The final stretch

Women stand up for Bush

By Hanna LoPatin

Daily Staff Reporter

SOUTHFIELD - With three weeks left until the election, Republican nominee Texas Gov. George W. Bush is making a last-minute pull for the 51 percent of the population with a new campaign "'W' stands for Women" that kicked off in Michigan yesterday.

But the most recent Gallup polls shows that women prefer Vice President Al Gore over Bush by a margin of 8 percent.

Condoleezza Rice; Lynne Cheney; Bush's wife Laura; mother and former First Lady Barbara joined Gov. Engler and his wife Michelle and several other political women from the state outside the Town Center in Southfield last night for the event.

About 400 Bush supporters - both male and female - attended the Southfield event yesterday evening.

"I feel a little funny talking about women's issues," Barbara said. "I think we care about the exact same thing that men do."

Saying she didn't want to talk about other elections for fear of making a mistake, Barbara instead focused on the role of women in the upcoming election.

"Women are the most powerful political group in the country," she said.

Joking that having twin teenage daughters would prepare her son for any type of negotiations, Barbara pointed to "the strong, wise women" with whom the governor surrounds himself.

Rice, George W. Bush's chief foreign policy advisor and a Stanford professor, spoke about education.

"Education is the ladder up," Rice said. "Did you hear the passion in his voice (at Tuesday's debate) when he spoke about education?"

Rice kept in check with the female theme saying in her introduction, "I am so happy to be here with distinguished women on this stage," and adding as an afterthought " - and you, too, Gov. Engler."

Bush's wife Laura spoke about education as a moral mold.

"Family life seems to grow more challenging every year," she said. "The lessons of the home must be reinforced by the standards of the school."

To critics who have claimed Bush doesn't speak enough with teachers, Laura, who once worked as a public school teacher and librarian retorted, "George spends every night with a teacher."

Although the women did speak on the issue of education, the speeches ultimately came back to promotion of George W. Bush for President.

"He will be an outstanding president," Barbara said.

In a brief speech Lynne Cheney, the wife of vice-presidential candidate and former secretary of defense Dick Cheney gave praise for Bush's leadership abilities.

"Women - and men - are sick and tired of the finger pointing, the blame casting that goes on in Washington," she said, adding that Bush can cross party lines to bring people together.

Cheney also championed her husband's running mate on his fight for local control.

"The citizens of Michigan know what the kids of Michigan need," she said.

Royal Oak resident Bonnie Behrens said she was pleased with what the women had to say.

"We need somebody who's going to stand behind the women," she said.

The event ended with an interesting outlook for the future.

"The President of the United States is more than a man," Laura said, "... or a woman as I hope the case will sometime be."