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Cheney to address GOP on convention's 1st night

Vice President Cheney, a conservative favorite but a divisive national figure, will join President Bush in addressing delegates on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, the White House said yesterday.

Vice President Cheney, a conservative favorite but a divisive national figure, will join President Bush in addressing delegates on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, the White House said yesterday.

There had been doubts about a speech by Cheney, who remains unpopular with most Americans. When asked earlier this week about the vice president's plans to attend the convention, spokeswoman Megan Mitchell left the question open by saying his schedule for September had not been set.

Cheney plans to speak the same Monday night that Bush will address delegates in St. Paul, Minn., Mitchell said yesterday. The convention is scheduled for Sept. 1 to 4, ending with John McCain's nomination.

Cheney is popular with many Republican faithful and remains a behind-the-scenes power broker. The convention provides Bush and Cheney an opportunity for a valedictory speech to the GOP.

Campaigning in Des Moines, Iowa, yesterday, McCain didn't mince words at the Iowa State Fair, telling corn producers he didn't want to subsidize their ethanol but was eager to help market farm products around the world.

"My friends, we will disagree on a specific issue, and that's healthy," McCain said as he stood near bales of straw at one of the nation's premier farming showcases. "I believe in renewable fuels. I don't believe in ethanol subsidies, but I believe in renewable fuels."

McCain has never been shy about speaking against subsidizing ethanol when he is in farm country, though that stand helped to make him unpopular enough in Iowa that he skipped participating in its leadoff presidential caucuses in 2000 and again in 2008.

Democrats in the state said McCain's opposition to ethanol subsidies and the $300 billion farm bill would make it difficult for the Republican to win Iowa's seven electoral votes and would hurt him throughout the Midwest. McCain called the bipartisan farm bill "bloated" and an example of the kind of spending measure he would veto as president.

The McCain campaign released a new TV ad for battleground states that contends Obama would raise taxes on the middle class as well as families, small businesses and the elderly. It repeats the Republican campaign's assertion that Obama would raise taxes on those making $42,000 a year, a figure linked to allowing the Bush administration's tax cuts to expire on schedule in 2010.

Obama maintains that his budget plan is aimed at raising taxes only on those making more than $200,000 a year individually and $250,000 a year as a couple.