Oregon Reflects Divisions in U.S.

Mai-Lill Magi, like many, has been shocked by the graphic scenes of Iraqi prisoners tormented by U.S. soldiers. She thinks President Bush was right to apologize. “He’s the commander in chief. It was his decision to send those troops to that country,” she said. “He’s ultimately responsible for what happened.”

Ken Webber expressed horror as well. But apologize? “Apologize for what?” Webber asked. “He’s not responsible for something he had no control over.”

The brutal treatment of Iraqi captives has drawn condemnation around the world, a revulsion widely shared in America. But here at home, the disgust is tinged with obviously partisan sentiments, suggesting that nothing is black and white in a country split between red state and blue.

Magi, a 49-year-old schoolteacher and Democrat, said the scandal shows the depredation of war -- any war. “Whether it’s Americans or Russians or Japanese or Chinese. That’s what warfare does to people,” she said.

Webber, a 54-year-old title company manager and Republican, said invading Iraq and ousting dictator Saddam Hussein was fully justified, and the mistreatment of captives does nothing to change that fact. The abuse “could have happened in any prison situation,” he said.

Indeed, out of nearly three dozen people interviewed at random in the lush green suburbs surrounding Portland, not one said that revelations about the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners had changed their views of the war, Bush or Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry, for that matter.

A few blamed the media for making things worse, saying newspapers and TV stations were only stirring up trouble by showing the same disturbing images over and over.

“I wish the news media would have spent as much time on our four people that were killed, burnt and dragged through the gutter,” said L.J. Perry, 73, a retired sales and research director for a healthcare laboratory, referring to the mob killing of four American contract workers in March in Fallouja.

Priscilla Walker said she understands war is an ugly thing and needed no reminding. “I don’t want to see it in the paper or on the TV all the time,” the 48-year-old bookkeeper said.

Officials in both major parties are closely watching the political dynamic surrounding the growing scandal, particularly its effect on attitudes in key states such as Oregon, one of the battlegrounds both sides are targeting in the presidential race.

An ABC News-Washington Post poll released Friday showed that a little more than half of the Americans surveyed nationwide were upset about the prison scandal and that people were evenly split on whether the Bush administration acted quickly enough in investigating the reports and on whether the administration was trying to investigate the abuse reports or was trying to cover them up.

Oregon seems as divided as the rest of the country. Democrat Al Gore squeaked by in a closer-than-expected win here four years ago. The former vice president picked up Oregon’s seven electoral votes after beating Bush by less than 1% of the more than 1.5 million votes cast in 2000. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader received 5% of the vote, with more than 77,000 votes, one of his best showings in the country.

Analysts expect the presidential race in Oregon to be close again this time, though many give an edge to Kerry, a Massachusetts senator and the presumptive Democratic nominee, after the economic hardship of the last several years.

The bursting of the high-tech bubble and decline of the timber and fishing industries, all mainstays of the state’s economy, resulted in Oregon claiming the nation’s highest unemployment rate for several months running.

Even amid signs of a recovery, many of those interviewed over two days last week said they were still struggling.

Michael Fall, 26, said he has unsuccessfully sought a new job for the last year. He finally quit his position with a security company in Milwaukie, a suburb just south of Portland, to prepare for a move to Seattle, where he hopes prospects will be brighter.

Fall said he knew little about Kerry, except that he seems “a little moderate for my taste.” But at least Kerry isn’t Bush, he said, and that’s reason enough for Fall’s vote.

The presidential election is still a good 5 1/2 months away. Even so, there seem to be relatively few undecided voters.

“The great bulk of the Oregon electorate, probably at least 90%, is fairly strongly committed one way or another,” said Bill Lunch, who teaches political science at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

A statewide poll last week in the Portland Tribune showed the race statistically tied, with Kerry at 48% and Bush at 46%. Nader, who is running again, has failed so far to qualify for the November ballot as an independent candidate.

The contest in Oregon is likely to be settled here in the suburbs. Portland, the state’s largest and most diverse city, is solidly Democratic, as are the university towns of Eugene and Corvallis. The rest of the state, which is to say rural Oregon, is strongly Republican.

That leaves the two major parties vying for swing voters in the areas around Portland, such as Washington County, which encompasses Beaverton to the west, and Milwaukie, to the south. Both were closely fought in 2000.

Beaverton is the hub of Washington County. The former farmland is covered with shopping centers that brim with national retailers and the upscale customers they seek.

Milwaukie, across the Willamette River in Clackamas County, is more working class. Its worn downtown is only a few square blocks, and the mostly local merchants draw a comparative trickle of customers.

For all those outward differences, though, most voters interviewed on both sides of the Willamette River seemed to view the presidential campaign much like the waterway itself: It is out there, plain to see, but steadily passing each day with little effect on their daily lives.

The Iraqi prison scandal has the power to upset and outrage -- many literally cringed when the subject came up -- but it didn’t appear to shake anyone’s fundamental beliefs. “It was an unfortunate incident,” Jim Petersen, a 59-year-old contractor and Bush backer, said between errands on a cool, cloudy day. “But every basket of apples has an apple with a worm in it somewhere.”

Other parts of the campaign seemed even less relevant, particularly the recent focus on the candidates’ actions during the Vietnam War.

Republicans have questioned whether Kerry deserved the first of three Purple Hearts he was awarded for his service in Vietnam, and have challenged his conduct as an antiwar protester upon his return to the U.S. Kerry, in turn, has questioned whether Bush completed his National Guard service during the war, and accused Vice President Dick Cheney, who was granted several deferments, of ducking military service altogether.

Like so much else in this divided country, the debate seems to have done little more than reinforce existing attitudes.

For Pat Wolfe, a Bush backer, Kerry’s actions prove his inconsistency.

“He’s using that [background] as this loyal veteran who ‘risked my life, was injured, got decorated,’ ” said Wolfe, 52, who keeps the books for a Beaverton car dealership. “And yet somewhere between getting the medals and now, he’s also spent time on the other side of the fence being negative toward that whole process.”

For Erik Nielsen, the gaps in Bush’s record with the Texas Air National Guard reflect a pattern of his presidency. “Like almost everything else that he’s pressed about, he’s evasive and comes up with only part answers,” said Nielsen, a 76-year-old retired paper company executive, who called Bush “the worst president we’ve ever had.”

For most voters interviewed last week, however, the political fight over a war that ended three decades ago -- and what Bush and Kerry did, or didn’t do -- is pointless and distracting.

Janis Collins, a 53-year-old communications consultant in Beaverton, said she worries about the Oregon economy and would like to hear more discussion by the candidates about “big issues,” like the outsourcing of U.S. jobs. “We need to look at things supporting the middle class in this country,” she said.

In Milwaukie, Steve Sweaney echoed that sentiment.

Pausing between breakfast and lunch, his arms folded across his chest, the cook at Scully’s Cafe said the candidates should talk more about the environment, and how they plan to fix the mess in Iraq.

His brother was in Vietnam, Sweaney said, as a crew chief on a Huey helicopter.

“He didn’t like that war, either,” Sweaney said. But what’s past is past, he said. “I just don’t think that stuff is relevant any more.”