Economy takes a back seat as Kerry and Bush clash on Iraq

DEMOCRATIC presidential nominee John Kerry launched one of his harshest broadsides against the Iraq war yesterday and drew an angry response from President George W Bush, in a clash that overshadowed their attempts to focus on the economy.

Marking Labour Day, the traditional kick-off for the presidential campaign season, the two candidates held rallies in the battleground states of Missouri, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

Mr Kerry, trailing by double digits in some polls, tried to focus on domestic issues at a neighbourhood meeting in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. But members of the audience raised Iraq, and after months of off-and-on criticism of the war, Mr Kerry seized the opening. He called the invasion “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time” and said his goal was to withdraw US troops in a first White House term.

Mr Kerry called Iraq a “quagmire” created by Mr Bush’s “wrongheaded, go-it-alone” policy.

Mr Bush turned from his tax reform proposals to shoot back at Mr Kerry during a rally in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. He accused the Massachusetts senator of vacillating on Iraq after bringing in new advisers.

“My opponent woke up this morning with new campaign advisers and yet another new position,” he said. “Suddenly he’s against it (the war) again.” “No matter how many times Senator Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America then and it’s right for America now,” he told the crowd, which chanted back, “flip-flop, flip-flop”.