Washington, D.C.

Voters say Kerry wrong to cite gay daughter

An overwhelming majority of voters believe it was wrong for John Kerry to have mentioned in Wednesday’s presidential debate that Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter is a lesbian, according to The Washington Post tracking survey.

Nearly two in three likely voters — 64 percent — said Kerry’s comment was “inappropriate,” including more than four in 10 of his supporters and half of all swing voters. A third — 33 percent — thought the remark was appropriate.

Kerry made the comment when asked if he believed homosexuality was a choice. He said, “If you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being who she was born as.”

Cheney has two daughters and one of them, Mary Cheney, has been open about being gay.

Washington, D.C.

Poll: Security issues dominating attention

National security issues such as the war in Iraq and terrorism are dominating voters’ attention in the final weeks before Election Day, Associated Press polling found.

Along with security issues like war and terrorism, the economy and health care were near the top of the list of the nation’s most important problems in an AP-Ipsos poll.

In a poll by CBS News in October 2000, the most important problems were Social Security, education and health care.

National security issues were picked by 55 percent of Americans as the most important problems facing the nation, according to the poll taken in early October — up from 43 percent who named national security issues in an April poll.

Washington, D.C.

Even little campaigning uncertain for Clinton

President Clinton, laid further low than he expected by heart surgery last month, will not make any more than a few cameo appearances on behalf of Democratic nominee John Kerry, and even an abbreviated schedule is far from certain, according to friends and Democratic officials.

Clinton has been recuperating from his Sept. 6 quadruple bypass surgery at his home in Chappaqua, N.Y., with a regimen that has included mile-long walks. He is exhausted after each walk, friends said, and he remains in pain from the chest incision.