Attacks sharpen as race winds down

By Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei
The Washington Post

STEVEN SENNE / AP President Bush greets supporters during a campaign stop in Dubuque, Iowa. Both Bush and his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry, campaigned in the Midwest yesterday.

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RICHLAND CENTER, Wis. — With a week to go until the election, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry accused President Bush yesterday of hiding embarrassments in Iraq, and Bush chastised Kerry for grasping at passing headlines instead of building a coherent proposal.

Bush, appealing to what he called "discerning Democrats" as he rumbled through rural Wisconsin on the last of 20 campaign bus tours, said Kerry projects "weakness and inaction," forsaking his party's tradition of national strength.

"My opponent has no plan, no vision — just a long list of complaints," Bush said in Dubuque, Iowa. "But a Monday morning quarterback has never won any game."

Kerry, also in Wisconsin, accused Bush for a second day of failing to secure stockpiles of explosives in postwar Iraq and painted a grim and ominous portrait of the Bush presidency. "These explosives ... could produce bombs powerful enough to demolish entire buildings, blow up airplanes, destroy tanks and kill our troops," Kerry said at a morning rally at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.

With yesterday's clash in Wisconsin — one of nearly a dozen states where the electoral outcome is unclear — the candidates approached the last seven days of the campaign with ever-harsher attacks even as their aides planned to close on a positive note. Polls show no clear advantage or momentum for either side, magnifying the importance of each campaign stop and each news cycle.

In a new commercial airing in five states and in his speeches, Kerry continued to make a case that the disappearance of nearly 400 tons of conventional explosives in Iraq is fresh evidence that Bush had botched the war and now was covering up his miscalculations. And Bush remained determined not to respond to the Democratic charge. Asked by a reporter about who was responsible for the missing munitions, Bush, on a visit to a dairy barn in Viola, Wis., did not say anything but simply glared, journalists with him said.

The White House says that the explosives' disappearance, first reported by the New York Times and CBS News and confirmed Monday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been exaggerated by what they describe as the liberal media. Bush's campaign worked aggressively to discredit the report, reflecting the nervousness of aides about a race over which they now have little control and worry could tip on any given story.

Several Kerry advisers are convinced their candidate's numbers improve every time bad news out of Iraq dominates coverage of the campaign. In a private meeting with aides this week, Kerry let it be known he wanted to focus on blaming Bush for what he calls the mess in Iraq to make sure undecided voters get the message before voting.

Kerry said yesterday that the explosives were evidence of broader problems with Bush's presidency, accusing him of plotting to cover up the missing explosives until after the election, a charge the White House denied. In recent weeks, Kerry also has accused Bush of concealing plans for a draft and a secret call-up of reservists and members of the National Guard. He pointed yesterday to a Washington Post report about the administration's plans to request $70 billion more to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to suggest a systematic plan to deceive.
 
"Mr. President, what else are you being silent about?" Kerry said. "What else are keeping from the American people? How much more will the American people have to pay?"

Bush's aides said that they will release his closing ad today, featuring an emotional clip from the president's speech to the Republican National Convention, as part of an effort to lure back voters who supported Bush after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but have since turned on him.

Reaching out to moderates, Bush, who supports a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, said in an interview aired yesterday by ABC's "Good Morning America" that he supports civil unions for gay couples "if that's what a state chooses to do."