Bush, Cheney Kick Off Their Convention Tour in Arkansas

Kicking off a five-day march to the Republican convention, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on Friday were sprayed with confetti, greeted with pig calls (a compliment here) and grilled about their stand on unidentified flying objects.

The excursion, which ends in Philadelphia on Wednesday, will take Bush through six states crucial to success in the November election and highlight themes the Republicans plan to roll out during their quadrennial nominating party. But along with the lighter moments there was the serious business of crafting a message.

Day One, a mix of work and whimsy, began with a quick visit to a community center bankrolled by private money and proudly in business to “glorify God.” It also gave the first in-depth view of Bush and Cheney working out the roles they’ll play as the general election unfolds this fall.

Leading man Bush will raise America’s spirits. Fourteen seconds into his first speech, this self-proclaimed “compassionate conservative” uttered the word “compassionate” four times in a six-minute speech.

Cheney, the avuncular No. 2, obliquely reminded supporters why America’s spirits need raising in the first place. “We’re embarked on a great crusade to restore dignity and integrity to Washington,” he told 2,000 cheering supporters at a high school rally. It is Bush, he said, “who’s going to give our kids and our grandkids a government we can once again be proud of.”

Leading in Polls

The Texas governor, who leads rival Al Gore in most opinion polls, has a tough task ahead as he makes his way through Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania--building a sense of excitement and anticipation about the big event, which begins two days before he gets there himself.

“When you’re sitting on a lead . . . , the usual aphorism is you don’t change a winning strategy, and that’s too bad,” says Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. “How do you be safe and interesting at the same time?”

With a low-key, traditionally conservative running mate like Cheney at his side, Bush will be hard-pressed “to create excitement,” Cain said. “I don’t know what he can do to sustain the interest going into the convention. Which leads to the greater problem: The convention could be a great yawn.”

As he heads toward the Philadelphia event, Bush will campaign in about half of the dozen or so states likely to decide the outcome in the November election--states that President Clinton carried in the last two elections but where Bush is currently leading in opinion polls.

The tour had its pointed kickoff with events in Arkansas, and communications director Karen Hughes noted that “there is some symbolism to the fact that it is President Clinton’s home state.”

The last Republican presidential candidate to carry the six states on the agenda was Bush’s father in 1988. “We are saying that we are not ceding any territory,” Hughes said. “We’re going to fight for every vote.”

Bush himself made the same promise at a noon Springdale High School rally, where he was introduced by Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.), “who told us not to worry about the last two election cycles [because] something else is taking place in this state,” Bush said.

Bush and Cheney will carry Arkansas in November, Bush said, “because our agenda is so positive and hopeful.” The crowd cheered, the confetti cannons shot off their patriotic ammunition, and the campaign headed off to Joplin, Mo., for more of the same.

‘Captured the Momentum’

Republican pollster Whit Ayres contends that Bush “captured the momentum” in the race for the White House at the end of the primary season, “through reaching out on various policy initiatives, through demonstrating an appeal to independents and moderates.”

With the preconvention tour, Ayres said, he will be “focusing those things in states that matter. He’s got to continue to generate excitement, reach out to people in the middle, address the issues that Democrats traditionally have dealt with.”

Vice President Gore’s campaign renewed its attacks Friday against Cheney, holding the chief executive of the oil field services firm Halliburton Co. responsible for the high gas prices vexing motorists this year.

According to a Reuters report distributed by the campaign, Cheney told an energy conference in New Orleans in April 1999 that he was “optimistic” that oil producers would cut world supplies.

“Dick Cheney cashed in on the gouging of the American people, particularly in the Midwest, and that should be an issue in this election,” Gore spokeswoman Kym Spell said.

Scott McClellan, a spokesman for Bush and Cheney, said Gore was “trying to do everything he can to divert attention away from the fact that this administration has failed to adopt a national energy policy.”

As Gore vacations with his family in North Carolina, the Republican tour will decant the themes that the Philadelphia convention is supposed to showcase: education, a strong defense, compassion, inclusion.

Bush will address the convention via satellite from a school in Ohio on Monday (“leave no child behind” night) and from Gettysburg, Pa., on Tuesday night, which is dedicated to security issues. He will arrive in Philadelphia on Wednesday at a Latin American music festival and welcoming rally.

Preparing for the tour Thursday in Austin, Texas, Bush said the five days on the road will “be a lead-up to a convention that will be an uplifting convention” and described the first day as designed to introduce the two campaigning couples.

“I think people are really, if they watch, they’re going to say, ‘These are people that are thoughtful, dedicated Americans, who have got a positive outlook about what our country can do,’ ” Bush said.

If the early opinions hold, Bush could be right. At Springdale High, Sam Hofer, 74, said he thought Bush “had an excellent speech. Not new. He said it before. But he’s trying to get people to be responsible.”

Charles A. Huffer, 61, was another satisfied customer. As Bush toured the computer center at Harvey and Bernice Jones Center for Families, Huffer pulled the candidate aside.

“I told him that I thought he had a good chance to be president, and I asked him if he would be willing to finally tell the American people the truth about unidentified flying objects,” said Huffer, state section director of the Mutual UFO Network Inc.

“Dick Cheney has been the Defense secretary,” Huffer said, “so he already has the inside track on this.”

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Times staff writer Michael Finnegan contributed to this story.