Bush, Kerry trade jabs as debate nears

By Mike Allen and Lois Romano
The Washington Post

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WEST CHESTER, Ohio — President Bush headed yesterday toward his first face-off with Sen. John Kerry by mocking his challenger as a vacillator who could spend the whole time debating himself, while Kerry attacked Bush on issues from Iraq and the economy to farm policy.

The candidates' appearances in two of the election's marquee battlegrounds — Bush in Ohio and Kerry in Wisconsin — broke with the tradition of pre-debate seclusion, and the events reflected the moods and messages of both camps.

The president, riding a wave of encouraging polls, plans to use plain talk and dashes of humor to call attention to what he considers shifts and gaps in Kerry's record, according to aides. The Massachusetts senator, slipping with crucial Democratic voting blocs, plans to continue fighting back with a newly focused and unsparing critique of the president's performance as commander in chief, particularly on Iraq, his aides said.

At dusk, Bush staged the largest rally of his campaign, arriving at a park outside Cincinnati in a star-spangled bus, with cranes suspending a huge flag and a giant map of the Buckeye State over a vast, roaring crowd. The campaign's event planners replaced the usual country-music finale with "Celebration."

Flag-waving crowds turned out in small towns to wave at Bush's cavalcade at it wended through GOP territory in southwestern Ohio. Tieless and with his sleeves rolled up, Bush joked in a West Chester rally that it had been "a little tough to prepare for the debate" because Kerry "keeps changing his positions, especially on the war."

"I think he can spend 90 minutes debating himself," Bush said. "You cannot lead if you don't know where you stand. I'm going to continue to speak as clearly as I can and tell the people what I believe. And I'm not going to change positions when times get tough."

Meanwhile, the Bush campaign rolled out a new ad asking: "How can John Kerry protect us when he doesn't even know where he stands?" Kerry's campaign hit back with a spot that claims "Bush has no plan what to do in Iraq" and inquires: "How can you solve a problem when you can't see it?"

At a town meeting in rural Wisconsin, Kerry said: "Are you telling me seriously that people in Wisconsin are going to return to the presidency a man who promised jobs and lost them? I think the good common-sense, fiscally responsible, conservative citizens of Wisconsin know that it's our responsibility to pay our bills and not dump them on our kids."

Kerry said Bush is "still trying to hide from the American people what needs to be done in order to be successful in Iraq," and said it is "questionable" whether there can be democratic elections in Iraq by January because of the turmoil in the country.
 
He acknowledged that some voters question whether it's prudent, in the middle of a war, to "change horses in midstream," but said, "When your horse is heading down toward the waterfall, or when your horse is drowning, it's a good time to change horses in midstream."

The 6-foot-4-inch candidate added: "May I also suggest that we need a taller horse? You can get through deeper waters that way."

Material from Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Associated Press is included in this report.