George W. Bush unwinds by clearing brush. John Kerry has a weakness for windsurfing. But both the President and his Democratic rival stress their more macho outdoor pursuits in interviews in the October issue of Field & Stream, due on newsstands this week. (They are on the cover for newsstand readers, but are supplanted by a whitetail deer in editions sent to subscribers.) The two answer questions on a variety of policy issues, from the environment to gun control, but also make a strong pitch to the rod-and-gun crowd.
President Bush, it seems, favors bass fishing (he once hooked a 9.5 pounder on Rainbow Lake in Texas) but also likes to fly-fish for ocean stripers and hunt quail with his dad. "You know, I'm not a very good shot," the President admits. He likes to fish with Barney, the family's Scottish terrier "a great fisherman," who "sits on the bow of the boat for hours." Kerry, for his part, favors saltwater fishing, mainly for bluefish and stripers. A good shot, the Senator says he occasionally goes bird and rabbit hunting and has hunted deer but has never bagged one bigger than an 8-pointer. "I once had an incredible encounter with the most enormous buck," he says, "16 points or something. And I failed to pull the trigger at the right moment." Don't tell Dick Cheney.