President promotes high-tech medical records

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Bush split time between raising $1.7 million for the Republican Party and touring Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, where he watched a doctor retrieve electronic medical records.

Bush promoted his goal of having such records available electronically in 10 years. To help meet the goal, the government has hired a national health-information-technology coordinator, who is to report by July 20 on how to address privacy and security needs of computerizing records. The effort also will require standardizing the technology used by medical workers.

Bush's 2005 budget proposal includes $100 million for demonstration projects to test the effectiveness of health-information technology.

Survey: Don't pressure politicians on abortion

NEW YORK — About 71 percent of U.S. voters believe Roman Catholic bishops should not publicly pressure Catholic politicians on abortion, according to a survey released yesterday.

And 85 percent said their view of Democrat John Kerry was unchanged by bishops' recent criticism of the Catholic presidential candidate for his support of abortion rights, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.

Among Catholic voters, 66 percent said the bishops should not publicly pressure Catholic lawmakers and 87 percent said the bishops' comments would not influence their vote in November.

Several bishops have sparked a national debate over religion and politics by saying Kerry should not receive communion.

The poll of 1,160 registered voters was conducted May 18-24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The margin of error for the subgroup of Catholic respondents was plus or minus 5.6 percentage points.

Poll: Kerry-McCain ticket has advantage over Bush-Cheney
 
WASHINGTON — The hypothetical pairing of Democrat John Kerry and Republican Sen. John McCain holds a double-digit lead over the Republican ticket of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new poll released yesterday.

Kerry-McCain has a 14-point advantage over Bush-Cheney among registered voters, 53 percent to 39 percent, in the latest CBS News poll.

McCain in April said he would consider an offer from Kerry, a fellow Vietnam veteran, to be his running mate. But the Arizona senator has said several times since that he supports Bush's re-election and does not want to be anyone's vice president.

The random sample of 1,113 adults was interviewed May 20-23. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Clinton says Kerry has shown proper restraint in campaign

NEW YORK — Former President Clinton said yesterday that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is wise not to analyze every development in Iraq because "he recognizes that he's not the president."

Clinton said he didn't think the Massachusetts senator was running "too safe a campaign" as some political strategists have suggested.

"He recognizes that he's not the president, and he's not. He's the candidate for president; he's not somebody that's supposed to give day-by-day commentary on events," Clinton said.

"He's made quite clear what he believes about the major issues in the news today, and I think he's shown a certain reticence. Given the seriousness of the problems we face in the world today, I think it's been quite appropriate."

Also ...

Former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., will campaign for three days this weekend with Democrat Tony Knowles, who is trying to wrest one of Alaska's Senate seats from Republican hands.