Bush Searching for Pennsylvania Votes [View All]

By DEB RIECHMANN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -

President Bush, hoping to move Pennsylvania to his win column in this year's election, is reaching out to voters in the state by touting record home ownership in America - a bright spot in the economy.

More than 68 percent of Americans own their own homes, and that record high flows seamlessly into Bush's "compassionate conservative" agenda. It's part of his concept of an "ownership society," which promotes the idea of Americans owning their own homes, and owning and managing their own health care and retirement plans, small businesses and the like.

In a trip to Pennsylvania on Monday, his 25th as president, Bush planned to visit with a new homeowner, tour a housing development and participate in a discussion of home ownership at a YMCA in Ardmore, about 10 miles west of Philadelphia.

Bush has been promoting initiatives to close the gap between white and minority home ownership. While more than 75 percent of white Americans owned their own home in the fourth quarter of 2003, according to the Census Bureau, the rate among minority groups was 49 percent or less.

more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-elect/2004/mar/15/031501670.html