Bush's Campaign Visit to Toledo

(Well, Maumee, actually.) It's an unusual stop, btw, since Toledo has traditionally been Democrat territory. But apparently the local Republican Party has been making strides -- and good for them. So Bush began the day there with a pancake breakfast, following hard on the heels of a house party teleconference with Vice President Cheney the previous week. Kerry was in town on Wednesday of that week, too. Yep, this is going to be interesting.

Anyway, as you'd expect in an industrial town like Toledo, the president focused on the war on terror and jobs. (Well, actually, you'd expect that almost anywhere in the US, come to think of it.) Bush also made a Lileks-like reference to the Seevers, local homeowners who were using their tax cut savings to redo their basement.

"Jeff and Katie can spend their money better than the Congress, in our opinion. It's the cornerstone of our economic policy to trust them with their own money. They said they're going to build a new playroom in their house. That's good for the economy. In other words, they have made a different decision than they would have had they not gotten the tax relief. Somebody has got to build the playroom -- unless old Jeff decides to do it himself. But when he hires somebody to build the playroom, somebody has got to buy the materials. When somebody buys the materials, somebody has got to manufacture the materials. In other words, when he makes a decision it begins to ripple throughout the economy."

The president also had a movie rec:

"....First of all, see the movie, Osama. It's an interesting portrayal and it's a sad portrayal of what life was like for a young girl in Afghanistan under the Taliban. This child, of course, never had a chance to go to school, never had a chance to realize her potential, was literally enslaved by the barbaric behavior and attitude and ideology of these backward people. Not only did we uphold a doctrine, not only did we make America more safe and secure, this great, generous, compassionate country liberated -- liberated -- people from the clutches of tyranny and slavery. And I am proud of our nation for doing so."

Early on, a Hispanic woman called out "Viva Bush!" to which Bush replied, "Vamos a ganar! That means, 'We're going to win!'"

Here's a transcript of the Maumee pancake breakfast remarks.

Kudos to the Blade for its full and fair reporting, btw. It's an unashamedly Democratic paper, yet its reporters wrote paragraphs like this:

Mr. Bush's speech blended a recap of his first term in office with a look to the future, and included the firmness and folksy sense of humor that endears him to many of his backers.

Here's some of the jokes:

"I, one time, said to a crowd -- and my mother was in the audience -- I said, Dick Cheney is the finest Vice President the country has ever had. Mother yelled out, 'Wait a minute, buster!'"

"I appreciate everybody bringing their families... Go ahead and use me as a convenient excuse to skip school. Just tell them the President said, give you an "A"."

"I'm running against an experienced United States Senator. He's been there a long time. He's been there so long, he's just about on both sides of every issue."

The audience also got into the act. When Bush spoke about Kerry's plans to tax the rich ("And guess who 'the rich' is? It's you. Because there's not enough money when it comes to taxing the rich to pay for all these promises."), an audience member yelled about Kerry, "Is he going to tax his wife?" The audience laughed, but Bush told the man to "Behave yourself."

There was also the typical Toledo crowd of protestors and supporters along Maumee's main drag, according to the Toledo Blade. But even the occasional nasty Toledo union folks are nothing compared to the sort of moonbat thugs that show up at rallies outside the "flyover states". The two parties mostly stayed on opposite corners, it seems. Heck, you could even bring the kids to see the show:

With a paper sign unfurled behind them, a dozen children stood with flags on a driveway on Dussel Drive waiting for President Bush to speed by.

The youngsters, ages 1 to 7, walked from their nearby day-care centers, carrying a sign that read, "We love the U.S.A." and they jumped with excitement as President Bush waved through his darkened limo window.

Bush then went back to Toledo Express Airport (the little one -- used by both parties' candidates when I was in school), flew down to Dayton, and made a speech at Hara Arena (the Trotwood speech referred to below). But I'll save that for the next recap post.