THE LONG GOODBYE
President Bush provided a morale boost Thursday to nearly 300 fatigues-clad National Guard members and reservists headed to Iraq when he climbed aboard their jet while it was being refueled in Bangor, Maine.
“That’s my president, hooah!” shouted Sgt. Wanda Dabbs, 22, of the 230th Area Support Group, a Guard unit from Tennessee.
Delaying the departure of Air Force One back to Washington so that he could greet the troops, Bush walked up and down the aisles, posing for pictures, offering smiles and words of thanks.
“I appreciate being president to such fine men and women,” Bush said aboard the hot and crowded plane. “May God bless you all. May God keep you safe.”
The jet was headed to Germany and then to Kuwait, with the troops expected to serve 18 to 24 months of duty in Iraq. All of the soldiers had been given absentee ballots before their departure; many still had them.
“It ain’t every day you land somewhere and the president gets on your plane,” said Sgt. 1st Class Bobby Dailey, a Federal Express worker from the West Virginia-based 150th Armored Cavalry National Guard unit.
Asked if he was a Bush supporter, Dailey said, “We’re commander-in-chief supporters.”
–Rick Pearson
BREAKING THE BUNKER MENTALITY
The man who created Archie Bunker was in Chicago on Thursday, traveling with his own $8 million copy of the Declaration of Independence and pushing the importance of getting America’s youth to vote.
Television producer Norman Lear and a partner purchased a 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence in June 2000, after an amateur collector found the document in 1989 hidden behind a torn painting that he had purchased for $4 at a Pennsylvania flea market because he liked the frame.
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Lear, a major Democratic contributor who produced such shows as “All in the Family” and “Maude,” has formed a group called Declare Yourself, a non-partisan effort that uses the document to encourage voter registration among people ages 18 to 29.
“You get young people to do something, and the rest will follow,” Lear said.
–John McCormick
RERUN IN FLORIDA?
Yes, a poll finally confirmed, the presidential race in Florida once again is shaping up to be a nail biter.
As three hurricanes pummeled the state over the last month, it had become impossible to gauge the electorate’s mood. Telephone service was spotty, and pollsters knew better than to interrupt with political calls.
But the first post-hurricane poll released Thursday evening showed President Bush is leading Sen. John Kerry by 49 percent to 46 percent. When the margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points is factored in for the survey taken Sept. 18 to 22, the contest is even.
The snapshot of the race, courtesy of the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, was seen as good news by Democrats who have become accustomed in the past week to seeing Bush pull ahead in several battleground-state surveys.
–Jeff Zeleny
KOIZUMI AND ELVIS
So what exactly do two world leaders do when they get together for a session of the UN General Assembly? They may be talking about things that no one expects them to talk about.
At least that’s the impression President Bush left with a supportive crowd at a campaign rally at the airport in Bangor, Maine.
As he has done in the past, Bush recounted in his stump speech his relationship with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to demonstrate how countries that once were enemies can become friends. But this time he added some sugar-free details about his meeting with Koizumi earlier this week.
“A couple of days ago in New York, I was having a Diet Coke with my friend, Prime Minister Koizumi,” Bush said. “I said, `You know, I’ve been talking about you on the campaign trail.’ He said, `Fine.’ I said, `Do you mind if I tell people your favorite singer was Elvis?’ He said, `OK.'”
–Rick Pearson