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President Bush Hosts NASCAR Champions
Aired December 02, 2003 - 14:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In his continuing quest to coast to reelection, President Bush is in some fast company this hour.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live from the White House.
I guess you better watch out behind you, huh, Suzanne?
(LAUGHTER)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You've got that right.
The South Lawn of the White House really doesn't look the same. This is President Bush, of course, racing for a second term. And he's courting those race car drivers, the NASCAR champs there. He's going to be hosting both current and former champs, including the current champ, Winston Cup point champ, Matt Kenseth. And Kenseth is also going to be on the Web site for the White House, Ask the White House, answering some questions from viewers as well.
Now, there's been a lot of talk, Heidi, about this particular group. The last election season, it was the soccer moms. And now it's the NASCAR dads that are really the ones that Democrats and Republicans are vying for. They are really considered a group of swing voters. In general terms, they are described as male, Southern, from rural areas, blue-collar jobs, who are generally Republicans.
But these are also some of the folks who probably lost their jobs in the Bush term. And this is something that both Democrats and Republicans are trying to take advantage of, but the president no doubt inviting them personally here to the White House, and, hopefully, he'll win their vote -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Hey, Suzanne, we knew -- or know -- that President Bush was in Pittsburgh a little bit earlier today, doing some fund-raising there. Obviously, this is a city and a state that is very much affected by something that he never really talked about. And that's steel.
MALVEAUX: Well, absolutely.
The president is in the middle of this controversy, whether or not he's going to lift the tariff on steel imports. He purposefully did not mention that. We did not expect any type of announcement today, that, of course, because he was involved in a fund-raiser that the co-chair -- the co-host is actually CEO and chair of U.S. Steel, the largest steel corporation in this country. And, of course, they do not like this potential decision, the possibility of lifting this tariff. They believe that will only cripple the industry, but administration sources saying they believe that the president all but assured will make the decision. They argue, of course, they're going to try to bolster the manufacturing sector to try to offset that, as well as build the economy, but they just can't afford to have a $2 billion sanction slapped on U.S. goods -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House -- Suzanne, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 2, 2003 - 14:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In his continuing quest to coast to reelection, President Bush is in some fast company this hour.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live from the White House.
I guess you better watch out behind you, huh, Suzanne?
(LAUGHTER)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You've got that right.
The South Lawn of the White House really doesn't look the same. This is President Bush, of course, racing for a second term. And he's courting those race car drivers, the NASCAR champs there. He's going to be hosting both current and former champs, including the current champ, Winston Cup point champ, Matt Kenseth. And Kenseth is also going to be on the Web site for the White House, Ask the White House, answering some questions from viewers as well.
Now, there's been a lot of talk, Heidi, about this particular group. The last election season, it was the soccer moms. And now it's the NASCAR dads that are really the ones that Democrats and Republicans are vying for. They are really considered a group of swing voters. In general terms, they are described as male, Southern, from rural areas, blue-collar jobs, who are generally Republicans.
But these are also some of the folks who probably lost their jobs in the Bush term. And this is something that both Democrats and Republicans are trying to take advantage of, but the president no doubt inviting them personally here to the White House, and, hopefully, he'll win their vote -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Hey, Suzanne, we knew -- or know -- that President Bush was in Pittsburgh a little bit earlier today, doing some fund-raising there. Obviously, this is a city and a state that is very much affected by something that he never really talked about. And that's steel.
MALVEAUX: Well, absolutely.
The president is in the middle of this controversy, whether or not he's going to lift the tariff on steel imports. He purposefully did not mention that. We did not expect any type of announcement today, that, of course, because he was involved in a fund-raiser that the co-chair -- the co-host is actually CEO and chair of U.S. Steel, the largest steel corporation in this country. And, of course, they do not like this potential decision, the possibility of lifting this tariff. They believe that will only cripple the industry, but administration sources saying they believe that the president all but assured will make the decision. They argue, of course, they're going to try to bolster the manufacturing sector to try to offset that, as well as build the economy, but they just can't afford to have a $2 billion sanction slapped on U.S. goods -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House -- Suzanne, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
