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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Home sweet home
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
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|  VIDEO |
 John Kerry's Vietnam service divides veterans.
 Senate turf war over huge intelligence budget.
 What do polls really say about the election?
 McGreevey donor enters a plea agreement.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush and John Kerry wake up in their own beds today, in Crawford and on Beacon Hill.
Bush is down on the ranch with Karen Hughes, who says she "took the training wheels off" and is now back on the trail full-time.
Kerry speaks to firefighters in Boston this morning and front-porch dwellers in New Hampshire this afternoon, about rising health care costs and unemployment.
Linking two of the nation's most pressing problems in a speech before one of his most loyal group of supporters, Kerry will discuss a new report that says the high cost of health care is a key factor driving the weak job market. (Kerry blasts Bush on health costs, jobs)
The report's authors, Laura Tyson of the London Business School and Sarah Reber of UCLA, will hold an 11 a.m. ET conference call.
"America can't afford four more years of a [Bush administration] plan that hasn't saved us a single dime or created a single job," Kerry will tell the International Association of Fire Fighters this morning in Boston.
"We need a president who understands that our businesses can't thrive when they are saddled with soaring health care costs and neither can our economy."
Camp Kerry releases its study on the same day The New York Times tells us that many businesses remain reluctant to hire full-time employees because health insurance, which now costs the nation's employers an average of $3,000 a year for each worker, has become one of the fastest-growing costs for companies.
Kerry then heads to Derry, New Hampshire, for a front porch visit, pushing the same message. In New Hampshire, however, Kerry has found an unlikely backdrop for his claims. The Granite State has one of the nation's lowest unemployment rates and one of its highest rates of health insurance coverage.
Bush-Cheney says the president has a plan to cut health care costs, focused on capping medical malpractice claims, but that Kerry and Edwards, among others, are blocking such efforts.
"Kerry's baseless political attacks may win over the leadership of the IAFF, but rank-and-file first responders are going to support President Bush in November," Bush-Cheney spokesman Steve Schmidt said in a campaign memo.
Ohio on their minds
They may be waking up at home in Texas and Massachusetts this morning, but Bush and Kerry have made themselves at home this week in Ohio.
For proof of this, we look no further than the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati. Bush toured the museum Monday; Secretary of State Colin Powell was there Tuesday. Even as Kerry toured it yesterday, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and GOP Congressman Rob Portman were spotted in the gift shop.
Speaking of Ohio, a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll out last night shows Kerry widening his lead among registered Ohio voters to 10 percentage points (52 to 42 percent).
But -- and this is a pretty big "but" -- Kerry and Bush are virtually tied (48 to 46 percent) among the most likely voters. If Ralph Nader's on the ballot, among most likely voters, it's another virtual tie with Kerry over Bush (47 to 45 percent) with Nader at 4 percent. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Another notable number: The poll shows that Ohioans are more pessimistic than national voters overall about the economy. Twenty-five percent of Ohioans say it's a good time to find a job, compared with 34 percent nationally.
On the Nader/Ohio front, his supporters submitted more than 14,000 signatures to the secretary of state in Ohio last night. Some 5,000 valid signatures are needed.
Ohio Dems are asking for copies of the petitions to review. State officials say word of whether Nader has enough valid signatures will come by the end of August.
In Missouri late yesterday, Secretary of State Matt Blunt, the GOP gubernatorial nominee, ruled that Nader failed to make the state ballot.
Blunt said Nader fell 994 valid signatures short of the 10,000 that were required. Nader submitted 12,893, but a number of those were ruled invalid.
Also today, RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie and deputy Bush-Cheney campaign manager Mark Wallace will hold a 10:30 a.m. ET conference call to unveil their convention's keynote speaker and "daily themes."
The New York Times reports that Republicrat Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia will introduce Bush. Miller, of course, spoke 12 years ago from the same podium at the Democratic convention in Madison Square Garden, where he launched a fiery attack against George "41" Bush.
Campaign nuggets
The Washington Post reports that newly released military records appear to contradict claims by one of Kerry's chief critics in the Swift Boat controversy.
The Post says the records show Larry Thurlow won a Bronze Star, like Kerry, for the same incident, and that Thurlow's citation said he came under "constant small-arms fire."
Thurlow had claimed in an affidavit last month that Kerry was not under fire when he rescued James Rassman. He had described Kerry's citation as "totally fabricated. ... I never heard a shot."
Camp Kerry confirms that they're working on a trip to Florida to see damage from Hurricane Charley, perhaps as early as tomorrow. The visit comes at the invitation of Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
Traveling in Wisconsin with Bush yesterday, Karen Hughes told reporters, "I took the training wheels off today," and is officially back on the campaign payroll.
She said she'll be traveling with the president for the rest of the campaign, as she has done in every Bush campaign going back to the 1994 Texas governor's race.
In a move that makes sense right before the primary, but could be political suicide in, say, October, Betty Castor, the front-runner for the Democratic Senate nod in Florida, will appear with Howard Dean and Janet Reno at a midday rally on Monday in West Palm Beach.
