Kerry team, DNC hit Bush on Guard issuePage 3 of 3 -- "He wants to give more power to Washington by raising taxes," Bush said in Colmar, Pa., where he spoke in a warehouse owned by Byers' Choice, a company that makes products with Christmas themes. "If you have a job, he voted for higher taxes on you. . . . The good news is, on the second of November, you have a chance to vote."
Kerry also came in for a slashing rebuke from independent candidate Ralph Nader, who said at a Washington breakfast yesterday that the nominee was receiving terrible advice from his campaign strategists to talk too much about Iraq. "The Democrats are going to lose this election, and they are going to lose it for reasons unrelated to this [Nader] candidacy," Nader said. "Even though this is the most vulnerable administration in many years, they're not letting him [Kerry] think for himself." Yesterday marked one month since Kerry held a news conference with reporters traveling with him, despite pledging in August that as president he would hold "a press conference at least once a month to talk to the nation about what I'm doing, because I don't have anything to hide." Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter denied that the candidate was avoiding the media at a time when polls are going against him. "He's concentrating on delivering his message right now to voters -- today it's Medicare, yesterday it's wrong decision on Iraq," Cutter said. Kerry did speak with an Associated Press reporter during a visit yesterday morning in Des Moines and said twice that he believed he was going to win on Election Day. "You know, we've been through a month where we had a huge financial disadvantage to the Republicans because of the convention timings. And I think, every day, we're gaining," Kerry said. He and his aides also shrugged off separate polls issued yesterday by ABC/Washington Post and CBS that showed Bush holding a lead of nine and seven points, respectively. In what could be a troubling sign for the Kerry campaign, more voters had unfavorable rather than favorable opinions of Kerry in both polls. Bush, meanwhile, had a 27-point advantage in the ABC poll on the question of which candidate would be the stronger leader, and a 22-point lead on which would best handle terrorism.
Susan Milligan of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Healy traveled with Kerry, Klein with Bush. Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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