Inside Politics Coverage

WOODRUFF: Two showdown state polls lead the headlines in our “Campaign News Daily.” Florida and Missouri are living up to their billing as presidential battlegrounds. A new Insider Advantage Poll in the Sunshine State finds Bush and Kerry tied with 46 percent each. In Missouri, a Market Research Institute Survey gives Kerry 76 percent to Bush’s 44 percent, Ralph Nader receiving one percent.

Two political groups on the right are joining forces to advance their views and to combat lift wing 527 groups in the race for the White House. Empower America, which was co-founded by Jack Kemp, and Citizens for a Sound Economy, chaired by former House Majority Leader Dick Army, are merging their operations to create something called Freedom Works. The new group plans to dispatch campaign staff to a number of battleground states, including Florida.

[SHOWN WITH CLIP OF JACK KEMP}

Anti-Bush filmmaker Michael Moore will be right here in Boston during next week’s convention. Moore will appear at several events, including a Take Back America rally with former presidential hopeful Howard Dean. Moore will also speak to the Congressional Black Caucus, and he plans, we are told, to attend a special screening of his film “Fahrenheit 9/11” with members of a public employees union.

We’ll, Republican Chairman Tom Kean and Democratic Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton managed to guide the 9/11 Commission to issue a unanimous bipartisan report. Next on INSIDE POLITICS, both will join me to talk about their work and their hopes for the future.

Later, as we promised yesterday, I’ll take aim with a cannon and a peaceful spirit aboard Old Ironsides.