President Bush rallied supporters in Cedar Rapids yesterday, as they shouted “Four more years” he thanked them for coming. Iowa is one of fewer than a dozen states the campaign is focusing on in these days before election day, and polls show the Bush/Kerry race in Iowa is too close to call. “This isn’t the first time we’ve been here — not going to be our last either,” Bush told the crowd of supporters gathered in the U.S. Cellular Center in downtown Cedar Rapids. “I want to thank you for putting up the signs and doing the hard work. I want to thank you for what you’re going to do over the next couple of weeks, and that is turning out the vote.” Bush bashed rival John Kerry on a variety of fronts, including health care reform plan. “People who understand small businesses concluded that his plan is an over-priced albatross,” Bush said. “I have a different view. We’ll work to make sure health care is available and affordable.” Bush said Kerry’s plan would lead to “centralized control” of medicine. “There’s a word for that attitude,” Bush said. “It’s called liberalism.” A Chicago Tribune poll conducted last week found health care is the number one issue on the minds of Iowa voters. Bush repeatedly lobbed the “liberal” label Kerry’s way in front of a crowd of about two-thousand. Kerry campaign officials were quick to compare Bush’s Friday afternoon rally in Cedar Rapids with the Kerry rally Thursday night in Des Moines that attracted over 15-thousand. “George W Bush is out of ideas, out of time, and now his campaign is clearly running out of steam,” said Colin Van Ostren, a spokesman for Kerry’s Iowa campaign. “I bet George Bush has some great excuses for why there were so many empty seats — after all, excuses are all he’s given us on jobs, health care, and the mess in Iraq.”
