Bush took till late in the evening to respond and Kerry took a couple of hours. Who is Cheney trying to fool? Who is lacking leadership?

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No. 2 candidates take parting shots
Vice president says Kerry took poll on bin Laden tape; Edwards urges early black vote.

By Matt Stearns and Tim Funk

Knight Ridder Newspapers

November 1, 2004

FORT DODGE, Iowa -- Vice President Dick Cheney charged Sunday that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry took a poll after Osama bin Laden's videotape was broadcast in order to figure out how he should respond.

The Kerry campaign hotly denied it. In fact, Kerry responded to the videotape publicly on Friday less than two hours after the bin Laden tape aired and one day before the poll in question was supposedly taken.

But the vice president's attack underscored how hard-fought the presidential campaign is in its final hours, as both he and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina -- his Democratic counterpart -- campaigned feverishly through a series of battleground states across the country.

<blockquotes>(editor: What is clear is Cheney and Bush have been influenced by polls EI his SEI was dropped after they polled the public)</blockquotes><blockquotes> "The thing I find most amazing about it is John Kerry's first response was to go conduct a poll," Cheney told volunteers at a GOP phone bank here. "It's as though he didn't know what he believed until he took a poll. George Bush doesn't need a poll to know what he believes, especially about Osama bin Laden."

Indy Star</blockquotes>