Welcome, Mr. President, but your timing is off [View All]

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http://desmoinesregister.com/opinion/stories/c5917686/24041040.html

President Bush is scheduled to visit Iowa on Thursday. The trip renews all the chatter about how the state is a "tossup" in the coming presidential election.

That's doubtful. Iowa has become a pretty Democratic place in presidential elections. Bush faces an uphill battle here in November, and the visit comes just in time for him to avoid the charge that he's writing us off.

* It's Bush's first appearance in the state in 17 months. That's hardly the action of a guy who is making a big push. By avoiding Iowa, Bush let Democratic presidential candidates have the state all to themselves in the run-up to the caucuses. As a result, Democrats built some strong momentum here.

While Bush showed up in other states right after they had Democratic contests, he didn't in Iowa. Odd. Two previous incumbent presidents, Bill Clinton in 1996 and Ronald Reagan in 1984, campaigned in Iowa at caucus time, helping to step on the opposition story. Not Bush.

* According to a Rasmussen Reports Poll of 500 likely Iowa voters taken March 23, Democrat John Kerry leads Bush 51 percent to 41 percent; 2 percent were for other candidates and 5 percent weren't sure. The survey has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.