Kerry hits back at Bush as primary nears
By (Agencies)
Updated: 2004-02-25 10:33

U.S. Democratic front-runner John Kerry fired back at President Bush on Tuesday, depicting him as a "walking contradiction" who has presided over job losses, a deficit increase and frayed international alliances despite promises to the contrary.

One day after Bush criticized Kerry in his most partisan remarks of the campaign, Sen. John Edwards issued a rebuttal of a different sort.

"Not so fast, George Bush," said Kerry's sole remaining major rival for the Democratic nomination. "You don't get to decide who our nominee is."

Taken together, the exchanges underscored the state of the race for the White House — Bush able to concentrate his energy on the general election, with Kerry eager to do the same and Edwards struggling to sustain his own candidacy.

Kerry, a fourth-term senator from Massachusetts, held a large and growing lead in the Democratic delegate chase, with 632 in the Associated Press count to 190 for Edwards. The front-runner told reporters he was "optimistic and hopeful" about padding his advantage in the day's contests — a primary in Utah and caucuses in Idaho and Hawaii. A total of 61 delegates were at stake.

"Bush is turning me on to politics," said Kathy Locke, a first-time voter in line at the polls in Salt Lake City. "He's got to be stopped."

A day after targeting Democrats, Bush used the White House as the backdrop for an appeal for passage of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages, a move certain to please his conservative Republican base.

"A few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization," said the president, referring to a recent court opinion in Kerry's home state of Massachusetts and a decision by city officials in San Francisco to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Both Kerry and Edwards promptly accused the president of playing politics with the Constitution — a charge the White House denied. The two Democrats said they oppose gay marriage, but would vote against the amendment if it is brought before the Senate.

Neither Democratic contender campaigned in any of the three states, preferring to spend time and resources in the 10 delegate-rich states on next week's ballot. Increasingly, Edwards looked to Georgia and Ohio as well as upstate portions of New York to slow Kerry's rush toward the nomination.

Both men have committed to large advertising campaigns in the three states. Officials said during the day that Edwards had increased his commitment in Ohio, even though Kerry was continuing to outspend him there.

The Massachusetts senator was unveiling a new commercial for use in Ohio and parts of New York, and it focused on the Republican in the White House. The commercial calls Bush's economic policy "an astonishing failure" and promises to protect American jobs.

"We need to be on the side of America's workers," Kerry says in the ad. "George Bush won't do it. I will."

The ad was unveiled one day after Kerry said he would run a clean TV ad campaign if Bush's re-election team promised to do the same. The president's campaign is expected to begin running television commercials next week.

In his comments to reporters, Kerry was dismissive of Bush's criticisms.

"Last night was almost a fantasy speech about a world that doesn't exist for most Americans," he said. "The president talked about a prosperity that millions of Americans are not seeing, feeling or living."

On Monday night, Bush, without naming Kerry, ridiculed him as a politician who has held opposing positions on tax cuts, NAFTA, the war with Iraq and more.

Bush also sought to cast the election as a choice between "keeping the tax relief that's moving the economy forward, or putting the burden of higher taxes back on the American people."

"It's a choice between an America that leads the world with strength and confidence, or an America that is uncertain in the face of danger," the president said.

Jobs was a recurring refrain as Edwards and Kerry campaigned during the day, the front-runner in economically distressed northeast Ohio, and his pursuer in Georgia and Texas.

"Let the president come to Ohio and give a speech to the workers of Ohio about their real lives," said Kerry, who said 270,000 jobs have been lost in the state since Bush's inauguration. "Let the workers of Ohio hear from the president about how he's going to help them keep their jobs or find new jobs in an economy that's not creating jobs as fast as they are disappearing."

In addition, he said Bush had presided over a huge expansion in the deficit as well as a loss in jobs. Accusing the president of trying to change the subject, he said, "he can't talk about making the world really safer because he's left our allies and our relationships disappointed all around the world."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that politics played no role in the president's announcement on gay marriage, made in the venerable Roosevelt Room of the White House.

At the same time, public opinion polling shows that a strong majority of the country opposes gay marriage, and members of Bush's political team have long signaled they intended to make use of the issue in the fall campaign.

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