Bush Hears Fears of Steelworkers in 3-State Swing

As he completed a two-day campaign swing with stops in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia on Saturday, President Bush engaged in an apparently unplanned conversation with 10 steelworkers whom he invited aboard his tour bus.

Although details of the private give-and-take that occurred in Ohio on a stretch between Akron and Canton were sketchy, Bush apparently heard the workers speak of their personal anxieties about the economy that he regularly describes, as he did again Saturday, as strong and “getting stronger.”

Discussing the chat with the steelworkers, Nicolle Devenish, communications director for the Bush campaign, said, “The president listened to their concerns about a changing economy, job creation, and then he shared with them his thoughts about the best way to grow the economy.”

Bush’s efforts to reach out to those still worried about hard times even as he highlights economic progress underscores the tough balancing act he faces in his reelection bid.

As he takes credit for a recovering economy, Bush must avoid appearing out of touch with those residing in areas where hard times persist, such as in parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Democrats, meanwhile, continued their efforts to deflate Bush’s largely upbeat message. Sen. John F. Kerry’s presidential campaign issued a statement Saturday noting that Canton’s unemployment rate stands at 10.1%, nearly double the statewide rate.

As Bush’s quarter-mile-long motorcade wended its way through Dover, New Philadelphia and other picturesque Ohio towns, he was greeted by large and enthusiastic crowds that turned out throughout the overcast and often rainy day. In Cambridge, some 10,000 supporters waited hours in a park, putting up with a sporadically heavy rain, to hear the president.

Bush made a brief, unscheduled excursion into West Virginia, another battleground state, where he stopped at Cabela’s, an outfitters store, to do some shopping. He finished his day with a rally in Pittsburgh before returning to Washington.

Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards, also campaigned by bus Saturday in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. All three are among the 20 or so states the two parties view as the most competitive in the presidential campaign. At one point, the Kerry and Bush motorcades came within 30 miles of each other near Washington, Pa.

The workers who met with Bush on his bus are employees at Timken Co., a Fortune 500 company in Canton that makes alloy steel and bearings for such diverse things as computer disks and oil rigs.

The president visited Timken in April 2003 while campaigning for one of his across-the-board tax cuts. Standing before a red, white and blue banner reading “Jobs and Growth,” he had assured the workers that “the future of employment is bright for the families that work here.”

But this year, Timken laid off 1,300 workers, citing a 27% decline in production over five years. Its chairman, W.R. “Tim” Timken Jr., is a major Bush fundraiser, and the firm has become something of a political football in this campaign.

Kerry last month appeared at a town hall meeting with two Timken workers, who expressed fear of being laid off.

Canton is in Stark County, where Bush barely beat Democrat Al Gore four years ago, 48.9% to 47.1%. Bush carried Ohio by less than 4 percentage points, and Kerry’s hopes of winning it this year hinge in part on a strong showing in areas such as Stark County.

At a morning rally in Canton, Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) acknowledged as he introduced Bush to the crowd of about 5,000 that the state’s economy had not rebounded “as robustly as some other states.”

But he recited a litany of Bush accomplishments that he said demonstrated the president’s efforts to achieve a broader recovery, including the creation of a senior Commerce Department post designated as the administration’s “manufacturing czar.”

In his remarks, Bush emphasized the “well-timed tax relief” his administration pushed into law as he claimed credit for the rebounding economy.

“Because we acted, our economy since last summer has grown at a rate as fast as anytime in nearly 20 years,” Bush said. “Because we acted, America has added 1.5 million new jobs since last August.”

He added, however, that the economy “lags in places like eastern Ohio,” and then referred to his conversation with the Timken workers, who, he said, “told me they are nervous about their future.”

Bush aides said they would provide a detailed account of his conversation with the workers. But later they provided little more than a list of topics discussed during the 20-minute session.

The president also devoted his weekly Saturday radio address to the economy, citing such “hopeful” signs as a two-year high in consumer confidence in June.

He made no mention, either in the radio address or on the campaign trail, of the biggest-ever federal budget deficit that the Office of Management and Budget reported Friday, or a Commerce Department report the same day that said the pace of economic growth had slowed in the second quarter.

In his radio address, Bush reiterated his goal of reducing the deficit. He said that “because of my policy of strengthening the economy while enforcing spending discipline in Washington, we remain on pace to reduce the deficit by half in the next five years.”

Vice President Dick Cheney campaigned Saturday in the Southwest. He told a crowd in Tucson that the administration was “doing everything in our power to defend against a terrorist attack on our homeland.”

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Associated Press was used in compiling this report.