Bush on Eight State Campaign Swing

President Bush rallied supporters up and down this swing state today as he emerged from a weeklong working vacation at his Texas ranch and began a campaign sprint to eight states that will take him to New York by Wednesday.

Accompanied by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Bush delivered his reelection stump speech three times, in Las Cruces, Farmington and then here, before heading back to the White House.

At none of the stops did the president mention the Census Bureau report that found that the ranks of poverty rose last year by 1.3 million Americans and the number of people without health insurance rose by 1.4 million people.

At one point, though, he did acknowledge that “we have more to do to move America forward. We have more to do to create jobs … improve our schools … fight terror … protect the homeland … spread freedom and peace.”

Later, Bush also included improving public education, enacting tort reform and expanding medical insurance as his priorities for a second term.

“There’s much more to do,” he said. “We have more to do to make this economy stronger.”

For the most part, Bush touted his credentials as a war commander and claimed that his “well-timed” tax cuts helped overcome the economic dislocations caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the corporate scandals that shook consumer confidence.

The president also portrayed Kerry as a tax-and-spender who would raise taxes on all Americans.

Referring to Kerry’s call for repealing the tax cuts on the wealthiest 2% of Americans, Bush predicted in Farmington that the middle class would end up paying more.

“He said he was going to tax the rich. The rich dodge and you pay,” Bush told thousands of supporters during an outdoor rally at Ricketts Field. “But we’re not going to let him. We’re going to beat him come November.”

A spokesman for Kerry’s campaign, Phil Singer, criticized Bush for ignoring the plight of working Americans.

“Listening to George Bush’s stump speech is right up there with hearing his campaign trying to mislead America into thinking that it has nothing to do with the discredited, false smear campaign being mounted against John Kerry,” Singer said, referring to attacks on Kerry’s record as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam.

“The new census numbers out today contradict almost everything George Bush touted on the campaign trail today. If this is him road-testing material for the convention, he should go back to the ranch and start over.”