Bush, Kerry Clash on Iraq in Labor Day Rallies

By Patricia Wilson and Adam Entous

CANONSBURG, Pa./POPLAR BLUFF - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry launched one of his harshest broadsides against the Iraq war on Monday, sparking an angry response from President Bush, as the war overshadowed their attempts to focus on the economy.

Marking Labor Day, the traditional kickoff for what has become a marathon presidential campaign season, the two candidates held rallies in the battleground states of Missouri, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio with Kerry now trailing by double digits in national polls.

Kerry tried to focus on domestic issues at a neighborhood meeting in Canonsburg, but members of the audience raised Iraq.

After months of off-and-on criticism of the war, Kerry seized the opening, calling the invasion "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time," and said his goal was to withdraw U.S. troops in a first White House term.

In a statement issued later, Kerry called Iraq a "quagmire" created by Bush’s "wrongheaded, go-it-alone" policy.

Bush turned from his tax reform proposals to shoot back at Kerry during a rally in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, accusing the Massachusetts senator of vacillating on Iraq after bringing in new advisers.

"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. "Suddenly he’s against it again."

"No matter how many times Sen. Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America then and it’s right for America now," he told the crowd, which chanted back, "flip-flop, flip flop."

FOCUS ON JOBS?

With scarcely two months until the Nov. 2 election, some senior Democrats have advised Kerry to focus on jobs and the economy as he tries to reinvigorate his campaign.

Polls show Bush’s popularity with voters is particularly strong on Iraq and issues of national security, while Kerry poses more of a challenge on health care, the economy and jobs, generally the centerpiece of Labor Day campaigning.

In Poplar Bluff, population 16,651, Bush held up two copies of the U.S. tax code and promised to overhaul the system if he gets reelected.

"This tax code weighs heavily on our economy. It weighs heavily on every American family... This tax code needs to be changed," Bush said.

"For the sake economic growth and for the sake of fairness, I will lead a bipartisan team to simplify and reform the federal tax code," he added.

Bush made reforming the tax code a centerpiece of his acceptance speech at last week’s Republican convention, and the White House said he would issue an executive order creating a bipartisan panel to make recommendations on how this might be accomplished.

Bush said on Saturday that a flat tax was "certainly one option." He has also called a national sales tax "an interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously."

Democratic opponents say both ideas would hurt the poor and the middle class, who would pay the same tax rate as the wealthy even though they have less disposable income.

Bush won Missouri by 3 percent in 2000. Since then, he has visited the battleground state 21 times. Bush strategists said they saw an opening after the Kerry campaign cut its advertising in the state in half.

But Bush’s upbeat economic message may be a hard sell in a state where last month the Labor Department reported nonfarm job losses totaling 51,800.

Kerry has cast Bush as the first president since the 1930s to seek re-election "without creating a single job," referring to the fact that the United States is down a net 1.65 million private-sector jobs since Bush took office in January 2001.

In a report challenging recent job gains, the Kerry campaign said newly created jobs pay on average $8,848 per year less than those lost.

In Racine, West Virginia, Kerry again assailed Bush’s record, repeatedly telling a Labor Day rally the "W" in Bush’s name stood for "wrong — wrong choices, wrong judgment, wrong priorities, wrong direction for our country" on everything from jobs to Iraq.

Kerry moved longtime adviser John Sasso from the Democratic National Committee to a top job inside his campaign.

Sasso will travel with Kerry through the Nov. 2 election. Several ex-aides to President Bill Clinton also were added recently, including former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart and Joel Johnson, a former senior White House aide.

A Kerry campaign spokesman said it was simply an expansion of staff for the final two-month race. (Reuters)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6161655