Kerry looking for votes among sportsmen

As John Kerry worked the rope line by a riverside war memorial in this small Mississippi River town, men and women thrust copies of the same 8x10 glossy into his hands. Dutifully, he scrawled his name with a Sharpie pen. Once, twice, three times. They kept coming. The photo wasn't the usual politician's pose. Taken last October at an Iowa farm, it showed Kerry in full hunting regalia with a 12-gauge shotgun in his hands. Among those clutching the pictures were Iowa prison guards, many of them wearing union T-shirts. America's political debate over guns is different this year.

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"You know I'm a hunter and a fisherman," he said in Smithville, Mo. "I've been a hunter since I was about 12 years old. I'm a gun owner; I believe in the Second Amendment. I know it matters out here in parts of the world." Those parts of the world tend to be where the election will be decided. About 7.2 million hunters live in battleground states, with the highest numbers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio. Kerry's target is white male swing voters who live in union households or small towns and who in the past have mistrusted Democrats on guns but may now mistrust President Bush on the economy and jobs.

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The Kerry camp's strategy is comprehensive and calculated. It includes putting Kerry's undeniable outdoor skills on full media display. No bird hunt, no trap shoot goes unrecorded by cameras and reporters. In last fall's pheasant hunt in Iowa, he shot two birds with two shots. Last month in Wisconsin, he nailed 17 out of 25 clay pigeons at the Gunslick Trap Club. The effort also involves reaching out to labor in particular. The hunting photograph that found its way into the hands of the unionized corrections officers in Iowa got there thanks to Michael Malaise, Kerry's Iowa director. "I'm passing them around at every union hall I can find," he said.

That day in Iowa, the tactic seemed to be having some effect. "He knows people want to go out and hunt," said Raleigh Helmick, who works at the Iowa State Penitentiary. "But I can't believe that our forefathers, when they sat down and decided you have the right to bear arms, had in the back of their minds that somebody would have a weapon like an Uzi or an M-16, M-14. They didn't have a clue."
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/9384641.htm

In last fall's pheasant hunt in Iowa, he shot two birds with two shots. Last month in Wisconsin, he nailed 17 out of 25 clay pigeons at the Gunslick Trap Club.

In other words, Kerry is no poser. Maybe in addition the the debates, he should challenge Bush to a trap shoot.

THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS IS USELESS WITHOUT FREE SPEECH & DUE PROCESS


YOU CAN’T HUNT WITHOUT TREES

And Kerry is also delivering the message that hunters need habitat. It's exactly the kind of truthful, non-divisive message that can help bring our country together.

who will be voting for Kerry. My dad, a big supporter of gun and hunting rights (even gets the NRA magazine!) told me I can put a Kerry bumpersticker on his truck! I just got them last night and haven't had a chance to get it on there yet as he has been out all morning. I will when he gets back, though.

It would be hilarious for Kerry to offer to take on Bush in a trap shoot. Bush refuses and he looks like a coward. If he accepts, Bush gets his arse handed to him and looks like the wimp he and his father are.