Economy, Terror Frame Bush-Kerry Debate
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By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
ST. LOUIS - A lackluster unemployment report, troubling terrorism
developments and fresh questions about President Bush's rationale for invading Iraq frame the second
face-to-face encounter Friday night between Bush and John Kerry.
Only the debate's moderator and the 15 to
20 people chosen to ask questions know
what topics will be raised during the
town-hall session at Washington University.
Kerry has momentum from polls showing he
gained from his performance in the first
debate while Bush goes in on the defensive.
The president watched tapes from the first
debate as aides sought to avoid a repeat of
the scowls that contributed to negative
reaction to his appearance.
"I don't think the American people are going
to choose a president on the basis of facial
expressions," senior Bush adviser Karen
Hughes told CBS's "The Early Show" on
Friday. "But as the president joked the other
day, hearing that litany of
misrepresentations from Sen. Kerry did kind
of make him want to make a face, and I
think he'll be conscious of that tonight."
Kerry, criticized as times for what some call
a stiff and aloof manner, will try to build on
favorable impressions from the debate in
Miami. The Massachusetts senator holds a
slight lead nationally over Bush in an
Associated Press-Ipsos poll released
Thursday, reversing Bush's advantage from
mid-September.
"He just he needs to do tonight what he did
a week ago," Democratic Rep. Dick
Gephardt of Missouri told
"American Morning" on CNN, "let people
know who he is, his plan for America, his
fresh start for Iraq, what he wants to do to
get this economy invigorated, his energy
plan, his environmental plans. He's going to
do all that tonight."
Although voters cite Iraq as a major concern, the economy consistently
ranks at the top. The unemployment report - the last to be released
before Election Day - provides fresh fodder for the campaigns.
Unemployment held steady at 5.4 percent but job creation was lower
than expected.
Bush cast the addition of 96,000 jobs as proof his tax cuts have
bolstered the jobs market and the economy overall while Kerry pointed
out that the country has lost jobs overall under the Bush administration,
a first since the Depression.
On the day the report came out, Bush's campaign unveiled an
advertisement for national cable networks that touts "nearly 2 million
jobs in just over a year," resulting in "nearly 2 million more people back
working," and "nearly 2 million more people with wages."
Kerry called the number "disappointing" and contended that even the
jobs that have been created under Bush pay less and offer fewer benefits
than those that have been lost. "The president does not seem to
understand how many middle-class families are being squeezed by
falling incomes and spiraling health care, tuition and energy costs," he
said in a statement.
Hard sparring over Iraq on the eve of the debate offered a preview of the
discussion to come.
A final report from the chief U.S. weapons hunter in Iraq concluded that
Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had no stockpiles of chemical or
biological weapons, had no programs to make either them or nuclear
bombs, and had little ability - or immediate plans - to revive those
programs.
The findings contradicted Bush's main rationale for going to war, and
Kerry charged the commander in chief with purposely exaggerating the
evidence used to justify the war. He also ridiculed the administration for
shifting now to another explanation. "You don't make up or find reasons
to go to war after the fact," Kerry said Thursday in Colorado.
Bush not only insisted that going to war was right, but he turned the
tables to say Kerry was the one not being candid.
Dredging up remarks by the Massachusetts senator from two years ago
on the threat Saddam and his purported weapons posed, Bush said at a
campaign rally in Wisconsin: "He's claiming I misled America about
weapons when he, himself, cited the very same intelligence about
Saddam weapons programs as the reason he voted to go to war. ... Just
who's the one trying to mislead the American people?"
Kerry's campaign accused Bush of altering Kerry's statement to suit his
own political purposes and omitting from those remarks Kerry's caution
against rushing to war.
Terrorists struck again Thursday night in a series of coordinated bomb
attacks that killed scores of tourists at an Egyptian resort.
Both men arrived in St. Louis on Thursday night, with no public
appearances scheduled before the nationally televised debate. The
town-hall format, with both candidates perched on stools but prohibited
by lengthy rules from approaching one another, is more casual than the
first debate.
Kerry was headed to a rally in St. Louis after the
debate; Bush was doing the same in nearby Ballwin,
Mo.
Their third and final debate is Oct. 13 in Tempe,
Ariz., and will focus on economic and domestic
policy.
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