Voters want to hear Bush, Kerry explain how to get nation out of Iraq

JOHN NOLAN

CINCINNATI - The war in Iraq. The economy at home. A blueprint for leadership. Job prospects.

Each is a prime concern for voters asked what the presidential candidates could say to get their attention in the 2004 campaign.

Ohio is a must-win state for any Republican seeking the White House. President Bush carried the state four years ago by fewer than 4 percentage points. Polls show a close race so far this year with Democrat John Kerry.

Mike Holmes, 47, of Cincinnati, said he wants to hear the candidates talk about how they will help more Americans find jobs, as well as how to get out of Iraq. Holmes said Bush hasn't made clear to him why American soldiers were sent to war.

"How are we going to get out of it? ... Why won't he worry about Americans, rather than those people over there?" said Holmes, a self-employed lawn care businessman. "He's not the president of Iraq. He's the president of the United States. The way I look at it, take care of Americans first."

Bush says U.S. troops will stay in Iraq beyond June 30 when the United States is to transfer power to a new provisional government. Kerry has urged that the United Nations be more involved in rebuilding and guiding Iraq.

Jeff Foreman, 44, a post office manager in Cleveland, wants Bush and Kerry to clearly articulate how they will lead the United States.

"I don't see - and I've been following both of them - I don't see either one of them having a clear-cut vision of how they are going to get where they want to get us in the next four years," Foreman said.

Jennifer Weeks, 23, a University of Cincinnati senior majoring in electronic media, also wants to hear Bush and Kerry give specific details about their plans for the country.

"What they're going to do, what they want to do," she said. "Especially for young people - we don't know what the issues are."

Weeks said that although she has landed a summer internship job with Procter & Gamble Co.'s television productions unit in New York City, she is nervous about long-term job prospects. Many of her friends at college are, as well. The candidates could more effectively reach her generation by saying what they plan to do to improve job opportunities, she said.

There are signs that the U.S. economy is improving. In May, manufacturing activity expanded for the 12th consecutive month and construction spending rose to its highest level ever.

The country's unemployment rate remainded at 5.6 percent in May, but businesses added 248,000 jobs, bringing the number of new jobs created in the last three months to nearly 1 million.

The state's unemployment was 5.8 percent, above the national average. Ohio has lost more than 250,000 jobs in the last three years, according to federal Labor Department statistics.

Ohio was one of only six states with overall job losses since January, according to federal labor statistics. Only Connecticut, Illinois and West Virginia have had bigger decreases.

Charles R. Kiessling, 69, of Olmsted Township in suburban Cleveland, said he hopes that the campaign rhetoric doesn't embolden the nation's enemies. He said he wants the candidates to be unwavering in their support for U.S. soldiers, even if there is disagreement over the war and U.S. occupation.

"To be positive on all the issues here that deal with war, and not to give our foes an upper hand with their remarks," Kiessling said. "We're in a critical situation over there. Our men and women are dying.

"Everyone has their stand on how they look at things like this, but we must be behind all our military people over there," he said.

University of Cincinnati senior Gary Morgan, 23, would like the campaigns to get more personal. He said the candidates could get through to him by revealing a more personal view of themselves so that he could learn more about who they are.

"When I see them with their families and children, that's when I tune in," Morgan said.

He has a summer job selling radio advertising time in Cincinnati and so isn't immediately preoccupied with finding a job.

Alison Heckel, 20, of Toledo, said she feels no connection to the issues she has heard Bush and Kerry bring up in campaign advertisements or televised public appearances.

Heckel, a University of Cincinnati sophomore majoring in accounting, is in a work-study program she hopes will give her experience with companies that might hire her later. So she isn't looking to either candidate to tell her how their economic policies might help her get a job.

Asked what she would like to hear from the candidates, Heckel hesitated. Even the unsettling threat of terrorism seems distant to her in the nation's heartland, she said.

"There are threats," Heckel said. "I don't worry about it 24-7."

From: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/8848061.htm