Bush and Kerry battle over Iraq war in TV campaigns
Mr Kerry's campaign quickly responded with an advertisement condemning Mr Bush for a "juvenile" attack amid growing chaos and violence in Iraq.
Mr Kerry's adviser Mike McCurry called for the president to repudiate his ad but the demand was quickly rejected by the Bush campaign.
"In the face of the Iraq quagmire, George Bush's answer is to run a juvenile and tasteless attack ad," Mr Kerry's advertisement said, capping a day when both sides in the presidential race relentlessly hammered each other over the war.
Mr Kerry said Mr Bush's statement that a "handful" of people are willing to kill to stop progress in Iraq is another blunder that shows he's avoiding reality, Mr Kerry said.
"George Bush let Osama bin Laden escape at Tora Bora," Mr Kerry said on Wednesday. "George Bush retreated from Fallujah and other communities in Iraq which are now overrun with terrorists and threaten our troops. And George Bush said on the record we can't win the war on terror.
"And even today, he blundered again saying there are only a handful of terrorists in Iraq," Mr Kerry said. "I think he's living in a make-believe world."
Mr Bush, campaigning in Pennsylvania, said: "It's hard to help a country go from tyranny to elections to peace when there are a handful of people who are willing to kill in order to stop the process."
Mr Bush said Mr Kerry's aggressive new attacks on the White House's Iraq policy sent "mixed signals" and raised questions about his ability to lead in the war on terrorism.
"You cannot lead the war against terror if you wilt or waver when times get tough," Mr Bush said. Polls show Mr Kerry holding a slight lead in Pennsylvania.
Vice President Dick Cheney accused Mr Kerry of indecision and confusion in the war on terror. "He has demonstrated throughout the course of this campaign that he lacks the clarity of vision and purpose necessary to lead our country during extraordinary times," Mr Cheney said.
But Mr Kerry, campaigning in the swing state of Florida, said his Republican rival "is unwilling to tell the truth or understand the situation in Iraq".
"I have laid out specific steps to win the war, not to change, not to retreat, steps to win," Mr Kerry said, accusing Mr Bush of trying to divert attention from his policy failures by attacking him as a flip-flopper.
"George Bush is trying to fight a phantom here because he won't tell the American people the truth, so he sets up something that is not a real issue and attacks it," Mr Kerry said. "I will do a better job of dealing with Iraq and winning the war and fighting the war on terror, period."
Mr Kerry's running mate John Edwards said it was absurd that Mr Cheney would talk about the leadership needed "to fix the mess in Iraq that he created".
"George Bush and Dick Cheney are the last two people we need a lecture from about how to keep America safe," Mr Edwards said. "Dick Cheney's record of failure is eclipsed only by George Bush's."
Mr Bush's new ad, set to Johann Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz, showed footage of Mr Kerry changing directions on his windsurfing board and asked: "In which direction would John Kerry lead?"
"Kerry voted for the Iraq war, opposed it, supported it, and now opposes it again," the ad said.
The question of Iraq's future has dominated the campaign debate in the past week as Mr Kerry has sharpened his criticism and accused Mr Bush of ignoring reality by insisting the future was bright for democracy in Baghdad.
"One thousand US casualties. Two Americans beheaded just this week. The Pentagon admits terrorists are pouring into Iraq," the narrator said in the new Kerry ad, which will air in the same battleground markets as the Bush windsurfing advert.
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