Kerry, Edwards defend their agenda

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- After having the luxury of talking virtually unchallenged about their politics at the Democratic National Convention, John F. Kerry and John Edwards found themselves defending their records and their plans for the country yesterday, while their campaign planned what it deemed a ''truth" offensive.

A new poll indicated that the Democratic presidential ticket was losing ground instead of gaining the usual bounce coming out of the party's convention, with Kerry trailing President Bush, 50 percent to 46 percent, among likely voters surveyed. Another CNN/ USA Today/ Gallup survey a week ago had the race essentially tied, with Kerry ahead of Bush, 47 percent to 46 percent. Both polls were within the sampling's margin of error. A Newsweek poll released Saturday indicated that Kerry was leading Bush, 49 percent to 42 percent.

In a series of side-by-side interviews on the Sunday talk-show circuit, the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees faced questions about their plans for Iraq, about their charge that Bush has misled the American people, and on whether Edwards has the seasoning to be vice president, and potentially, president.

The launching point was Kerry's admittedly vague references lately that ''I have a plan for Iraq," where about 140,000 US troops are stationed and Bush is facing questions about postwar violence and long-term stability.

Speaking on the ABC news program ''This Week," the Massachusetts senator declared: ''I've been involved in this for a long time, longer than George Bush. I've spent 20 years negotiating, working, fighting for different kinds of treaties and different relationships around the world. I know that as president there's huge leverage that will be available to me, enormous cards to play, and I'm not going to play them in public. I'm not going to play them before I'm president."

Asked whether he would promise to have US troops home from Iraq by the end of his first term, Kerry replied: ''I will have significant, enormous reduction in the level of troops. We will probably have a continued presence of some kind, and certainly in the region. If the diplomacy that I believe can be put in place can work, I think we can significantly change the deployment of troops, not just there but elsewhere in the world -- in the Korean Peninsula perhaps, in Europe perhaps."

Last year, Kerry delivered major speeches at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution outlining his plan for handling Iraq. In each speech he called for installing a multinational military force under US command and establishing a transitional government under what he later said should be the auspices of a United Nations high commander. In light of changing events and conditions in Iraq, the media have pressed Kerry for a more current proposal.

The Kerry-Edwards campaign also said it would launch a ''truth squad," which would include former senator Max Cleland of Georgia, to respond to the Bush administration's criticism of the Democrats' records. The Democratic National Committee, which has launched a $6 million ad campaign supporting Kerry, also has said it plans to be more aggressive in countering Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who have publicly questioned Kerry's achievements over 19 years in the Senate.

The first sign of the retaliatory campaign, which most likely will include ads by the committee and speeches by Kerry-Edwards supporters, was an e-mail recapping Cheney's record while serving in Congress. It indicated 31 bills sponsored, with two minor ones enacted, including legislation to declare a floodway for the Colorado River.

''We're happy to have a debate on our record," said Stephanie Cutter, Kerry's communications director. Bush ''is talking about what we've done for the past 20 years. Let's take a look at what he's done for the last 20 years, including the last four years as president."

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, replied that Kerry's ''inability to articulate a coherent sentence about Iraq, combined with seven different explanations about why he voted against funding troops . . . after saying a 'no' vote would be irresponsible -- are two reasons why John Kerry is the first nominee since George McGovern not to receive a bounce in the polls after a convention."

Kerry and Edwards made the television appearances as they headed in separate directions for the first time since the convention. The two addressed a rally in Ohio before Kerry continued on to Michigan for a softball game, and Edwards flew to Tennessee and Florida for rallies. They are splitting a 22-state, 3,500-mile tour by bus, boat, and train.

Yesterday, crowds gathered on the side of a highway in Ohio, and about 10,000 turned out in the baking sun in a part of the state that is traditionally Republican territory. Speaking in this college town, Kerry rebuffed Republican criticism of his political values.

''You don't value families when you deny real prescription drug coverage to seniors so that the big drug companies can get a great big windfall," he said after standing up on a hand-railing to survey the crowd that stretched down Main Street. ''We believe in the oldest family value of all: Honor thy father and thy mother. And when John and I are in there, I will not privatize Social Security, I will not cut Social Security benefits, and we're going to make sure that no senior has to cut their pills in half because they can't afford the medicine they need."

Later, greeted by a crowd of several thousand ringing the ballfield in Michigan, he noted his Massachusetts roots and said, ''We've been waiting since 1918 for the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series, and . . . if I had a choice between the White House and the World Series this year, I'm going to take the White House."

In the morning interviews, Kerry was asked both on ''FOX News Sunday" and the CBS program ''Face the Nation" about whether he was calling Bush a liar by saying he had misled the nation before launching the war in Iraq.

''You're fighting to get me to say a word I have not used and I'm not going to use," Kerry told FOX host Chris Wallace after persistent questioning on the point. ''They misled America. Whether it was intentional or not is up to Americans to decide."

Meanwhile, on ''Face the Nation," host Bob Schieffer asked Edwards about Republican suggestions that the one-term senator is a ''pretty boy, a lightweight."

Edwards laughed before replying, ''I've shown through my 51 years of life a toughness and a fight from the time I was very young."

A day earlier in Greensburg, Pa., Edwards's wife, Elizabeth, broached the subject, saying: ''Sometimes, people think because you have a smile on your face . . . you might be too big a patsy. But you all know better. . . . To live this life, you have to have a certain kind of toughness, and that's what he's got."

The CNN/ USA Today/ Gallup poll was conducted Friday and Saturday, after the convention. It sampled 763 people and had a margin of error of four percentage points, meaning the shift of support was within that range. Nonetheless, it was the first time in the Gallup Poll since the 1972 Democratic convention that a candidate seemed to lose ground after his party's convention. The organization planned to continue polling last night to confirm the result.

The Newsweek poll was conducted Thursday, the day Kerry accepted his nomination, and Friday. It surveyed 1,010 adults, age 18 or older, with a margin of error of three percentage points. In the previous two-day sample, conducted Wednesday and Thursday, Kerry led by a smaller margin, 47 percent to 45 percent.