After a couple of days focusing on terrorism and the war in Iraq, Sen. John Kerry used his visit to Wisconsin yesterday to lay out what the Financial Times calls "a detailed plan to increase healthcare and education spending while halving the budget deficit." Kerry "promised to turn back George W. Bush's 'reckless' fiscal policies by cutting 'pork-barrel' spending and streamlining government. But Republicans dismissed the proposals as 'simply not serious.'" The Minneapolis Star Tribune says Kerry "placed the nation's economy and the middle class back on center stage of his presidential campaign Tuesday, a day after the politics of terrorism had elbowed every other issue to the sidelines."
In Southern Tour, Edward Also Addresses Fiscal Discipline, Values.
The Washington Post reports Sen. Edwards "took the same fiscal message to Louisiana. But local officials who introduced him in this heavily Catholic state emphasized the ticket's values."
The Baton Rouge Advocate reports Edwards said "things have changed in the last 3 1/2 years to make Louisianians think twice about re-electing Republican President Bush," and Democrats "won't give up on Louisiana this year like they did in 2000, when Bush won Louisiana's electoral votes."
