Bush Asks Veterans to Serve as Mentors

PITTSBURGH — Texas Gov. George W. Bush, appearing in one of the presidential race’s hottest battleground states, appealed to military veterans Thursday to serve again by providing guidance to young people.

“I can’t think of a better group of citizens to help rally than those who’ve served the country, those who know what it’s like to serve something greater than self,” Bush said to an audience of about 350 at the Veterans of Foreign Wars state convention.

If he’s elected president, Bush said, he would provide $75 million in grants over five years to assist local organizations that recruit retired military personnel and veterans to tutor or mentor at-risk youth.

“There’s a lot of children yearning for direction, yearning for guidance . . . asking the question, ‘Does somebody care? Does somebody love me?’ ” Bush said. “In order to make sure America is as great as it can be . . . we must answer that question in America with an absolute ‘Yes, people do care.’ ”

Bush’s strategists planned the stop as part of a two-week, nine-state tour in which the presumptive Republican nominee will try to burnish his image as a centrist and target swing voters who were turned off by hard-line GOP policies in previous elections.

By making Pittsburgh Bush’s major event of the day, his campaign targeted a city considered solidly Democratic since its steel industry collapsed in the 1980s, though its suburbs are more conservative. Thursday marked Bush’s second visit to the city this year and his sixth day spent in Pennsylvania, a spokesman said. Following his speech to the VFW, he also gave an interview to a local television station.

Pennsylvania Democrats passed out fliers criticizing the federal tax cut Bush has proposed, saying the cut would threaten funds for veterans’ programs. They also said that as governor he worked to ban the use of “8-liner” slot machines to raise revenue for veterans’ programs.

Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said that criticism was “the usual Democratic scare tactics.”

Thursday’s visit renewed speculation about Bush’s choice for a running mate. Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas J. Ridge, a Republican whose name has been on the lips of pundits for months, greeted Bush at the airport and mentioned his friendship with the GOP nominee-to-be twice in his brief remarks at the convention.

Bush said Ridge is “under consideration” for the job but he denied to reporters on his campaign plane a report that he’d narrowed the list of prospects to three people, including Ridge.