President Bush pitches fitness, patriotism, while campaigning for his bother.

Byline: Mark Silva

ORLANDO, Fla. _ President Bush, imploring Americans to keep their faith in the war against terrorism and eat their fruits and vegetables, campaigned for physical fitness and his brother Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election Friday.

He dedicated his six-hour Orlando visit to healthy living, patriotism and political money.

In his pitch for fitness, the president found his perfect model in Julian Washington, who turned 86 on Friday, exercise-cycling in a "spinning room" at the Marks Street Senior Center in Orlando. "You make my point," Bush told him.

In his appeal to patriotism, he told an audience at the senior center that the government is mobilizing to protect the nation from its enemies. "When it comes to the defense of freedom, we are tough," Bush said, "and when it comes to the defense of our homeland we are plenty tough."

And in promoting his brother's re-election, the president found perfect allies at a $2.5-million, record-setting fundraiser for the Republican Party of Florida.

Among the most prominent seated at the party's Portofino Bay resort hotel dinner Friday night: Orlando lawyer Fred Leonhardt, who took credit for raising more than $200,000 for the governor's re-election effort this year _ $100,000 in one check alone from Orlando real estate developer Bobby Ginn.

…