Democrats fight back after Bush bounce

Democrats have said that President George Bush’s post-convention bounce in public opinion polls was triggered by “four days of mean, vicious attacks” on John Kerry, and would be short-lived.

They vowed a non-stop, two-month offensive to make up for any lost ground as Kerry made personnel changes at the top of his campaign for the final sprint to Election Day on November 2.

Bush campaigned yesterday in battleground West Virginia, telling supporters a Democratic administration would ”stifle job creation” with tax increases.

Both campaigns forged ahead without waiting for the traditional end-of-summer kick-off, sparring over the tone of the contest, two wars 30 years apart and the president’s domestic performance.

“After a week of relentless negativity, we will be fighting back using Bush’s own record on the economy, jobs and health care,” Democratic Party chief Terry McAuliffe said in a conference call with reporters.

Although payroll jobs have grown by 1.7 million in the last 12 months, the economy still has lost 913,000 jobs overall since Bush took office.

Both sides said the race probably would tighten after several national polls over the weekend showed Bush opening a 10-point or larger lead.

“The thing about a bounce is, it goes up and then it comes down,” said Kerry’s campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill.

“At the end of the day, this is going to be a very, very tight race,” said Bush re-election chairman Marc Racicot. Both were interviewed on CBS’ Face the Nation.

Kerry had a long telephone conversation with former President Bill Clinton on Saturday night, in which Clinton reinforced that a strong campaign message can be hammered out of Bush’s record on jobs, Iraq and other issues, said a Democratic official familiar with the talk.

Kerry opened the post-convention campaign season with an immediate and fierce attack on those topics. The official, asking not to be identified, said the two decided to talk at length when Kerry called Clinton on Friday to wish him well before heart surgery.

The New York Times first reported the Kerry-Clinton chat on its Web site last night.

Bush told a rally in Parkersburg, West Virginia, “This Labor Day weekend, it is important for American workers to know that my opponent wants to tax your jobs.”

Bush won the state by six percentage points in 2000, and polls show him again holding a lead, even though Democrats wield a 2-1 advantage in voter registration.

Some Democrats have complained that Kerry waited too long before fully responding to attacks on his military service in Vietnam, especially after making his war experience central to the Democratic convention five weeks ago.

Meanwhile, 60% of Americans called economic conditions poor or only fair, while 32% called conditions good or excellent, according to a new Time magazine poll.

The poll showed Americans evenly split on Bush’s handling of the economy, with 49% approving and 48% disapproving. However, 57% said they felt they had not personally benefited from his tax cuts.