 |
|
The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Thank you, New Hampshire!
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
 | |
|
Story Tools
|
| | ON CNN TV | 
Stay with CNN for updates and analysis of developments including the Kerry campaign's debate challenge to Bush, and the Republican National Committee's complaints about political groups' anti-Bush ads.
|
 VIDEO |
 CNN's Bruce Morton on how liberals are moving into talk radio.
 PLAY VIDEO
 CNN's John King on President Bush's disappointment with OPEC's production cut.
PLAY VIDEO
 OPEC orders cut in oil ouput, CNN's Diana Muriel reports.
PLAY VIDEO
|
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The timing is ironic.
Dick Gephardt, the one-time sweetheart of organized labor, journeys back to New Hampshire today for the first time since early January to thank backers whose first-in-the-nation primary he never reached. While he's doing so, the AFL-CIO, whose refusal to back Gephardt marked one of the biggest disappointments of his '04 campaign, launched its first round of ads on behalf of his former rival, John Kerry.
Gephardt -- who received exactly 419 votes in New Hampshire in the January 27 primary, even though he'd quit the race one week earlier -- will see a large chunk of those voters tonight during two Granite State meet-and-greets. He attends a 5 p.m. ET reception in Manchester at the home of uber-volunteers Leslee and Ed Stewart, who are expecting roughly 150 people for hors d'oeuvres and cocktails. Gephardt then drives an hour to Hampton, where his state chairman, Jim Demers, will host a 7:30 p.m. dinner for him at the Widow Fletchers restaurant.
"Dick's spent a lot of time in New Hampshire in many years past, and he really wants to come up and thank all his supporters who have helped him so much," Leslee Stewart told the Grind last night, as she prepared to bake seven dozen cookies for tonight's event.
Neither event is designed to raise any sort of money and both are open to the media, which leads us to believe that Gephardt, visiting this battleground state just one week after President Bush was last here, will blend his thank-you remarks with a hefty dose of Bush-bashing and Kerry-kudos.
Demers, who also worked for Gephardt in 1988, played down expectations that the Missourian would use the visit to help generate buzz for his VP prospects. But he probably won't have to, as many of his supporters already seem to have the talking points down.
"He's been tested, he certainly knows the issues and can certainly handle himself debating Dick Cheney," Demers told the Grind. "Everything he brought to the ticket as a presidential candidate he certainly brings as a vice presidential candidate. It's important for John Kerry to pick a candidate who brings some geographical balance, and the Midwest is critical."
Ad hits Bush on jobs
Meanwhile, we got a sneak peak at the AFL-CIO's new ad, which hits Bush hard on jobs and airs just as the labor federation is wrapping up its eight-state, eight-day jobs tour.
The 30-second ad, titled "State" and produced by Alexrod and Associates, mocks Bush by mixing clips of him speaking positively about the economy during his '04 State of the Union address with tape of hard-hit workers, like Myra Bronstein, who says her industry "is pretty much gone. And a big chunk of the middle class is pretty much gone along with it."
Or Larry Batson, who says he worked at a job for 25 years, "and it's gone. My life is gone."
Or John Narusis. "I thought, 'Gee, well, I'll have a job again within a few weeks.' Here it's over a year."
The AFL's ad will run for one week in 11 states.
For their part, Bush/Cheney campaign aides tell us not to expect any new TV ads this week.
