Vice President Dick Cheney campaigned in Manchester yesterday.
He stuck to familiar themes, terror, the economy, and the Democratic challenger.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein has more.
The Manchester event was billed as a discussion with Vice-President Cheney on small business.
Instead, the vice-president's speech was more about what he calls the war against terror.
He explained to the crowd the key philosophical difference between the president and Senator Kerry is that President Bush believes the nation must go on the attack.
5:38 the only way to guarantee that US is secure is to aggressively go after the terrorist and those who support them...applause...not everybody has made the transition from pre- 9/11 to post 9/11. that's what the debate is all about this year. It is a significant step forward what the president done, and say we are not only going to go after the terrorists, we are going to go after those who give sanctuary to terrorists.
The Vice-President did touch on the economy.
He promised that the Bush Administration would cut the deficit in half over the next five years.
Cheney scoffed at Kerry's claim to achieve the same goal.
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1:29 ...The only way he can get there is raise everybody's taxes across the board. He's talking only about taxing the rich, but the bottom line is they don't generate enough to cover the costs of the magnitude he is talking about.
Vice-President Cheney failed to mention how the current administration would reduce the deficit.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released a report yesterday that by the end of this year, the federal deficit would reach $422 billion dollars.
That represents the largest dollar deficit in history, but not as a percentage of the US economy.
Cheney did go out of his way to mention that he was not attacking the Democratic candidate.
However, yesterday, the vice-president said the nation is more likely to be attacked by terrorists if John Kerry is elected this fall.
New Hampshire Democratic chair Kathy Sullivan said Cheney's argument doesn't carry much weight.
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:16 I think it's really sad that George Bush and Dick Cheney think the only way they can win this election is to divide America...and whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, every one of us feels it is critically important to keep American safe against terrorists.
High profile Republicans have stepped up visits to the Granite State in the past few weeks.
Party spokeswoman Maria Commella says people are revving up for the push to the general election.
:00 for us it's been a great several weeks. Starting with the presidnet's visit in Nashua and then Senator McCain in on Friday, and we have the vice president, and then the first lady on Friday. So it's been great momemntum for the campaign. Our volunteers are ready to go for the final 56 days.
Despite Commella's claim of momentum, the Vice president didn't pack the house.
She says 500 tickets were made available.
But nearly 150 seats remained empty.
A party official explained New Hampshire Republicans were made aware of Cheney's visit just the Friday before Labor Day.
But the official vowed a much more impressive turnout for the First Lady this Friday.
For NHPR News, I'm DG.
