AP Online
07-11-2004
Dateline: RALEIGH, N.C.
Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards, center, speaks to the crowd as Presidential candidate John Kerry, second from left, and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, left, look on during a rally in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday July 10, 2004. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Presidential hopeful John Kerry and running mate John Edwards asked supporters Saturday in the vice presidential candidate's hometown to help put Republican-leaning North Carolina into the Democratic column in November and them into the White House.
"Let me ask you a favor," Kerry asked a massive crowd. "Will you let me borrow John Edwards for at least four years?"
The crowd responded with chants of "eight, eight, eight."
Chuckling, Kerry remarked: "I said 'at least'"
"How about 16?" he continued, sending the crowd into cheers at the notion of a favorite son possibly following a two-term Kerry presidency with two terms of his own.
Promoted as a "welcome home" celebration for Edwards, the rally ended the Kerry-Edwards inaugural joint campaign swing that covered six states in four days. It was meant to start introducing the ticket before its coming-out party later this month at the Democratic convention Boston.
Police estimated that at least 19,000 people, many waving Kerry-Edwards signs in sweltering 90-degree heat, packed a sprawling courtyard at North Carolina State University, one of Edwards' alma maters. The campaign pegged the number at 25,000, the largest attendance at a rally yet.
"We probably should let the rest of the country know that about half of you are related to me," Edwards said laughing.
In one of many nods to his hometown, Edwards mentioned that North Carolinians always say "he's with me" when they bring friends home. "I came here to tell you that this man right here," he said, pointing to Kerry, "I'm with him!"
Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory _ in a statement released by the Bush-Cheney campaign _ accused Kerry and Edwards of having priorities and values outside of mainstream America.
"John Kerry has been ranked the Senate's most liberal member and in choosing Senator Edwards, he chose the Senate's fourth most liberal member," McCrory said. "The voters of North Carolina wouldn't have sent John Edwards back to the Senate, and they're not going to send John Kerry to the White House."
Democrats hope that Kerry picking the self-described "son-of-a-millworker" for the vice presidential slot will help put the traditional GOP state, with 15 electoral votes, into play. Bush won the state by 13 percentage points in 2000 before thousands of textile jobs disappeared. Still, Kerry's advisers acknowledge that the fight in North Carolina is uphill.
Kerry began running ads in the state when he tapped Edwards and Bush soon followed with his own commercials.
The Kerry-Edwards campaign will start running a new ad Monday featuring Edwards praising Kerry the first time the two campaigned together. The commercial _ in which Edwards says "there is no one better prepared to keep the American people safe than this man" _ will start running Monday in local media markets in the 19 states where the campaign is on the air and nationally on cable networks.
The campaign announced that in the three days since Kerry named Edwards, it raised $3.3 million over the Internet. Despite the recent fund-raising prowess, aides say the ticket will accept $75 million in public financing for the general election _ and abide by the spending restraint that go with the choice.
Also Saturday, Kerry promised Hispanics that he would Congress an immigration overhaul plan in his first 100 days as president to make it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens. He spoke from New Mexico by satellite to the League of United Latin American Citizens national convention in San Antonio.
Meanwhile, Edwards suggested that the Bush administration has been lax in prosecuting alleged "corporate crooks" such as former Enron chief executive Kenneth Lay, a Bush friend and contributor.
"It took three long years to see Ken Lay handcuffed and indicted for what he did," Edwards said Saturday in the weekly Democratic radio address in which he praised Kerry for fighting for the middle class.
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On the Net:
http://www.johnkerry.com
http://www.georgewbush.com
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