The manager of President Bush’s reelection campaign says focusing on early voting or absentee balloting is key to winning Iowa in 2004. Bush narrowly lost Iowa to Al Gore in 2000. Bush/Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman says Bush has an opportunity he didn’t have last time to talk about what he has confronted in the past two and a half years. Mehlman says Bush has overcome the challenges he’s been handed. And Mehlman discounts the impact of having Democratic presidential candidates criticizing Bush as they canvas the state. Mehlman says there are clearly two visions for creating economic growth. Mehlman says the Democrats argue you do it by raising taxes while President Bush says you do it by cutting taxes. The Bush/Cheney campaign staged a news conference today in Des Moines to unveil a list of 58 Iowa Republicans who’re on the campaign’s “leadership team.” Former University of Iowa football coach Hayden Fry and wrestling legend Dan Gable are on the list. Gable says Bush has tackled tough issues. Gable says Bush is a member of the 100-degree club, people who train in the 100-degree weather. Evan “Curly” Hultman of Waterloo, a Bush backer, says the Democrats are bashing Bush’s foreign policy at the wrong time.Hultman says it’s time to support the troops rather than have “divisive talk” which Hultman says “we’ve never had before when our troops are in an international confrontation.”