Bush takes jabs at senator

CLIVE, Iowa -- President Bush is launching a multifront attack in an effort to regain momentum in the presidential campaign, assailing Senator John F. Kerry over taxes, health care, and national security as new poll numbers suggest the race is narrowing to a statistical dead heat.

Bush yesterday used a bill signing and a pair of new television advertisements to contend that the Democratic nominee would raise taxes and make the world a "more dangerous" place. The Republican president also sharpened his criticism of Kerry's health care plan by saying the senator has a "system that's creeping toward 'Hillary-care,' " the doomed plan developed by Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1993.

"My opponent believes that the federal government ought to be making your decisions," Bush said at a campaign stop near Des Moines.

Republicans are planning a further offensive over health care today, campaign officials said, and will send lawmakers to the floor of the US Senate with a flowchart mocking the government bureaucracy they predict would be created by Kerry's proposals.

The message blitz, to be rounded out with what Bush advisers described as a major new address tomorrow, began four days after a disappointing debate performance sent Bush scrambling to regain the offensive.

Bush campaign advisers said their intent is to show the president acting strong and presidential -- rather than appearing defensive, as he had during and after the debate -- and to lay the groundwork for a debate in St. Louis on Friday that is expected to focus largely on domestic issues.

Bush began his new tack on the campaign trail yesterday, hammering Kerry on domestic issues and national security. Bush said Kerry's foreign policy would be "dangerous," noting that his Democratic opponent voted against the use of force on Iraq in 1991, after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

"That means Saddam would not only have been in his palaces, that means he would have been in Kuwait as well," Bush said at a campaign event at a recreation center in Clive, Iowa. "The policies of my opponent are dangerous for world peace. If they were implemented, they would make this world not more peaceful, but more dangerous."

On the day that he signed the fourth major tax cut in as many years, Bush also said Kerry can't be trusted to deliver on his promise to cut taxes on the middle class. Kerry cast 98 votes to raise taxes over two decades in the Senate, Bush said.

His campaign is underscoring that contention in the new advertisements. One says "John Kerry and the liberals in Congress" have voted for higher taxes 350 times -- a figure that includes many instances where Kerry voted for a smaller tax increase instead of a larger one that was being offered, according to the Bush campaign.

At a campaign event in Hampton, N.H., Kerry fired back on the tax front by saying he backs further tax cuts for the middle class and wants to raise taxes only on the wealthiest Americans to pay for new spending priorities.

"George Bush thinks it's important to make those tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000 a year permanent," Kerry said. "I think it's important to roll that back to where it was under Bill Clinton and invest in health care, education, lowering the cost of college. . . . Ninety-eight percent of America is going to get a tax cut under my plan."

Kerry's campaign disputed Bush's characterization of the Massachusetts Democrat's health plan as government-run. His proposal relies on employer incentives and tax credits, not government mandates, and is not a universal-access plan along the lines of Clinton's.

"Something must have happened during the debate, because George Bush has had a particularly hard time telling the truth ever since," said Phil Singer, a Kerry campaign spokesman.

The effort to put Kerry on the defensive in a variety of areas reflects Bush's attempt to refocus the race after several days of disconcerting poll news. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll released yesterday suggested Bush's predebate 8-point lead has vanished, with the race knotted at 49 percent.

The Bush campaign is now honing its message to a few main themes where campaign aides believe Bush holds a distinct advantage over his Democratic opponent, with taxes and efforts to combat terrorism topping the list.

The campaign is shifting the focus of an event tomorrow in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to highlight contrasts between Bush and Kerry on the war on terror and the economy. Bush was scheduled to address proposed changes to limit medical malpractice liability, but instead will deliver a "significant speech" on terrorism and the economy, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. He said the change had nothing to do with the first debate or recent polls, but represents an attempt to clear up the president's record in areas where Kerry has launched "false attacks."

Glen Johnson of the Globe staff, traveling with the Kerry campaign, contributed to this report. Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.