By Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer

At Sawyer Point, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry urges voters Tuesday to rise up in the spirit of Cincinnatus and help Kerry fight to become president. About 3,000 people turned out for Kerry's Cincinnati campaign stop. The Cincinnati Enquirer/STEVEN M. HERPPICH

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, in his first campaign visit to Cincinnati, urged voters Tuesday to rise up in the tradition of Cincinnatus and help him beat George Bush.

"I know the Cincinnati area has a reputation for being conservative," Kerry told a crowd of about 3,000 clustered around a 12-foot statue of the Roman citizen-soldier at Sawyer Point. "But if you are a thoughtful person, there is nothing conservative about piling up deficits as far as the eye can see. ... There is nothing conservative about letting your attorney general trample on civil rights and liberties."

The Massachusetts senator's trip to the most Republican part of Ohio was his first stop since he had shoulder surgery a week ago. It also came on the eve of a major speech to outline new economic proposals today in Washington.

He gave hints Tuesday of what's to come.

RELATED STORIES

• Notebook: Sandal whappers serenade Kerry • WCPO video of Sen. Kerry's visit

"We're going to roll back George Bush's tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, and we're going to invest in education and health care for all Americans," Kerry said. "We will cut the deficit in half in four years, but I will not do it at the expense of the middle class in America."

Jobs must be the top priority, and if elected, he would create 10 million of them in the next four years, he said.

"When I am president, we are going to negotiate free-trade agreements and enforce free-trade agreements that make it clear the American worker can compete when there's a level playing field," Kerry said.

U.S. Rep. Rob Portman of Terrace Park delivered the Republican response in a conference call with reporters.

"When you cut through all the political back and forth, what we're seeing here in Ohio is that John Kerry plans to tax more on the federal level and spend more on the federal level," he said. "To those of us in Ohio, that sounds a lot like tax and spend."

Portman said he understands the loss of jobs to other countries is a "huge topic of interest" for U.S. workers. But Portman said that as the economy improves, he doesn't expect it to be a liability for Bush.

The most recent national job numbers show progress, and in Ohio, unemployment declined from 6.2 percent in January to 5.9 percent in February.

Still, the country is down 1.8 million jobs since Bush took office in 2000, the Kerry campaign said.

The senator's economic proposals today will include some tough choices, he told reporters after the rally. Kerry won't initially be able to spend as much as he would like on a national service program and early childhood education.

But still, he said, taxes will be lower for 98 percent of Americans and 99 percent of corporations.

Kerry continued to criticize Bush on the foreign front.

"I think this president has run the most reckless, inept ideological foreign policy in American history," he said. "I will wage a war on terror that actually makes the United States of America safer."

He questioned why the president is so determined to stick to the June 30 deadline to hand power back to Iraqis.

"I think they want to get the troops out and get the transfer out of the way as fast as possible without regard to the stability of Iraq," Kerry said. "The test ought to be the stability of Iraq, not an arbitrary date. ... It should not be related to the election."

Veterans who greeted Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, at Lunken Airport Tuesday agreed with him that Bush had mishandled America's relationship with the rest of the world.

"I'm sort of disappointed about the war in Iraq. We shouldn't have gone in without United Nations support," Charlie Combs, 77, of Westwood, said.

The situation reminds Combs of his service in Korea: "I left in '51, and they're still guarding the 38th parallel 50 years later."

The tone of the day lightened up - or at least sweetened - at Kerry's last stop. He and his entourage of police, Secret Service, reporters and dignitaries swung by the Graeter's on Hyde Park Square about 3 p.m.

"He knew exactly what he wanted - a thick, chocolate shake," said counter worker Charlotte Johnson, 20, of Hyde Park.

The stop gave Kerry a chance to talk to a key segment of the population: voters who haven't yet made up their minds.

"Honestly, I don't know that much about him," Cherie Ambrosius, 45, of Cheviot said as she watched the senator place his ice-cream order. "I would be interested in hearing his policies."

Polling by the Ohio Poll released last week showed Kerry in a virtual dead heat with President Bush in Ohio. Tuesday, both Kerry and Portman dismissed the importance of any poll taken seven months before the election.

"Ohio's going to be a tough state," Portman said. "We are still a swing state - by registration, by voting behavior. I believe it's going to be close in Ohio."

As the Romans once called on Cincinnatus to put down his plow and help them fend off the enemy, Kerry called on voters Tuesday to take up his fight for the presidency.

"This election is the most important election of our lifetime," Kerry said in winding up his speech at Sawyer Point. Whether it's education, health care, Social Security, housing, transportation or prescription drugs, he said, "all of these issues are at risk in this race.

"And if you need three words of motivation, here they are: the Supreme Court."

Reporter Gregory Korte contributed.

E-mail candrews@enquirer.com