GOP governors make late visit for Bush They say the president will win if he just keeps being himself By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle As President Bush visits Oshkosh today, three Republican governors visiting Green Bay Thursday night had some advice for him: Be yourself, and you'll win. The three governors - Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho and Mike Rounds of South Dakota - spoke to a small but noisy group of Republican volunteers in a chairless conference room at the Wingate Inn in Ashwaubenon. "Make sure you mention that it was standing room only," Kempthorne joked to a reporter. They were part of a contingent of governors who left Las Vegas after Wednesday's presidential debate to fly to key battleground states. "We were a battleground state until just the last few weeks," said Huckabee, "and the president has surged ahead. He's leading by about nine points." He said Wisconsin voters were the type "who don't ask a lot ... they don't want to be fed and clothed and pampered. They just want to be able to go to work, get a decent paycheck, have the government quit taking so much of it and raise their family with a sense of security." It's a message he says Bush can clearly convey and one that Kempthorne said would spark supporters such as the ones he spoke to Thursday. "There is an energy, an enthusiasm. For the next 19 days you're going to have a lot of Wisconsin folks who truly believe in the president and they're going to be actively working for him." So what does Bush have to do? "Be himself. The real George Bush wins this election," said Kempthorne. "The real John Kerry makes George Bush even more win this election. If people see both of these people as they really are, George Bush wins overwhelmingly." Huckabee said after seeing Bush in Las Vegas, the president had hit his stride. "The people in Oshkosh will see that tomorrow. He is on message, he's energized, he has the support of one of the best first ladies we've ever had and they're doing great things now." "As long as we have the opportunity to show the president to as many people as possible," Rounds added, "things are going to work out just fine. When people see him and hear his message direct, and the way he delivers that message, it's powerful, not wishy-washy." Rounds said the country had to provide troops in Iraq "with the type of leadership they can believe in." The three governors couldn't resist joking about Kerry's "Lambert Field" error during a visit here, although Kempthorne provided the most impressive Green Bay Packers credentials, bringing greetings from 1960s Packers guard and Idaho native Jerry Kramer, who added his support for the president. They emphasized Bush's straight-talking ways. "He may stumble over a word now and then, but he never stumbles over his core beliefs," Huckabee said.