Posted on 10/01/2004 4:42:32 PM PDT by katdawg
Energised Kerry lashes Bush, fires up campaign after debate
U.S. National - AFP
KISSIMMEE, United States (AFP) - Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) roared back to the campaign trail, piling more scorn on President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s Iraq (news - web sites) policy, as he shot for a comeback in the race for the White House.
Photo AFP Photo
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Special Coverages Latest Headlines: · Laptops Stolen From Bush Campaign Office AP - 5 minutes ago · Energised Kerry lashes Bush, fires up campaign after debate AFP - 25 minutes ago · Edwards Praises Kerry's Debate Performance AP - 25 minutes ago All Election Coverage
Kerry's motorcade swept past trees bent like bananas and scores of homes with thin plastic sheeting draped over hurricane-damaged roofs, as he launched a swing through the crucial battleground state of Florida.
Energised by his showing in Thursday night's debate at the University of Miami, which snap polls and political pundits said he had won handily, Kerry delivered another withering strike at Bush over Iraq.
He charged the president, who prides himself on decisive leadership, was dogmatic in refusing accept criticism despite an accelarating insurgency in the occupied country.
"The president keeps trying to debate himself on that," Kerry said at a rally in Tampa, stealing one of the lines Bush had used to lampoon his rival.
"He keeps trying to say 'we don't want somebody who wants to leave, we don't want a wilter or a waverer.'"
"Mr President, nobody is talking about leaving, nobody is talking about wilting and wavering, we are talking about winning and getting the job done right," Kerry told cheering supporters at the University of South Florida.
Turning the tables on Bush was a central theme of the day, as Kerry aides potrayed the President as rambling and confused -- the same line of attack which dented Kerry's poll numbers and given the incumbant a modest lead.
"They have been saying, 'look, Kerry's a flip-flopper -- we're the steady, strong leader,' then they (viewers) turn on the television and it's exactly the opposite," said senior Kerry advisor Mike McCurry.
"Kerry's the one who looks strong and steady and concise ... and the other guy was rambling and distracted, and criss-crossing back and forth on what he was trying to say."
But Kerry, who also ripped into Bush for what he said was a failure to properly organize initiatives like a unified terrorist watch list, didn't have it all his own way.
His aides were forced to deflect a Bush claim that Kerry's pledge Thursday to measure prospective US action abroad against a "global test" would put the US military in the hands of nation's like his administration's bete-noire, France.
Kerry spokesman David Wade said the president took Kerry's words out of context.
"It's evidence of how much their candidate is flailing and how much they want to try to distract from that. It's nonsense," he told AFP.
But aides downplayed expectations Kerry's performance would spark an immediate surge in the polls, saying only that the Massachusetts senator had just started to reintroduce himself to voters after a months-long Republican effort to wound him through negative advertising.
Kerry moved on from Tampa to another rally in Kissimmee, Florida, and was due to stump in the state governed by the president's brother Jeb on Saturday before returning to Washington for a reception with his running mate John Edwards (news - web sites).
Aides are already looking to the next clash with Bush, on October 8, and the two rivals will go at it for the final time on October 13.
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I hope you're right and that this is part of Bush's strategery as he calls it. I admit my naivete about politics, and I'm learning so much from being on this website. Hope you all will cut me some slack because I did come over from the darkside, and it's hard for ex-liberals like me to comprehend logic and reason at times. My thanks to all of you here at Free Republic. Keep up the great work everyone.
Now get The DOORS LIVE version of "When the Music's Over" and watch him. THE DOORS 1st Album 'The End' will also do. He made VN his convention. Keep him to it!
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