Bush woos early birds

2004-11-01 15:16

Wilmington - With a baseball hero at his side, President George W Bush opened his final 19-hour, six-state campaign blitz on Monday with a pre-dawn rally in Ohio, urging voters: "Come stand with me!"

If you believe that America should fight the war on terror with all our might and lead with unwavering confidence in our ideals, I ask you to come stand with me," Bush, flanked by World Series champion Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, told supporters crowded into a freezing airport hangar here.

Final sprints are common to US elections, but they may be especially important this year, which finds Bush and his Democratic rival, John Kerry, locked in a race that is too close to call.

"It's a final chance to get your message out in the battleground states," Bush's senior political strategist, Karl Rove, said on Sunday as the president rallied tens of thousands of cheering supporters in Cincinnati, Ohio.

After his stops in the state, without which no modern Republican has won the White House, Bush was to race through Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, two stops in Iowa, New Mexico and, finally, his adoptive home state of Texas.

Before Bush arrived here, a country music band played standards for the crowd, most wearing coats and stamping their feet for warmth, while, outside the airport, a river of cars carrying Bush supporters reached the horizon.

A food preparer at the site said people began arriving at 02:00 for the 07:30 rally.

"I'm here to ask for your help. You get your friends and neighbours to go to the polls," Bush said.

With now-familiar pageantry, Bush's Marine One helicopter landed in front of the cheering crowd to the strains of a brass anthem from the action movie "Air Force One," with the real presidential airplane in the background.

Schilling introduced Bush, saying that the best tribute to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan was to "make sure we elect a president who supports them every step of the way".

- AFP