Bush Attacks Kerry on National Security
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- President Bush on Saturday ridiculed what he called the "Kerry doctrine" as a dangerous outsourcing of America's security, seeking to poke a hole in Sen. John Kerry's debate performance with what advisers see as his rival's biggest miscue.
"When he laid out the Kerry doctrine, he said that America has to pass a global test before we can use American troops to defend ourselves," Bush said, drawing loud boos from a friendly crowd at a National Association of Home Builders meeting. "When our country is in danger, it is not the president's job to take an international poll, the president's job is to defend America."
In the debate, Kerry said he supported the right of a president to order a pre-emptive strike to protect the country but, he added, it must pass "the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing, and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."
Two days after a debate that focused on the Iraq war and the anti-terror-battle, the stated theme of Bush's 27th visit to this battleground state was his economic record and plan to encourage an "ownership society."
Bush's agenda includes partial privatization of Social Security, tax-deductible personal accounts to cover health care expenses, and proposals to increase homeownership. Bush cast Kerry as a friend to big government who is obstructing such proposals that would provide Americans with "more freedom and more control over your own life."
"Instead, his agenda focuses on expanding the scope and power of government," Bush said. "He's decided to put his faith in the wisdom of the government. I will always put my faith in the wisdom of the American people."
Kerry has presented himself as a business-friendly Democrat, and he often criticizes the Bush administration for the first job-loss record since the Depression.
The renewed focus on bread-and-butter economic issues came exactly one month from the Nov. 2 election. "Who's counting?" Bush joked.
Narrow Win in 2000
Bush narrowly won Ohio in 2000. The state has lost 237,400 jobs since he took office and has an unemployment rate of 6.3 percent. Recent polling shows a virtual tie between Bush and Kerry as they compete for Ohio's 20 electoral votes.
The president's appearance before the home builders in Columbus served as a reminder of one of the stalwarts of the economy: a strong housing market during Bush's presidency has been one of the main engine of economic growth. But Bush's star-spangled bus entourage also stopped in Mansfield, a small central-Ohio city that got bad news the day before the president's arrival when a local manufacturer announced it would shut a facility.
Even with the economy on center stage, Bush aides made clear the campaign would continue to pounce on several remarks Kerry made Thursday night, in hopes of shifting the perception that the Democrat emerged the victor and turning talk away from Bush's grimacing during the encounter.
Confident that Americans are offended at any notion of allowing other countries to make U.S. national security decisions, the campaign rolled out a television ad on Saturday that sought to inflict damage on Kerry for his "global test" comment. "A global test: So America will be forced to wait while threats gather?" it intones.
And, refining a line of attack he first rolled out Friday in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, Bush said: "I'll continue to work every day with our friends and allies for the sake of freedom and peace. But our national security decisions will be made in the Oval Office, not in foreign capitals."
That suggestion - and use of the word "doctrine" - incensed the Kerry camp. Kerry foreign policy adviser and former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Kerry was saying nothing new, just articulating long-standing U.S. policy that asserts the right to launch a pre-emptive strike but recognizes the need to back up such a move by facts and present those to allies.
"It is astounding that he is making things up when he should be detailing a plan to stabilize the situation in Iraq," Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said of Bush.
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