Kerry aims 'nuclear' joke at Bush

Presidential hopeful John Kerry tried to win voters with laughs today, poking fun at George Bush on the David Letterman television talk show.

The Democratic Senator ridiculed Mr Bush’s language skills and his close relationship with vice-president Dick Cheney.

Reading a spoof “Top Ten” of Mr Bush’s tax plans, Mr Kerry suggested that Mr Cheney could “claim Bush as a dependant”.

He said there would be a one hundred-dollar penalty “if you pronounce it ’nuclear’ instead of ’nucular’,” as Mr Bush is known to do.

Mr Kerry’s appearance on the popular CBS show came as light relief after a day focusing heavily on terrorism and the war in Iraq.

It was a clear attempt by Mr Kerry to show his lighter side after repeated accusations that he is arrogant and aloof.

Mr Kerry also spoke seriously of the ongoing crisis in Iraq and the current hostage situation.

On Monday, Mr Kerry delivered a blistering attack on Mr Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq.

In a speech at New York University he accused Mr Bush of lying about the reasons for war and making a catalogue of errors.

Mr Bush hit back, saying Senator Kerry had changed his position on Iraq for political purposes.

“He’s saying he prefers the stability of a dictatorship to the hope and security of democracy,” Mr Bush said.

Today, Mr Bush followed up on his attack at an address to the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

With one eye on the election campaign, Mr Bush pledged to stay the course in Iraq, saying his objective was “not to retreat, it is to prevail”.

Meanwhile, a row continued to rumble over apparently fake documents used in a CBS news report accusing Mr Bush of disobeying orders during his time as a National Guard pilot.

The documents, purportedly written by the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian, appeared to show that the young Mr Bush dismissed an order to take a physical exam and fell below the standards demanded by the military.

But CBS news anchor Dan Rather was forced to apologise for the report and accept that he had lost faith in the documents and that he was misled.

The White House suggested that Democrats were involved in an “orchestrated” dirty tricks campaign to bring down the president.

It emerged that Kerry campaign adviser Joe Lockhart spoke with a former National Guard officer widely believed to be the source for the discredited memos.

The revelation was immediately seized upon by the Bush campaign as evidence of dirty tricks.

Mr But Lockhart fired back on CNN: “This campaign had nothing to do with these documents, nothing to do with this story.

“I didn’t know who the guy was. I talked to him on the phone for three or four minutes.

“That’s the beginning and the end of the story.”