Bush, Kerry offer 2 views on Iraq, health care
BLAINE, Minn. -- President Bush and Democratic challenger John F. Kerry presented starkly contrasting views of Iraq and each other's health care plans yesterday as three national polls indicated that the race is in flux after Bush's postconvention bounce.
A Pew Research Center poll conducted Sept. 11-14 indicated that Bush and Kerry are knotted at 46 percent support among registered voters, and Bush with a single percentage-point advantage among likely voters, 47 percent to 46 percent.
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Those results were released as a new Gallup Poll indicated that Bush was solidifying his lead over Kerry, 55 percent to 42 percent, in a survey of likely voters taken Sept. 13-15. Among registered voters, the Bush-Cheney ticket held the edge, 52 percent to 44 percent.
Campaigning for the 10 electoral votes in Minnesota, Bush offered a rosy assessment on the situation in Iraq yesterday, despite the dour outlook being presented by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA's July National Intelligence Estimate for Iraq, details of which emerged publicly yesterday, predicted a best-case scenario of continued instability and security concerns, and said civil war is a real possibility.
Bush emphasized the positive signs in Iraq, and declared that "freedom is on the march" after allowing that "there's ongoing acts of violence."
"This country is headed toward democracy," Bush said at a rally in St. Cloud, his first stop on a three-city bus tour of the swing state. "There's a strong prime minister in place. They have a national council, and national elections are scheduled for January. It wasn't all that long ago that Saddam Hussein was in power with his torture chambers and mass graves. And today, this country is headed towards elections."
A White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said the CIA report represented the agency's assessments and did not reflect the policies being pursued by the administration to stabilize the country. He predicted that "the pessimists and naysayers" would be proved wrong on Iraq.
"The Iraqi people are determined to build a free and peaceful future," McClellan said. "We're there to partner with them and help them as they transition to democracy."
Bush made his comments as Kerry accused him of "failing to tell the truth" on Iraq, and as Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations said January elections may be difficult in Iraq because of security concerns. Bush is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly next week in New York City.
Bush sought to make health care his major theme of the day, through a forum in Blaine and a series of speeches in which he accused Kerry of seeking to nationalize health care.
"It's a plan that is massive and it's big, and it puts the government in control of health care," Bush told supporters in St. Cloud. "The only possible way for him to pay for this plan is to tax you. The other problem is that it expands the government. . . . His plan will crowd out private health insurance, giving businesses an incentive to drop the health care plans they currently provide."
The Kerry campaign responded to the criticism with a television advertisement saying Bush is lashing out at Kerry to cover up the president's shortcomings on the health care issue. Kerry's health care plan would build on the current health network by offering federal catastrophic care and coverage expansions under Medicaid, not by nationalizing health care, according to the campaign.
"George Bush's wrong choices have taken America in the wrong direction," said Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. "Costs are skyrocketing, and seniors are paying more for prescription drugs, while drug companies get a billion-dollar giveaway."
In Blaine, Bush addressed the issue of importation of prescription drugs from Canada, a position that Kerry supports as a way to take advantage of lower prices available north of the border. Bush reiterated his statement that he is open to such importation, as long as the Food and Drug Administration can guarantee the safety of the medicines.
The figures in the Pew and Harris polls indicated significant shifts in the space of only a few days, after Kerry began a more aggressive strategy of direct engagement with Bush. In a poll taken Sept. 8-10, Pew had Bush leading Kerry 52 percent to 40 percent among registered voters, and 54 percent to 39 percent among likely voters.
"A lot of the positive impact Bush had in the convention remains," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. "But Bush's vulnerabilities on Iraq and the economy continue, and these have anchored the race."
A Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, said, "We think anyone out in the country and in battleground states knows that this race is extremely close and will go down to the wire."
Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.
