Kerry to follow today’s visit to LV by Bush

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2004 | 11:13 a.m.

In a week of campaign visits to Nevada, President Bush was scheduled to make a campaign stop in Las Vegas today to speak with National Guard soldiers.

Bush's visit will be followed by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, who will also speak at the National Guard Association Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center after he arrives Thursday.

Vice President Dick Cheney was expected to make a speech in Reno on Thursday, and Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, delivered a 25-minute speech to about 4,000 at the University of Nevada, Reno Monday.

Their visits are just the latest in a string of high-profile campaign events in the state.

Nevada has been named a battleground state -- one of 20 states considered a tossup -- and the campaigns are spending a significant amount of time and energy in the state.

Campaign officials say more visits and events will be planned in Nevada.

On Monday, Edwards criticized the Bush administration's economic and foreign policies and repeated a pledge that Nevada Democrats believe will help the Kerry-Bush ticket carry the state that Bush won in 2000 after Bill Clinton claimed it twice before.

"When John Kerry is president, there will be no nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain," Edwards said to loud applause.

Edwards said President Bush should apologize for Cheney's comments suggesting a Kerry-Edwards administration would leave the country vulnerable to new terrorist attacks.

"The vice president actually said if you don't vote for Dick Cheney and George Bush, if there's another terrorist attack, basically it is your fault," Edwards said from an outdoor stage at UNR.

"This statement was intended to divide us. It was calculated to divide us. And to divide us on an issue of safety and security for the American people -- here's the truth -- it is un-American," he said.

"The president of the United States should be willing to say it's wrong."

The Associated Press reported that before Edwards' speech, police stepped between about 30 Bush-Cheney backers and a dozen Kerry-Edwards supporters who waved signs, chanted and shouted back and forth at each other at a protest organized by the National College Republicans on the edge of the quad .

Gregory Green, 24, a UNR student, wore a large yellow flip-flop sandal around his neck to ridicule what he said was Kerry's frequent change of positions on important issues.

"I don't know how people can know what policies Kerry stands for because he's changed his position so many times on so many issues, like war," said Green, who said he served five years in the Air Force in Iraq.

On Monday the Army's first female three-star general, retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, stopped in Las Vegas to campaign for Kerry and talk about Bush's military record.

"John Kerry decided to come speak to the National Guard in Las Vegas, and Bush then said, 'It sounds like a good idea to me too,' and now he's coming as well," Kennedy said at a rally at a downtown chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "We're going to hear a lot about how President Bush will claim success in Iraq, but more than 1,000 soldiers losing their lives is not a success."

The National Guard Association represents about 45,000 current and former Guard officers, and the group's convention runs through Thursday, when Kerry is scheduled to speak.

Jon Summers, spokesman for the Democratic Party in Nevada said protesters would be in front of the convention center by 11:30 a.m. today for Bush's arrival in Las Vegas.

Also today the Democratic National Committee was scheduled to begin airing television ads in Nevada questioning the Bush administration's commitment to National Guard soldiers.

The ads feature narration stating that National Guard members have answered the call to serve the nation, but Republicans in Washington have let the soldiers down.

The ad states that the Bush administration has been "sending troops into battle without protective equipment," enacting involuntary extensions of duty, and "even pushing a veto on health care benefits for National Guard families."

Also scheduled to speak at the National Guard Association Conference are Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and various military officials.