Vice President Dick Cheney visited Milwaukee Tuesday to reinforce President Bush's image as a tough commander in chief during periods of tested national security.
He lambasted Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry for using the word "nuisance" to describe how he hopes the nation can one day view terrorism, as quoted in Sunday's The New York Times magazine.
"I can't think of a time when it made any sense at all to think in terms of these kinds of attacks on Americans as a nuisance," Cheney said, citing the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the 1983 bombing of a U.S. embassy in Beruit.
Kerry's use of the word nuisance "says that there's some level of terrorism that we can totally accept or live with," Cheney said.
Meredith Salsbery, Arts & Sciences senior and chair of the Marquette College Democrats, said Kerry's message was that he hopes to reduce the threat of terrorism.
"My understanding of Kerry's comments is that the idea is to reduce terrorist threats so that they're not so prominent in our minds," Salsbery said. "Not so that we forget about them or that we reduce the level of defense or funding for intelligence of any sorts."
Cheney appeared with his wife, Lynne, at the town hall question-and-answer session at American Serb Memorial Hall, 5101 W. Oklahoma Ave. About 350 supporters greeted the vice president with rousing applause.
"What is foremost in my mind is knowing that the terrorists are going to try again," Mrs. Cheney said. "And thinking about who do I want to have standing in the door? And I'll tell you, it's not John Kerry and John Edwards."
During the event, Cheney particularly noted the president's role as commander in chief, an area in which Bush has done favorably in polls.
He said the commander-in-chief role is important in this year's election in particular because the country needs a "new strategy" to deal with the new threat of terrorism.
Salsbery responded: "What I see in Kerry is that part of being commander in chief is that you are not the commander literally in the military, but that you represent our nation."
A member of the audience asked Cheney how he feels about the negative tone of the campaign and politics in general.
Cheney agreed the political arena has taken on a more stringent tone in recent years, but said the presidency is significant enough to warrant it.
"It's appropriate that this should be a tough campaign," Cheney said. "We should be taking on tough issues. I can't think of a more appropriate setting than a presidential campaign to have the kind of debates we're having."
He encouraged the audience to look past the personal attacks, or "noise" of the system, when observing the political process.
County Executive Scott Walker and U.S. Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner and Mark Green were on hand to encourage the Bush-Cheney T-shirt-clad attendees to vote and have their friends do the same.
For Oak Creek resident Julie Arvan, it was the first time she attended a political rally.
"He was honest, concise and clear about his message," she said of Cheney.
Outside the rally, about 30 Kerry supporters protested the event with chants of "three more weeks" and posters with messages such as, "Shame on you, Dick. You lie, our troops die."