Kerry, Bush Bash Away Again

Prez Ridicules 'Kerry Doctrine"; Kerry: Bush Friend Of Rich

(CBS/AP)  President Bush on Saturday ridiculed what he called the "Kerry doctrine" as a dangerous outsourcing of the United States' security, seeking to poke a hole in Sen. John Kerry's debate performance with what advisers see as his elections 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," Mr. Bush said, drawing loud boos from a friendly crowd at a National Association of Home Builders meeting and later from campaign-assembled audiences in Mansfield and the Akron suburb of Cuyahoga Falls.

"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," Mr. Bush said.

"It's a misrepresentation of what Kerry said," reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller, "but it gave Mr. Bush a chance to score points - even two days after the debate.

"But now he must focus on the very different format of next Friday's rhetorical clash with Kerry in St. Louis," Knoller continued. "It's a town meeting - where selected members of the audience ask the questions.

"Over the past three-and-a-half months, Mr. Bush has done a dozen "Ask The President" campaign events. But more often than not, he had carefully screened supporters asking the questions."

"With polls and pundits declaring (Mr. Bush) was outdone by Kerry in the first debate," Knoller added, "the pressure is on (the president) to do better and be sharper in the next one."

In the candidates' first debate on Thursday, 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."

Meanwhile, Kerry campaigned Saturday in Orlando, Florida, accusing Mr. Bush of making a series of bad economic choices that are making it harder for average Americans to get by.

"It's not just Iraq," Kerry said. "Over the past four years, he has made serious misjudgments here at home.

He was to address a fundraiser in Washington D.C. Saturday evening.

The Democratic presidential challenger said Mr. Bush cares most about the wealthy and well-connected, while portraying himself as the patron of working families who are struggling to achieve the American dream.

"I've got your back," Kerry said.

On Sunday, Kerry heads to Ohio, which CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod calls "the perfect place to set the table for the next debate (on domestic issues).

"Ohio lost more jobs in August than any other state," Axelrod points out. "It's also a telling place to gauge the race - up until recently, many pollsters had been putting Ohio in the Bush column. Now, it's neck and neck."

Axelrod notes that the first debate "has certainly injected more energy into a campaign that had been dragging." He says Kerry has found a new voice and rhythm.

The first poll taken after the debate showed Kerry running even with Mr. Bush ahead of the Nov. 2 election. The Democrat had the support of 47 percent and Mr. Bush 45 percent in the Newsweek poll. Independent candidate Ralph Nader had the backing of 2 percent.

Mr. Bush was slightly up, 49-43, in the same poll in early September and up 11 points in the Newsweek poll taken right after the Republican Party's convention. The poll of 1,013 registered voters was taken from late Thursday to early Saturday and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Two days after a debate that focused on the Iraq war and the anti-terror-battle, the stated theme of Mr. Bush's 27th visit to the battleground state of Ohio was his economic record and plan to encourage an "ownership society."

Mr. Bush's agenda includes partial privatization of government pension, tax-deductible personal accounts to cover health care expenses, and proposals to increase homeownership. Mr. 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," Mr. Bush said in Columbus. "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 Mr. Bush administration for the first job-loss record since the Depression.

Kerry's economic case against the president built on the criticisms that he lodged against Mr. Bush's leadership in Iraq. He said Mr. Bush "is a man who can't see a problem and can't fix a problem."

"He'd tell you this is the best economy of our lifetime," Kerry said to laughter from his partisan audience in Florida. "I mean, these are the things they've said. I'm not making this up. He says that maybe this is the best that we can do. Well, maybe that's true for his friends - Enron, Halliburton, for the big oil industry."

Kerry said Mr. Bush passed big tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy while single mothers worry about how to pay for health care, parents struggle to pay college tuition bills and factory workers see their jobs sent overseas.