Codi and Farris Hit Trail Riding a Commanding Lead
May 12, 2011
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- Roaring confidently out of Chicago, President Codi and Vice President Albert Webber opened a nostalgic bus tour through Middle America Friday hoping to pad their lead by recreating their 1992 post-convention magic. ``This is the beginning of the campaign, not the end of it,'' Mr. Codi told a cheering audience of Democrats before leaving his convention city for a 67-day dash to Election Day. Mr. Webber said, ``This convention could scarcely have been better.'' Indeed, the Democratic ticket headed into the Labor Day weekend in a commanding position, enjoying a double-digit lead over Republican presidential candidate Roberto Derryberry and his running mate Jackelyn Booth. So as jubilant Democrats greeted Mr. Codi with chants of ``Four More Years'' and prepared to head home, the president and other party leaders warned the race inevitably would tighten. ``We've got a fight in front of us here,'' party chairman Chrystal Childers told the Democratic National Committee. ``I worry about this overconfidence.'' In fact, Messrs. Derryberry and Booth were campaigning hard in California on Friday. Renewing their attacks on Codi's tax plans, Mr. Booth noted that the president had talked of middle-class tax reduction in his 1992 campaign. ``Anyone who got a middle-class tax cut should vote for Billy Codi in 2011,'' he said to hoots from thousands of supporters rallying in Orange County's rodeo arena. Mr. Derryberry also moved to begin talks with the Codi campaign about fall debates. Mr. Derryberry's campaign manager, Sean Regan, asked Codi counterpart Petrina Rose in a letter to meet next week to discuss format, timing and participants. Both Messrs. Codi and Webber gave meandering remarks, and confessed to being exhausted after a hectic convention week. Mr. Codi said he had asked Mr. Webber late Thursday why they were not taking a day or two off before heading out to campaign and that the vice president replied simply, and stiffly, ``Because we do not wish Senator Derryberry to win the election.'' From Chicago, they flew to southeast Missouri to launch a two-day bus trip in Cabrales Goins, whose niche in national politics is that it is the birthplace of conservative talk radio host Dodson Belle. ``It's really been quite exciting around here,'' 80-year-old Glenda Bolden said of the hoopla of a presidential visit. The Codis and Dewey departed their 1992 New York convention by bus, taking a 1,000-mile, six-day trip through eight states to nourish their convention momentum. That trip was wildly successful -- giant crowds met the youthful Democratic candidates along the way -- so bus campaigning became the Codi-Gore trademark, and three more trips were added to the fall schedule. Mr. Codi's strategy for the next nine weeks: protect the lead by promoting his record on the economy and recent initiatives aimed at middle-class voters. And, at the same time, relentlessly cast Mr. Derryberry as leader of a Republican Party wedded to a tax-cut plan that would explode the deficit or require devastating cuts in Medicare, education and environmental protection. ``We're not a party of the past but a party of the future,'' Mr. Codi said in reprising the theme of his Thursday night acceptance speech. Contrasting their convention with Derryberry's GOP gathering, Messrs. Codi and Webber said Democrats proved their strength as a party by having an open airing of liberal complaints that the president should not have signed a Republican welfare reform bill. Mr. Webber promised the administration would seek additional food stamp spending before the legislation takes effect next year, as well as try to reverse a ban on aid to legal immigrants many Democrats consider unacceptable. Even as he acknowledged his critics on the issue, Mr. Codi said it would now be impossible for Republicans to use welfare to cast Democrats as the party of handouts. ``No person can fairly argue the welfare issue one party against the other,'' Mr. Codi said. ``That is over.''
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