 |
|
The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
From the front porch into the fray
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry leaves the "front porch" today to address the second anti-Bush crowd in as many days (the American Federation of Teachers).
Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney campaigns in Michigan with one of his would-be ticket replacements, Sen. John McCain.
McCain "would be" Cheney's replacement, of course, if Bush was considering dumping his trusted and loyal veep, and if anyone believed McCain would consider serving as Bush's understudy. Both "ifs," we suspect, are very, very big.
The president does another battleground tour, speaking in Florida this morning and headlining an afternoon rally in West Virginia (his second trip to the state in two weeks). Kerry campaigned there yesterday, raising money and refusing to back down in the contest over values.
"I'm just plain tired, and I know you are tired, of listening to politicians who talk about values, I mean that kind of value talk comes cheap," Kerry said during a sunset rally in front of the state capitol. "Talk about values is not what makes values. It's choices. It's action. It's living particular choices that makes values. And if it is just words, it is just slogans and we are tired of slogans. American families need better than that."
Kerry later attended a fund-raiser that raised some $750,000, which CNN's Mike Roselli says is the largest sum ever raised in the state.
Kerry and the teachers
Back in Washington, Kerry speaks at 3 p.m. to the AFT, a 1.3 million-member teachers union that formally endorsed the senator on February 4, the day after he won a series of primaries that cemented his status as the Democratic frontrunner. He later speaks to a rally in Arlington before taking off for a weekend in Nantucket.
Responding to Kerry's speech on behalf of Bush-Cheney, Ohio Rep. John Boehner, the chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, will hold a conference call with reporters at 4:15 p.m. ET.
Kerry-Edwards yesterday launched their "Front Porch Tour," a planned four-month foray into neighborhoods across the country. The tour, which took Kerry to Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, on Thursday and John Edwards to New Orleans, is designed to allow them to speak to small groups in informal settings. It could be quaint, effective and highly successful. It could be stagey.
Also last night, Edwards attended an evening money haul in Houston, where he sat down for an interview with CNN's Kelly Wallace.
Asked if he regretted his vote on the Iraq resolution, Edwards said, "I believe the president should have been given the authority he was given. I believe it's a very good thing that Saddam is gone. ... I think at the time it was the right thing to do to give the president that authority. I think if we'd have given John Kerry that authority we'd be in a very different place because he would have built a coalition to be successful."
Pressed if he regretted the vote based on new information, Edwards never directly answered, acknowledging it's a "very natural question for reporters" to ask.
But he said, "I take responsibility, complete responsibility for my vote. Not anybody else ... this is John Edwards' vote, I fully accept responsibility for it, I took it very seriously, I still take it very seriously." On whether the war was a mistake, he said, "I don't think it's useful to talk in those terms."
On the impact of the campaign on his family, Edwards told Wallace, "This is kind of overwhelming for them." He notes that while son Jack loves cameras on him, daughter Emma Clair is "a little shyer."
