Miami Herald - October 8, 2004
Lesley Clark and Andrea Robinson, lclark@herald.com

Vice President Dick Cheney's admission that he was "not aware" of an AIDS epidemic among black women in the United States drew a sharp rebuke Thursday from a group of black Democrats who used Cheney's trip to Miami to denounce his remarks.

Cheney's comments came as he debated Democratic challenger John Edwards on Tuesday night in the only showdown between the two presidential understudies.

Asked by debate moderator Gwen Ifill about what the U.S. government could do to stem the rate of AIDS in black women who are "13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts," Cheney said he was unfamiliar with the figures.

"I have not heard those numbers with respect to African-American women," Cheney said. "I was not aware that it was -- that they're an epidemic there, because we have made progress in terms of the overall rate of AIDS infection."

At a health clinic in Liberty City, Democrats assailed Cheney's remarks, accusing the Bush administration of being out of touch. "The bottom line is we are yet invisible," said state Rep. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, a Miami Democrat.

A Bush spokeswoman noted that Edwards failed to answer the question as well. Edwards used his time to talk about AIDS in Africa and criticized the administration for an increase in the number of people in the United States without health coverage.

The Democrats' news conference followed Cheney's Miami appearance by several hours. In an event billed as a town hall meeting, Cheney took a half-dozen questions from a friendly crowd at the Radisson Mart Plaza Hotel and Convention Center -- and sought to put the administration's spin on a new report that found no evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Cheney's visit, which marked his second day in Florida, comes as several recent polls suggest a slight edge for President Bush in the state that narrowly decided the presidency in 2000.

Bush drew 51 percent to Sen. John Kerry's 44 percent among voters, according to a poll released Thursday, conducted by Quinnipiac University in Hampden, Conn. The poll suggests lukewarm support for Kerry among his supporters -- 47 percent of them said their vote is "more against Bush" than for Kerry. Bush's support is steadfast among his supporters: 78 percent of his backers said they're voting "more for Bush."

But the poll shows Kerry gained points with what was seen as a strong first debate performance: 47 percent of those surveyed viewed Kerry more favorably after the debate at the University of Miami, while only 12 percent viewed Bush more favorably.

The poll of 1,083 registered voters was taken Oct. 1-5 and has a margin of error of three percentage points.

NEW WEAPONS REPORT

Democrats have pointed to the new weapons report by the top U.S. arms inspector to buttress their argument that Bush rushed to war without waiting for international sanctions against Iraq to weaken Saddam Hussein's regime.

But Cheney said the report makes it clear that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sorely wanted to get sanctions lifted so he could relaunch his weapons program.

"If the sanctions had been lifted, he would have been back in business," Cheney said.

But Cheney drew some of his loudest applause for his promise that Bush would veto any legislation that attempts to water down his new Cuba policy, which restricts travel to the island to once every three years.

In response to a question from the audience, Cheney noted that there is "an effort in Congress" to prevent the White House from carrying out the travel restrictions. Despite threats of a veto, the House of Representatives voted two weeks ago to prevent funding to carry out the new restrictions.

"The president has made it very clear any bill that interferes with his Cuba policies will be vetoed," Cheney said as some in the audience rose to their feet.

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