Twins seek local support
by N.S. Garcia
The Metropolitan
Bradley Wakoff / The Metropolitan
President Bush’s twin daughters, Barbara (left) and Jenna (right),
speak about women’s issues at Strum Hall at the University of Denver
Oct. 19. The twins were part of a “W Stands for Women” panel
discussion which also included Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, Vice President Dick
Cheney’s daughter Liz Cheney and former U.S. ambassador Nancy Brinker.
Colorado’s chapter of “W” stands for Women is the largest
nationwide.
President Bush’s daughters, Jenna and Barbara, spoke Oct. 19, about
what their father brings to the family and what he can bring to the country
if re-elected.
The twins, who joined a “W” Stands for Women discussion at
University of Denver, said their father is the only man who can lead the
country because of his strength, compassion and integrity.
Jenna Bush said her father will make the “economy stronger, improve
education and make America safer.”
“My dad supports his team to the very last pitch,” she said,
remembering her father attending every Texas Rangers game while he was
co-owner of the team.
One Labor Day weekend, Jenna said, she was the only family member brave
enough to attend a game with her father when the temperature topped 100
degrees. Wanting to leave along with the rest of the fans, she embarrassed
her father by wrapping her body in wet paper towels to beat the heat.
While Jenna Bush reminisced about her father’s past, Barbara Bush
spoke about her parents’ futures in the White House.
She said one reason to vote for her father was “to keep my mom
in the White House for four more years.”
She also spoke briefly on education reform, economic gains and the war
on terror.
She said her father would make sure “no one is left behind”
and that more freedom in the world means more peaceful times.
With Colorado as one of the key battleground states and polls showing
the race tight between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, Barbara Bush
said she’s sure her father can win.
“It depends on how many go out and vote,” she said.
After the twins addressed a crowd of 100 women, DU students, and the
press, Gwynneth Dieter, president of the Colorado chapter of “W”
Stands for Women, introduced three guest panelists: Liz Cheney, daughter
of Vice President Dick Cheney; Lt. Gov. Jane Norton; and Nancy Brinker,
former U.S. ambassador to Hungary and founder of the Race for the Cure.
The three spoke about issues ranging from national security to “No
Child Left Behind,” President Bush’s education reform program.
“Bush has been a steady and consistent leader at home and abroad,”
Dieter said.
Cheney, taking the first question from Dieter, suggested that the invasion
of Iraq was a good move for United States foreign policy.
“Post-9/11, no American president would stand by while threats
gathered,” Cheney said. “Iraq was the nexus of terrorism.”
Cheney continued to point to Kerry’s record.
“He has come down on the wrong side of every issue,” she
said.
Shifting gears, Brinker answered several questions about U.S. health
care. She said she was excited about President Bush’s policies currently
in place and those being proposed for the next four years.
“Health care is going to be a subject in the next decade that will
plague all of us if we don’t do anything about it today,”
Brinker said.
She said U.S. health care is the envy of the world and the Bush administration
must be re-elected in order to keep it privatized and allow families the
choice of care. She said President Bush has new plans that will make health
care easier to understand and less expensive.
Brinker also said President Bush’s stance on stem-cell research
has been skewed by liberals. She said there is no limit on private research
of stem cells and there will be hundreds of experiments on the federal-approved
lines and this administration is the first to approve any federal funding.
Norton spoke about the economy and the challenges the Bush administration
has had to face, including “inheriting a deficit,” Sept. 11
and corporate scandals.
She said President Bush has made great gains in the economy — including
lowering unemployment to 4.5 percent, 13 months of job growth and high
home ownership.
“Our economy is back on track,” Norton said.
Outside of Strum Hall, where the discussion was held, there were four
female DU students sitting on the cold cement holding signs.
One read, “I had an abortion, ask me.” Another, “Traitor
to the VAG-ina.”
They said they’re women who do not stand for “W.”
DU student Alex Edgeworth said she had an abortion in July.
“I was unfit to be a mother. I couldn’t provide,” Edgeworth
said.
She also said she was never politically active before she attended college
and now feels that everyone who can vote should.
“I can’t vote for someone who is against reproductive rights,”
she said.
Women need to have the right to a safe and legal abortion because any
woman who wants an abortion will have one “even if she has to use
a coat hanger,” she said.
Edgeworth said while President Bush’s supporters see National Security
Advisor Condoleeza Rice and other high-ranking women as a sign of progression,
she views them as token women.
She said those women’s opinions are not respected or entirely represented.
Meanwhile DU student Nichole Walker sat inside with her College Republican
friends. She said women’s rights aren’t just about abortion.
They range in foreign and domestic spectrum including voting rights and
education.
“I think he’s done a lot for women. Look at the bigger issues,”
she said. “Women are voting and going to school for the first time
in Afghanistan.”
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