Bush questions Kerry's ability to lead

US President George Bush today questioned Senator John Kerry’s “ability to lead our nation” raising the Democratic challenger’s year-old opposition to emergency funding for the Iraq war.

Mr Kerry meanwhile travelled to Ohio to try to win over swing voters in more conservative areas.

Mr Bush said it was simple: His presidential rival failed to support US troops in harm’s way when he voted against an 87 billion US dollar funding bill for military and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Noting that the vote was a year ago tomorrow, Mr Bush mocked Mr Kerry for at first saying it would be irresponsible to oppose the measure, and then doing just that.

Repeating a common campaign accusation, he said Mr Kerry’s change of heart was purely for political expedience, coming just as former Vermont Governor Howard Dean was gaining steam as the party’s anti-war candidate.

“Senator Kerry apparently decided supporting the troops even while they were in harm’s way was not as important as shoring up his own political position,” said Mr Bush, speaking in a 20,000-seat sports arena in Sunrise, Florida that appeared about half-full. His campaign bus drove into the darkened arena to deposit the President amid strobe lights and swirling smoke.

Mr Kerry voted against the 87 billion dollar funding bill, which passed the Senate. Before the final vote, however, the senator voted for a resolution that would have required the funding to be paid for by repealing Mr Bush’s tax cuts.

Mr Kerry has struggled to explain his stance ever since – even though Mr Bush himself threatened to veto the bill because he also didn’t like some elements of it, particularly a later-removed provision that would have made some of the money loans that Iraq would have to repay.

Today, Mr Kerry went to Republican territory in Ohio – first Greene County, where Mr Bush won by 20 percentage points, and then Pike County, where Mr Bush edged out Al Gore by 4 percentage points.

Mr Kerry’s pitch included a mix of appeals for bipartisanship and promises to take on local issues.

At a town hall meeting in Xenia, Ohio, he vowed to tackle the problem of the decline of manufacturing jobs, a national trend hitting the state particularly hard.

“We’re losing good jobs,” Mr Kerry said. “Consumer confidence in America is plunging downwards as people have more and more doubts about the economy. Doubts are one of the things a president is elected to deal with.”

Mr Bush, was campaigning by bus and plane throughout Florida, the state that decided the 2000 election. He was appearing at rallies in West Palm Beach and at the Daytona International Speedway, each time introduced by his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush. All three stops were in counties that Democrat Al Gore won four years ago.

Florida is among the handful of states both sides consider still in play, and the one offering the largest electoral prize. Mr Kerry’s running mate, Senator John Edwards, was campaigning nearby in Miami today.

Florida’s lashing by four major hurricanes has complicated campaigning and polling. Some polls show Mr Bush ahead and others indicate a close race.