ON THE OFFENSIVE
Kerry blames president for litany of wrongsSets goal to bring US troops home in his first termRACINE, W.Va. -- John F. Kerry, ratcheting up his campaign rhetoric, said yesterday that President George W. Bush's middle initial should stand for ''wrong" on a litany of problems Bush created or ignored during his first term. The Democratic presidential nominee also declared about Iraq, ''It's the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time," and said, for the first time, that he had a goal of bringing home all American troops during his first term.
The comments sparked a near-immediate response from Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who accused Kerry of changing his timetable on troop reductions, and of belittling the coalition fighting alongside American forces in Iraq. Speaking to a neighborhood crowd in Canonsburg, Pa., Kerry said, ''Let me tell you: I would not have done just one thing differently than the president on Iraq. I would have done everything differently from the president on Iraq." He went on to say, ''When they talk about a 'coalition,' that's about the phoniest thing I've ever heard. You've got about 500 troops here, and 500 troops there, and it's American troops that are 90 percent of the combat casualties, and it's American taxpayers that are paying 90 percent of the cost of this war. It's the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time." He added: ''We want those troops home, and my goal would be to try to get 'em home in my first term, and I believe that can be done." Bush, in Poplar Bluff, Mo., last night, said: ''After voting for the war but against funding it, after saying he would have voted for the war even knowing everything we know today, my opponent woke up this morning with new campaign advisers and yet another new position: Suddenly, he's against it again. No matter how many times Senator Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America then and it's right for America now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power." Cheney, speaking in Clear Lake, Iowa, said: ''I've got news for Senator Kerry. As [retired Army] general Tommy Franks said, 'Every contribution from every nation is important.' They deserve our respect, not insults. Demeaning our allies is an interesting approach for someone seeking the office of the presidency. When it comes to diplomacy, it looks like John Kerry should stick to windsurfing." Kerry had intended to use the Labor Day holiday to focus on the nation's economy and what he said are urgent challenges facing the American people in terms of job losses, rising health care costs, and receding school funding. In a twist marking a new theme for his campaign, he urged voters to support Bush and not him -- if they agree the country has been on the right track during the president's first term. ''If you like those four years, if you want four more years like that, then you tell people to go out there and vote for George Bush, because that's what you're going to get," Kerry told an audience of several thousand in the hills of West Virginia's coal country, a region the president visited Sunday. ''But if you want schools that work, if you want special needs education, if you want No Child Left Behind funded, if you want health care for all Americans that's affordable, if you want our troops to have the support they need and America to have the alliances it needs, if you want Social Security for the future, then join John Kerry and John Edwards in changing the direction of this country." In a campaign blitz that took him through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, Kerry repeated a new mantra: ''As the president likes to say about some things, 'there's nothing complicated about it.' It all comes down to one letter: W. George W. Bush, and the 'W' stands for 'wrong.' Wrong choices, wrong judgment, wrong priorities, wrong direction for our country." He also poked at Republican recitations of the Scriptures by accusing the party of not following biblical admonitions to match words with deeds. ''If you think about what the Bible says, what the Scriptures say, it says, 'What does it mean, my brother, to say you have faith if there are no deeds,' and I'll tell you, that has something to do with what's wrong in this country, which is, there's an awful lot of professing going on, and not enough of doing of the deeds that make a difference in the lives of Americans," Kerry told the mining crowd. The Massachusetts senator was joined for the first time on the campaign trail by John Sasso, the former political adviser to Michael S. Dukakis who has been brought onto the road to sharpen the campaign's message. In addition, Kerry's younger brother and longtime political adviser Cameron F. Kerry made a rare appearance on the trail in Cleveland. Kerry's staff was heartened by a new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll suggesting Bush leads Kerry 52 percent to 45 percent in a two-way race and gained only two percentage points after last week's Republican National Convention, a smaller bounce than indicated in surveys released over the weekend by Time and Newsweek magazines. Kerry's day began with one of his most contentious campaign appearances to date. What was supposed to be a neighborly ''front porch" chat in the suburban Pittsburgh community of Canonsburg quickly grew tense as the senator tried to deliver his remarks and take questions, only to be regularly interrupted by Bush supporters up the street chanting, ''Four more years," and, ''Bush, Bush, Bush." ''While the Bush people were rudely shouting, a 70-year-old woman who has had 11 throat operations, and was trying to be heard, was telling the story of how she now has had to go out to work because she needs to take pills at such a rate that she can't afford to pay for them because of the prescription drug cost," Kerry said. One questioner, a local priest, asked Kerry if he had a timetable for removing US forces from Iraq. Previously, the senator had said he would like to begin rotating US forces home and replacing them with foreign troops within six months of taking office. He also told National Public Radio on Aug. 6, ''I believe that within a year from now, we could significantly reduce American forces in Iraq." Aides later backpedaled from that remark, while Bush criticized it, alleging it gave insurgents a goal for maintaining resistance. Kerry told the priest: ''I think you can bring those folks back if you sort of approach this differently, and I have a plan for how to do that, but what we need to do is target getting our troops home, and I certainly will make it clear to the world, we do not have long-term designs to maintain bases and troops in Iraq. We want those troops home, and my goal would be to try to get 'em home in my first term, and I believe that can be done."
Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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