Crisis? What crisis? is Bush message to voters

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/07/wirq107.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/07/ixnewstop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=152952

President George W Bush is throwing baseballs and focusing his speeches on love and jobs - almost anything but the turmoil in Iraq - as Washington insists that talk of a crisis is overblown.

But a new poll suggested that scepticism is growing over his Iraq policy, a reminder of the need for a sign of success there by the late summer when many voters are expected to make up their minds before November's presidential election.

Mr Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney donned baseball shirts to deliver a clear message of: "Crisis? What crisis?"

Throwing a near-perfect pitch from the mound in a stadium in St Louis and brimming with his trademark homespun good cheer, Mr Bush formally opened the 2004 Major League season. At the same time, Mr Cheney threw the first pitch in Cincinnati, where the local team was playing the highly favoured Chicago Cubs.