Candidates' war rooms reassess battle plans
Bush, Kerry look to lock up vital states
ORLANDO — Senator John F. Kerry said yesterday that President Bush was in ‘‘a constant state of denial’’ about financial problems hitting the middle class, shifting focus to the economy in advance of the presidential debate Friday.
Bush, campaigning in Ohio, opened a two-front attack against ‘‘the Kerry doctrine’’ that he said would purportedly give foreign leaders ‘‘veto power’’ over US troops. Bush also cut a tough new commercial charging that Kerry would cede US security to other nations.
In the war rooms of the two campaigns, meanwhile, Kerry and Bush advisers began reassessing their strategies for winning 270 electoral votes on Nov. 2 in light of difficulties that both sides have had locking up key states by their target of early October.
Democrats had hoped to put away Iowa and Pennsylvania, and Republicans wanted solid leads in Ohio and Florida polls, but advisers in each camp say they are disappointed at where they stand today.
With a month left before Election Day, Kerry advisers this weekend are commissioning new polls, surveying governors and state party leaders, and launching two new commercials on the economy and energy policy in about 20 battleground states.
Those include Missouri, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Colorado — states where only a week ago Kerry was pulling ads or scaling back.
The Bush camp also cut the new commercial as part of a large media buy, assailing Kerry’s argument at the Thursday debate that preemptive US military strikes should be conducted in a manner that ‘‘passes the global test’’ so that ‘‘you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.’’
As his aides were preparing the ad, Bush attacked Kerry over the remark for a second day, making clear he wants to use that line as a brake on Kerry’s momentum.
‘‘He said that America has to pass a global test before we can use American troops to defend ourselves,’’ Bush said in Columbus, Ohio, drawing boos from attendees of the National Association of Home Builders’ board of directors meeting.
‘‘The president’s job is to defend America. I work every day with our friends and allies for the sake of freedom and peace, but our national security decisions must be made in the Oval Office, not foreign capitals.’’
Richard Holbrooke, a former United Nations ambassador and a Kerry adviser, said in a conference call with reporters that Bush ‘‘completely misconstrued and misrepresented’’ Kerry’s comments, given that Kerry said at the debate that he would never cede ‘‘the right to preempt in any way.’’
Kerry only briefly touched on Iraq during a $6 million campaign fund-raiser in Washington last night. The Democrat said the United States had to succeed in Iraq for the safety of the region and the world, but said Bush had failed in the diplomacy to recruit more partners to the effort.
‘‘You have to be smart to be successful, and we have to bring the world back to the table to understand the world’s stakes in the outcome of this great enterprise, and that is what I will set out to do,’’ Kerry said.
Kerry was hammered repeatedly by the president at Thursday night’s debate for referring to Iraq as ‘‘the wrong war at the wrong time at the wrong place.’’
Earlier yesterday, Kerry delivered his longest speech in weeks on domestic policy to a predominantly black and Hispanic audience in Orlando.
He cast himself as a defender of the voters inside Freedom High School, saying ‘‘I got your back’’ twice and describing his economic policies as ‘‘plain old good American common sense —street common sense.’’
‘‘One month from today, the American dream is on the ballot,’’ Kerry said. ‘‘Wages are falling, medical bills are rising, families can’t afford to send their kids to college — and they tell us, ‘Hey, don’t worry, this is the best economy of our lifetime.’ But when it comes to the struggles of the middle class facing the truth, it’s not something this administration does very well. This administration seems to be in a constant state of denial that neglects the needs of these Americans.’’
On the domestic front, Bush accused Kerry of blocking his attempts to create an ‘‘ownership society’’ by opposing tax-free health savings accounts and the privatization of Social Security for younger workers, and seeking to raise taxes on small businesses:
‘‘On just about every proposal to empower the individual instead of government, my opponent has voted no. Senator Kerry has spent almost 20 years in the federal government, and he’s concluded that it just isn’t big enough.’’
While the candidates have flaunted postdebate bullishness, Bush advisers have been concerned that his uneven debate performance will prevent him from locking up states quickly, while Kerry aides have been anxious about how they can gain ground fast against Bush’s single-digit lead in the polls.
The Bush campaign spent much of the two days after the debate in two states he won four years ago and hoped to have locked up by now: New Hampshire and Ohio. Yesterday’s three-stop bus tour of Ohio marked Bush’s 27th visit to the state, which he won by 3.5 percentage points four years ago.
Nicolle Devenish, the Bush campaign’s communications director, predicted that the debate Thursday night will be remembered mostly for Kerry’s ‘‘tactical and strategic mistakes’’ on foreign policy, including unclear statements on the war in Iraq and his mention of a ‘‘global test.’’
She said the Bush campaign spent the hours and days after the debate ‘‘mining the transcript’’ for substantive areas where Kerry contradicted himself or came across as a flip-flopper. The president is mentioning those areas in his stump speech, as will campaign advertisements.
Healy traveled with Kerry in Florida, Klein with Bush in Ohio. Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com. Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com. 