Bush, Kerry dig in after debate

ST. LOUIS – As President Bush and Sen. John Kerry enter the final three weeks of the 2004 campaign, spirited quarreling has given way to an intensely personal battle as the two men try to shake loose a contest that political strategists believe is fixed in absolute uncertainty.

One day after their second debate, the candidates charged back to the campaign trail Saturday, trading fresh insults and allegations as each tried to gain an upper hand in critical states. Bush and Kerry infused humor into their attacks, hoping to entice voters who have yet to settle on a candidate.

“Several of his statements just don’t pass the credibility test,” Bush told a breakfast audience here, delivering a blistering assessment of Kerry. “With a straight face, he said ‘I’ve only had one position on Iraq.’ He must think we’ve been on another planet.”

“Who’s he trying to kid?” Bush asked of Kerry, then proclaiming: “He can run, but he cannot hide.”

When Kerry arrived in Ohio, he shot back at the president: “The reason I thought he was making all those scowling faces was ‘cause he saw the most recent jobs numbers and he feels like most Americans – pretty upset about them.” At another point, Kerry joked that he was “a little worried … I thought the president was going to attack (moderator) Charlie Gibson.”

With the campaign’s third debate set for Wednesday in Arizona, the prospects are high for a spellbinding conclusion to the campaign. An array of polls show the race locked in a virtual tie, with Republicans fighting to keep the discussion focused on national security and Democrats working to highlight domestic concerns as more voters tune in to the contest.

The challenge for Bush in the campaign’s closing stretch, strategists say, is to navigate the complicated terrain of information only now coming to light about the war in Iraq. Some Republicans express concern about the messages being sent by the president’s own allies, some of whom have delivered conflicting opinions about weapons in Iraq and any link between the war on terrorism and Saddam Hussein.

At the same time, Kerry is working to present his position on Iraq as unwavering, while trying to pivot to domestic issues like the economy and health care. Democratic strategists believe those topics could attract undecided voters.

As the candidates left St. Louis on Saturday, their travel schedules painted a clear picture of where the contest could be won or lost in its remaining 23 days. Bush rallied supporters in Iowa and Minnesota, while Kerry courted voters in Ohio and Florida.

The most competitive regions of the political map, perhaps, lie in the upper Midwest, in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. But Republican and Democratic strategists agree that Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida hold the most critical cache of electoral votes and that whichever candidate wins two of those three states is likely to win the White House.

For the first time Saturday, Kerry also criticized the White House for the shortage of flu vaccine. “We now know the administration knew ahead of time that there wasn’t going to be enough vaccine,” Kerry declared. A Bush spokesman called the charge “baseless and hypocritical.”

On a crisp autumn day in Elyria, Ohio, Kerry faced a sea of cheering voters as he pledged to support the middle class. He mocked Bush’s debate performance Friday. “Did you watch the debate last night?” Kerry asked the crowd. “Two-and-O and we’re moving on to victory.”

Kerry said the most “stunning moment” of the evening before came when Bush was asked to name three mistakes he has made during his first term. “The president couldn’t even name one mistake,” Kerry said. “He sort of glossed it over by saying, ‘I’ve made some mistakes in the appointments that I’ve made, but I don’t want to tell anybody who they are, I might embarrass them.’ “

For his part, Bush again and again pointedly challenged Kerry’s credibility, pointing to his positions on Iraq and a 20-year record in the Senate. The president appeared at a fund-raising breakfast for Matt Blunt, Republican gubernatorial candidate in Missouri, before traveling to Waterloo, Iowa, to address nearly 7,000 supporters.

Underscoring messages that are becoming the themes in the closing weeks of his campaign for re-election, Bush responded to repeated criticism from Kerry about the failure to capture Osama bin Laden.

“Over the next four years, we’ll pursue al Qaeda wherever they hide,” Bush said.

As they bolted through the battleground states on Saturday, campaign strategists spent the day assessing the performance of their respective candidates even as they began to prepare for the final face-to-face encounter Wednesday. Instant polling by ABC News and CNN gave a slight edge to Kerry.

Indeed, campaign aides were pleased with Kerry’s performance, describing him as clear, direct and concise about how he would change the direction in America.

“People are taking a look at Kerry and saying I can really see him in the Oval Office,” said Mike McCurry, the campaign’s chief spokesman.

Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser, defended Bush’s more combative tone in the second debate. While aides have been careful not to publicly criticize the president’s performance in the first debate, several advisers privately expressed deep concern. “He was eager. He saw the opportunity to set the record straight. He had lots of fun,” Rove said.