issues as he did four years ago. We’ve got three months to go. I’m listening to what (Clinton and Gore) have to say.”