31.   Bush was tracing a course through three battleground states, talking about leadership.

32.   But both Al Gore and George W. Bush will be watching for any indication of how the crucial battleground state will swing in the general election.

33.   But if voters here and in the other battleground states were looking for broad statements of principle on American relations with other nations, they did not get them.

34.   But the heart of his strategy rested in bigger battleground states like Michigan and Florida, where his brother Jeb is governor.

35.   But the Gore campaign, fearing it would lose those states in the end, has preferred to focus resources on Florida and the Midwestern battleground states.

36.   But this campaign proved that the Electoral College now sends the candidates only to battleground states while they ignore voters in states that are safely in either camp.

37.   Campaign aides said he would visit virtually every battleground state before Election Day.

38.   California is widely recognized as a battleground state, with a large Latino community at stake.

39.   Clinton is taking this train through key battleground states -- Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.

40.   Clinton and Gore then followed separate itineraries, the president sweeping through two more battleground states, Ohio and Kentucky.