Bush kicks off campaign with Union address

With Campaign 2004 officially under way, US President George Bush was using his State of the Union address tonight to call for modest expansions in health care and job-training programmes, while urging Americans to stand behind him in the war on terrorism.

Bush was using one of the year’s brightest political spotlights to highlight his election-year agenda, a day after Democrats formally kicked off their presidential nomination selection process with an Iowa caucuses victory for Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.

In his nationally televised address, Bush will open with remarks on national security, then move into domestic priorities, contrary to past practice, aides said.

He will urge Americans to back him on combating terrorism, arguing that the path he has chosen, including invading Iraq, is the right one.

The president changed the order of his speech, ending it with a long section on domestic concerns, at a time when Americans’ priorities are shifting to domestic issues.

An opinion poll today showed the number of Americans who want him to devote most of his speech to domestic issues has risen from 31% just before the 2002 address to 40% today.

A year ago, Bush was preparing the nation for the Iraq war, which would come less than two months after his address to Congress.

This year Bush is eager to maintain public support for post-war operations in Iraq, where the death toll for American troops passed 500 this week.

Bush’s job approval rating, 58%, is higher than for any president at this point in his term since President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

Bush’s poll numbers are buoyed by his leadership on the fight against terrorism – 66% approval – but dragged down by concerns over domestic issues, such as health care, immigration and the economy.

The second half of Bush’s speech will especially focus on the economy, which has rebounded strongly since the president declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq in May.

Bush will seek to convince Americans that his series of tax cuts has turned the economy around, and that he is now turning his attention to job creation, aides said.

He will propose steps to rein in the rising costs of health care. But administration officials said they did not foresee a sweeping new proposal to bring more Americans onto the rolls of the insured.

Democrats, gearing up for an election-year battle, began criticising elements of Bush’s speech last week.

They also sought to remind voters of missteps in Bush’s previous State of the Union addresses.

On January 28, 2003, Bush uttered the now-infamous “16 words” about Iraq: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

His administration later disavowed the line.