Cheney added, "President Bush understands the war on terror and has a strategy for winning it. Senator Kerry does not." As he spoke, one woman shouted, "Kerry stinks!"
The rally was a love-fest in the conservative, rural Florida community. Three busloads of schoolchildren from the Heritage Christian School waited for an hour and a half to see Cheney and clap for the man they said speaks to the issues important to their lives.
Asked to name the country's biggest problem, 12-year-old Vivian Resto said, "Homosexuals. I think it's kind of gross, and my mom and I believe it should be a man and a woman."
Her 7-year-old classmate, Kevin Strickland, said the most significant issue facing the country is stem cell research. And 13-year-old Marcus Kleinhans said he was most worried about abortion.
Cheney got the most robust applause after he said, "We believe our nation is one nation under God. And we believe Americans ought to be able to say so when we pledge allegiance to our flag."
Later, at an afternoon rally in Washington, Pa., about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, Cheney repeated Bush's charge that Kerry is making "wild" accusations about the missing explosives in Iraq, Layton reported.
"Our troops ought to be praised for the 400,000 tons of explosives they've seized and destroyed" since the invasion of Iraq, Cheney told several hundred people gathered in the basketball gym at Washington & Jefferson College. "These men and women deserve better than to have their service questioned by a political candidate who is so anxious to get elected, he won't wait for the facts."
Washington County is mostly Democratic, and the vice presidential motorcade passed the first knot of protesters it has seen all week. Many homes lining the streets to the college hung Kerry-Edwards signs, and Cheney arrived to a vocal group shouting, "Go home, Dick!" But inside the gymnasium, the crowd hooted and hollered for Cheney and his wife, Lynne, and applauded wildly as the vice president spoke of the administration's support for gun ownership, its opposition to partial-birth abortion and its determination to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
Cheney is keeping a frantic schedule in the final days before the election, traveling from early morning until late night. He planned events in five states over the course of today and tomorrow. The vice president and his entourage left Florida at noon for the rally in Washington, Pa., and were flying this evening to Waukesha, Wis.
The Bush-Cheney campaign, meanwhile released an ad, called "Whatever It Takes," featuring a clip from Bush's address to the Republican National Convention in which he speaks of returning the salutes of wounded soldiers, holding the children of the fallen and meeting with loved ones "who have received a folded flag."
He says in the ad, "These four years have brought moments I could not foresee and will not forget." Addressing military families, he says, "Because of your service and sacrifice, we are defeating the terrorists where they live and plan, and you're making America safer. I will never relent in defending America, whatever it takes."
In Kerry's new ad, called "Heroes," a narrator says, "Our soldiers fighting in Iraq are heroes. Their families have earned our thanks and our support. As we see the deepening crisis and chaos in Iraq, as we choose a new commander in chief and a fresh start, we will always support and honor those who serve."
Campaigning in Clearwater, Fla, this morning, Edwards sought to counter Bush's appeals in recent days to Democrats, Washington Post staff writer John Wagner reported.
Bush has said that Kerry has "turned his back" on the tradition of Democrats who showed confidence and resolve in times of crisis, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy.
