Bush, Kerry trade accusations on trail

[Fluffybunny]

The article itself is OK, but I have to say that the photo that goes with the article is hilarious. I guess that Kerry was given a shotgun for some reason as a gift. The photo shows Kerry holding that shotgun. The look on his face is priceless. I can't figure out if he is nervous about the gun, or didn't want to have the photo op with the gun, or if he was just generally constipated that day...He looks very uncomfortable...

(CNN) -- The presidential candidates ventured into bitterly contested territory Saturday, trading barbs over national security, the economy and health care.

Bush continued his bus tour in Florida, and Sen. John Kerry spoke in southern Ohio. Both are swing states, and some polls show the race in each is too close to call.

Both candidates hope their appearances will tip a margin of victory in their favor or at least win over wavering voters. Combined, Ohio and Florida are worth 47 electoral votes on election night.

In Florida, President Bush held two rallies in the Democratic strongholds of Broward and Palm Beach counties, which also have significant numbers of Republican and undecided voters.

Bush stressed the importance of a firm response to international terrorism, calling security the "most solemn duty of an American president," at a rally in Sunrise, near Fort Lauderdale.

"If America will show uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift to a tragedy. This will not happen on my watch," he said.

He insisted a commander in chief "must stand on principle, not the shifting stands of political convenience," repeating his attacks on Kerry as an irresolute leader. Bush noted that tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of Kerry's vote against a bill authorizing funds for the war in Iraq.

Kerry has challenged that characterization, saying he has held a consistent position and justified voting against the bill because, he said, the war was being mishandled.

At the end of a day of fierce campaigning, Bush spoke at the Daytona International Speedway with his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, at his side.

"Round up everybody you can find, head them to the polls and remind them if they want a safer country, a stronger country, and a better country, to put me and Dick Cheney back in office," Bush told the crowd.

However, Bush quickly found himself trying to cover a verbal gaffe.

Insisting that he has no plans to institute a draft, and that any suggestions of a possible draft are a Democratic scare tactic, Bush said, "I made it very plain: We will not have an all-volunteer army."

He quickly followed with, "Let me restate that: We will not have a draft."

Kerry in Ohio

Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, was just as harsh on the Bush administration, accusing it of lacking credibility and competence.

"This has been the zero-accountability administration," Kerry said in the town of Xenia as his campaign passed through southern Ohio. "In fact this administration keeps the people who make the mistakes and fires the people who tell the truth."

Kerry sought to burnish his image with social conservatives in Ohio by promoting his credentials as a hunter and conservationist.

"We can balance rights and responsibilities," he said. "True sportsmen understand that one of the things we need to do is have a habitat that works for us. And we've got 28 states in America where you can't go fishing and eat the fish. We've got to do better than that. And so help me, when I'm there I'll respect the rights, but we're gonna do things that are smart."

He also had an unexpected photo opportunity that fit right in with that theme.

After Kerry got a gun license in the state, a county official -- to Kerry's surprise -- presented him with a shotgun at the conclusion of a rally in Wakefield.

Kerry vowed to come back and hunt in the state soon.

He soon returned to the attack, calling the shortage of flu vaccine another example of how the Bush administration deals with problems facing the nation.

"This story is a demonstration of this administration, how they deal with everything," Kerry said. "Because of the failure of judgment, failure to act, we have a shortfall of 48 million flu shots."

He claimed the administration received three warnings since 2001 that the vaccine system was vulnerable to shortages, but ignored them. His campaign is rolling out a new ad on the crisis.

On job losses, Kerry said the Bush administration suffers from a "truth gap" between "what this administration is telling you and what is really happening in this country."

He said 1.6 million private-sector jobs have been lost in the past four years, and that newly created jobs "average about $9,000 less, [are] without benefits, and families are slipping behind."

A nonpartisan group has challenged Kerry's estimate of a $9,000 drop in average wages. The Annenberg Public Policy Center said wages have increased slightly, and economists disagree about whether the outlook on jobs is getting better or worse

Kerry also slammed comments Treasury Secretary John Snow made during a recent trip to Ohio, when he called the Kerry campaign's depiction of job losses a "myth."

Kerry said his message to President Bush is: "The people who have lost jobs on your watch are not 'myths,' they are our neighbors, they are middle class Americans, and they deserve better.

"Your taxes are being used to subsidize the companies that are going overseas," Kerry told the crowd. He vowed to close "loopholes" that he said encourage companies to move jobs overseas.

He also said if elected, he plans to immediately roll back Bush's tax cut for people who earn more than $200,000 per year.

Edwards rallies

Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards kicked off a 12-city, five-day campaign tour of Florida in Miami, where he reiterated a campaign theme that "hope is on the way."

Edwards said the Bush administration was out of touch and had allied itself with big business at the expense of the public.

"At the end of the day you cannot stand with big drug companies, big insurance companies, big HMOs, big oil companies, and the Saudi royal family, and still stand with the American people," Edwards said. "You deserve a president who will stand with you."

Edwards told an enthusiastic crowd that Bush is the "first president in over 70 years to actually lose jobs" and said outsourcing was one cause of the problem.

"What would be good for our economy is to outsource George Bush and Dick Cheney," he quipped.

New York Times endorsement

The New York Times endorsed Kerry for president in Sunday's editions, calling the Democrat "a man with a strong moral core" who "has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive." (Full story)

The endorsement was expected, as the Times' editorial board has long been fiercely critical of President Bush and his administration.

The editorial excoriated Bush's domestic and foreign policies, and wrote that the presidential race "is mainly about Mr. Bush's disastrous tenure."