Scholastic Student Reporter Leanne Nixon with Senator John Kerry on election day in Columbus, Ohio, on March 2. (Photo: Courtsey Leanne Nixon)

Monday, March 1—"Bring it on!" were the first and last words from Senator John Kerry, who was campaigning for President on the Ohio State University campus today. His battle cry is a direct challenge to the Republican candidate for President, George W. Bush.

Kerry charged that Bush "thought he could play dress up on an aircraft carrier, and he thought he could stand up there in front of a great big old sign that read, 'Mission Accomplished!' and the rest of the country wouldn't notice the loss of jobs or the 'failed' war on terror."

Kerry also told a story about the last time he visited Ohio, on the day after he went to Wisconsin in mid February. When he got into his car to go to an event, Kerry remembered, his driver gave him a "good luck buckeye." To emphasize his point, Kerry pulled the buckeye out of his pocked and showed it to the crowd.

"I've carried this with me every day since," he said. He promised his Buckeye State supporters it would also be with him on Super Tuesday, when 10 states, including Ohio, vote in the Democratic primaries. And he will keep it with him in November and "when I make it to the White House," he said.

Senator Kerry is expected to do well in the Super Tuesday elections tomorrow. His only real opponent, Senator John Edwards, has also been campaigning in Ohio, but popularity polls show him behind Kerry in support. Edwards is hoping for a win in Georgia to propel his campaign on to the Southern Tuesday elections on March 9.