Kerry accuses Bush of trying to scare voters

JOHN Kerry sought to undercut George Bush on national security during campaigning over the weekend, accusing the president was trying to scare voters with talk of terrorism.

Mr Bush, meanwhile, portrayed his opponent as indecisive and suffering from "election amnesia" with conflicting stands on Iraq.

Racing toward a finish line in an election too close to call, Mr Bush attended several rallies in Republican-friendly areas of Florida, the state that put him in the White House four years ago.

His arrival by US Marine helicopter at baseball fields across the state underscored Mr Bush’s ability to use the powers of the presidency to the benefit of campaign. He also had Air Force One fly over the NFL football stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, where tens of thousands of people were waiting to hear him speak.

Iraq and the war on terrorism dominated the campaign debate, reflecting voters’ anxieties as the election nears. Mr Kerry’s advisers acknowledged that the issues play to Mr Bush’s political strength as commander in chief, but said confronting the president may be the best way to weaken his standing.

Mr Bush mocked Mr Kerry for criticising him on Iraq, saying the senator now calls it the "wrong war" after voting to authorise force and calling it the right decision when US troops invaded.

"Senator Kerry seems to have forgotten all that as his position has evolved during the course of the campaign," Mr Bush said. "You might call it election amnesia."

In Farmington, New Mexico, vice president Dick Cheney said if Mr Kerry had been president in the 1980s and 1990s, the Soviet Union might still exist and Saddam Hussein might control the Persian Gulf and possess nuclear weapons.

Mr Kerry began the weekend in Pueblo, Colorado, asking voters to choose what he described as his optimistic outlook. "Vote your hopes, not the fears that George Bush wants you to feel," Mr Kerry said. "Vote your hopes for our nation. Vote the possibilities of our country.

"This president keeps going around the country trying to scare people. The only thing he wants to talk about is terror, the war on terror, national security. If that’s the debate we want to have, I’m prepared to have that debate because I can wage a better war on terror than George Bush has."

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said Mr Kerry "has run a relentlessly negative and pessimistic campaign. He has no positive agenda for the future of our country."

Kerry spokesman Phil Singer returned Mr Bush’s criticism of the senator. "As much as we’d all like to forget the last four years of George Bush’s failed policies and wrong choices, voters aren’t going to have amnesia when it comes time to vote on Election Day," Mr Singer said.

Mr Kerry picked up several newspaper endorsements, including one in yesterday’s edition of the Washington Post that said he was the better bet to achieve his goals "both to fight in Iraq and reach out to allies, to hunt down terrorists and to engage without arrogance the Islamic world."