Bay State Target of Bush’s Ridicule

MANCHESTER, N.H.—“I’m running against a fella who lives right south of here,” President Bush told a crowd of supporters on Friday, speaking just 20 miles from the Massachusetts border.

But far from a geography lesson, the president’s off-hand remark, one of five references to his opponent’s home state in the span of 30 minutes, highlighted a not-so-subtle culture war lying in the subtext of this year’s presidential campaign.

In the aftermath of Thursday night’s debate in Coral Gables, Fla., the Bush campaign marched north through Allentown, Pa.—stopping to assail “the senator from Massachusetts”—before arriving in Manchester, where the president repeatedly invoked the Commonwealth as though it were a founding member of the axis of evil.

Referencing Sen. John F. Kerry’s notorious line, “I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it,” the president appealed to his seemingly plain-speaking supporters in the Granite State.

“Not a lot of people in New Hampshire talk that way,” Bush said.

Having supported the president by a slim margin in 2000, New Hampshire, with its four electoral votes, has once again emerged as a contested state in this year’s election, attracting the concerted efforts of both major campaigns.

Forty-six Harvard undergraduates made the short trip to Manchester on Friday, cheering on their president at an afternoon rally in a secluded ski resort on the outside of town.

They were like a large portion of the audience who, judging by the license plates in the parking lot, crossed the Massachusetts border to attend the event.

The out-of-town crowd and proximity to Massachusetts placed Bush’s Bay State-bashing in an unusually awkward context, although the president’s audience hardly seemed to mind.

Citing his own campaign’s figures, the president repeated his claim that Kerry had proposed an extraordinary $2.2 trillion in new programs over the course of his campaign.

“And that’s a lot,” Bush said, invoking a favorite line from his stump speech, “even for a senator from Massachusetts.”

The crowd laughed and cheered.

But Kerry’s campaign disputes that figure, and Massachusetts’ reputation as free-spending and high-taxing is at least two decades out of date.

The Bay State ranks 47th in the nation for tax burden imposed on its residents in 2002, according to a study by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, falling well below Texas, the president’s home state.

Still, the Bush campaign has found success in playing on traditional stereotypes of Massachusetts, even in the state’s own backyard.

As the president made his way through a list of the state’s alleged transgressions, including a thinly-veiled reference to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that legalized gay marriage, a cacophony of nods and “uh-hums” spread through the crowd.

“Taxachusetts!” one supporter yelled aloud.

“Mass. exodus!” cheered another.

The Harvard undergraduates who attended the rally did not appear fazed by the assault on their school’s home state.

Stephanie N. Kendall ’05, executive director of Massachusetts Students for Bush, said her Bay State pride does not cloud her objections to some of the state’s policies.

“I think the president is correct in characterizing Massachusetts as a very liberal state,” said the Indiana native, adding, “The Massachusetts message doesn’t resonate with a lot of Americans in the rest of the country.”

POLITICAL THEATER

The Manchester rally on Friday, like most every political event in this presidential campaign, played out with theatrical precision.

With New Hampshire’s treasured foliage beginning to turn the colors of autumn, Bush delivered his remarks from a podium flanked by pumpkins and bundles of hay—ostensibly reaped from the state’s fall harvest.

Behind Bush, two images of New Hampshire’s iconic “Man in the Mountain,” which crumbled late last year, were placed in full view of the television cameras.

And though the crowd of thousands—8,000, according to the New Hampshire Republican State Committee—was clearly engaged in the proceedings, the event carried an unmistakable air of stagecraft familiar to both party’s campaign events this year.

Barbara Bush, the president’s mother, said she had flown in to surprise her son. “Don’t tell the president,” she implored the crowd.

Later, Bush began his remarks with an aside: “I love you, Mom. Thanks for coming.”

Harvard undergraduates and a handful of other college students who attended the event stayed at the rally afterwards, making calls to registered Republicans on cell phones provided by the party.

A chorus of scripted messages emerged like a round from the six tables erected in the ski resort’s empty parking lot.

“Hi, is this Alex?”

“Hi, is this Carl?”

The volunteers trudged through lists of Republicans in Goffstown, N.H., a small city just eight miles to the west.

“I was calling to see if President Bush can count on your support in November,” they asked.

—Staff writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached at seward@fas.harvard.edu.