Bush, Kerry trade gibes on terror threat

WATERLOO, Iowa -- The state that launched George W. Bush on the road to the White House and rejuvenated John F. Kerry's presidential hopes took center stage yesterday in the 2004 campaign, as the president and his Democratic challenger traded charges in Iowa about who would best protect the nation against the threat of terrorism.

In an address rebutting a caustic speech by Bush earlier this week, Kerry accused the president of diverting attention from Osama bin Laden and other terrorists by going to war in Iraq. He also said Bush was focusing exclusively on national security issues to avoid talking about his administration's economic record.

''A president must be able to defend this country and fight for the middle class at the same time," Kerry said at a convention center named for the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, who died together when their Navy ship was attacked during World War II. ''You know, the president says he's a leader. Well, Mr. President, look behind you; there's hardly anyone there. It's not leadership if we haven't built the strongest alliance possible, and if America is going almost alone."

Four years ago, Al Gore beat Bush in Iowa during the general election by 4,144 votes out of 1.3 million cast. The state's population is whiter, older, less affluent, and more rural than the rest of country. But it is one of a dwindling number of states that polls show evenly divided on the current presidential race, triggering a scramble between Bush and Kerry for its seven electoral votes.

Bush used a campaign event in Mason City to blast Kerry for having a ''fundamental misunderstanding" of the war on terror that amounts to ''very dangerous thinking."

While Kerry tries to differentiate the war on terror from the invasion of Iraq, Bush sought to connect the two directly by citing the case of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whom Bush described as ''the one responsible for planting car bombs and beheading Americans" in Iraq.

''If Zarqawi and his associates were not busy fighting American forces in Iraq, does Senator Kerry think he would be leading a productive and peaceful life? Of course not," Bush said. ''And that's why Iraq is no diversion, but a central commitment in the war on terror, a place where our military is confronting and defeating terrorists overseas, so we do not have to face them here at home."

While Kerry's speech focused on broader themes of defense and counterterrorism, he anticipated that specific criticism, arguing that the CIA had reported there was no prewar connection between Zarqawi and the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. He said the terrorist was operating ''out of a no-man's land" in northeastern Iraq, producing ricin, a biological weapon, before the war.

''We could have but did not take them out," Kerry said.

''That was a terrible mistake that this administration has never explained."

In the past, Iowa has given both Bush and Kerry important boosts in their political careers. Bush won the 2000 Iowa caucuses, propelling him to the Republican nomination. Kerry staged a come-from-behind victory over Democrats Howard Dean and Richard A. Gephardt in the Iowa caucuses this January, the first in a string of primary and caucus victories that propelled Kerry to the Democratic nomination. Recent polls have indicated Bush and Kerry are in a near dead heat in Iowa.

Bush has visited Iowa 21 times as president, including 11 visits this year, often to promote his tax policies. He outlined his economic policy as a candidate in Des Moines in December 1999, and has spent two tax filing days in the state, and has come twice more to commemorate the signing of tax cuts. His most recent visit was two weeks ago, when Bush traveled to Des Moines to sign an extension of tax cuts first passed in 2003.

Kerry's dramatic victory in the state's Democratic primary set him on course to seal the party's presidential nomination. Deciding to divert resources from a flagging effort in New Hampshire and into Iowa worked for Kerry, in part because of a strong get-out-the-vote effort organized by Michael Whouley, a Boston political operative, and John Norris, a former chief of staff to Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa. Whouley is now handling turnout efforts for the Democratic National Committee, while Norris, Kerry's national field director, is in Iowa overseeing preparations in his home state.

About 160,000 Democrats have taken absentee ballots in advance of the election, and experienced Democratic talent -- including Bill Daley, the grandson of legendary Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley -- has been imported to help organize the state for Kerry.

''In the last week, our volunteers have been more upbeat in their persuasion calls . . . people are starting to move their way," Norris said. ''That said, it's still a tough fight. One man told me this week he talked to nine undecided voters and only got one of them to commit firmly to Senator Kerry. The others are still making up their minds."

Bush followed yesterday's visit to Iowa with campaign events in Minnesota and Wisconsin, three states that he lost four years ago. Nicolle Devenish, the Bush campaign's communications director, said the president's campaign is confident that those states will vote Republican this year because voters think Kerry is out of the mainstream on such issues as abortion, family values, and gun control.

''You see him going hunting in Ohio. He wouldn't be doing that if there wasn't intense discomfort," Devenish said. ''It's so strange-looking, an obvious hour of pandering, but it's something they feel like they have to do because it has resonated here that he is an out-of-the-mainstream Democrat."

Mike McCurry, a senior Kerry adviser, said Kerry was going goose-hunting this morning because ''we want people to have a better sense of John Kerry -- the guy."

Later, Kerry was expected to deliver a speech in Columbus, Ohio, focused on science. He also was expected to receive the endorsement of Dana Reeve, an activist for stem cell research and the widow of actor Christopher Reeve.

Klein reported from Mason City, Iowa; Johnson reported from Waterloo. Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com. Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com.