Kerry slams Bush's "wrong" choices

By The Washington Post and The Associated Press

AP Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., holds up a rifle he received as a gift while visiting Racine, W.Va.

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On a dash across Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, Kerry assailed the president's economic policies and paid special attention to the war in Iraq, calling it "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time."

He said he aimed to withdraw U.S. troops from the country during his first term. Bush has not provided a specific timetable for withdrawal.

Bush fired back, saying Kerry had taken "yet another new position" on the war.

"After voting for the war, but against funding it, after saying he would have voted for the war even knowing everything we know today, my opponent woke up this morning with new campaign advisers and yet another new position," Bush said while campaigning in Missouri.

"No matter how many times Senator Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America and it's right for America now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power," Bush said.

In this Pittsburgh suburb, Kerry told supporters: "I would not have done just one thing differently than the president on Iraq, I would have done everything differently than the president on Iraq. I said this from the beginning of the debate to the walk up to the war. I said, 'Mr. President, don't rush to war, take the time to build a legitimate coalition and have a plan to win the peace.' "

Later, at a picnic in Racine, W.Va., Kerry termed the war in Iraq "catastrophic." Still later, in Cleveland, he referred to it as "a quagmire." He also blasted the president's record on job creation, health care, energy independence and education.

In total, the day seemed to signal a sharper, more combative positioning for Kerry. Campaign aides, as well as former President Clinton, have been urging him to be more critical of Bush.

Polls indicate Bush and Kerry are running evenly in four of the states the candidates were visiting Monday — Minnesota, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Nationally, Bush led Kerry by 7 points — 52 percent to 45 percent — in a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll taken over the weekend and released yesterday. Bush had 11-point leads in two other polls taken last week.
 
Some of Kerry's harshest words were reserved for the war in Iraq. He called the administration's claim that there were coalition forces fighting alongside 125,000 Americans troops "the phoniest thing I've ever heard."

"You've got about 500 troops here, 500 troops there, and it's American troops that are 90 percent of the combat casualties, and it's American taxpayers that are paying 90 percent of the cost of the war," he said.

"This president rushed to war without a plan to win the peace, and he's cost all of you $200 billion that could have gone to schools, could have gone to health care, could have gone to prescription drugs, could have gone to our Social Security."

Both sides sparred over employment, too.

Speaking at the Minnesota State Fair, Vice President Dick Cheney declared low taxes are the key to robust employment.

Kerry asserted that the employment gains have been driven by jobs that pay poorly and offer worse benefits and less security than jobs of old.

Kerry ventured into friendly territory in Racine, a tiny town in the heart of coal-mining country. The event was an annual picnic sponsored by the United Mine Workers of America, whose president gave Kerry a rifle as a gift.

Kerry, a gun-owner and hunter, quipped: "I thank you for the gift, but I can't take it to the debate with me."