WP: Seniors' Concerns Are Medicare, More

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Among Worries Are Deficit, War in Iraq

LAS VEGAS -- President Bush's Medicare prescription drug law has not gone over well with many of America's seniors. Too little, too late, they complain in polls and interviews. Confusing. Complicated. A boondoggle for the drug companies.

But if Bush appears to be encountering difficulty wooing older voters this year, it is not just because of Medicare. The 60-plus crowd is also upset about the war in Iraq, worried about the ballooning deficit, put off by Bush's style.

No group in American politics commands the sort of attention lavished on senior citizens. Yet in dozens of interviews at the annual AARP convention here and in several national surveys, retirees signaled that they have much more on their agenda.

"It was wrong to go into Iraq, arrogant," said James Politis, 80. "The health care situation stinks. Women's rights -- Bush is absolutely wrong on. And the religious situation; he's trying to force his beliefs on us."

Though they sometimes cancel out each other's votes, this year Politis and his wife agreed and cast absentee ballots in Illinois for Democrat John F. Kerry.

"I can't stand Bush," Lorraine Politis said. ". . . We don't like automatic weapons; Iraq was a mistake."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38741-2004Oct16.html