Bush and Kerry in final push for votes

CHALLENGER John Kerry and President George W Bush began summing up their long campaigns yesterday as they headed into the final weekend of a Presidential contest that polls suggest will go right down to the wire.

Mr Kerry kicked off yesterday, contending Mr Bush “just doesn’t understand the problems facing America” with Mr Bush replying that he was the best man protect the nation from terrorists.

Mr Kerry implored Floridians to “walk out of here and vote”, a reference to early voting allowed in the crucial battleground state and many others.

He also painted a verbal picture of a man on Election Day at the polls “whose job has been outsourced” and is pondering whether to vote for the Democrat or a president “who fights for those at the top while telling everyone else that this is the best economy of a lifetime”.

He renewed his contention that Mr Bush has diverted attention from the real threats of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden by making war in Iraq.

Mr Bush, meanwhile, sought a final push in New Hampshire and then headed for battleground Ohio to campaign with actor turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In Manchester, New Hampshire, Mr Bush hit hard on the points that have underscored his yearlong battle for re-election: that the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do and that he is the man best able to keep America safe.

“The president must make America’s priorities absolutely clear especially in our uncertain world,” said Mr Bush, who was joined at an arena by relatives of terrorist attack victims. I’ve learned firsthand how hard it is to send young men and women into battle, even when the cause is right.”

Mr Kerry said that if he’d been president, “we might have gone to war”, but he would have done so in a way that ensured “the American people weren’t carrying the burden and the entire world understood.” true,” Mr Bush said.

In La Crosse, Wisconsin, Kerry running mate John Edwards said the news of the past week - 400 tones of missing explosives in Iraq and an FBI probe into Halliburton’s Iraq contracts - prove the White House needs new leadership.

“They’ve been incompetent in Iraq and here at home they always look out for their powerful friends at the top,” the vice-presidential candidate said.

Almost everywhere that counted, polls found the race exceptionally close.

New battleground surveys suggested Mr Kerry was leading in Ohio and Michigan, Mr Bush was ahead in Florida and the two were tied in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Oregon. Mr Bush said he hasn’t spent any time worrying that the campaign could end with no clear winner, as the 2000 race notoriously did.

“It’s important that everybody vote, it’s important that the elections be fair, and it’s important that the election end on election night,” he said.

Mr Kerry said he believed the outcome will be known on Tuesday night, “just like I believed the Red Sox would win the World Series.”