Bush hits campaign trail

By RUPERT CORNWELL in Washington

President George W. Bush and the Democrats have drawn the battle lines for what promises to be the most bitter election in modern American history, a fight for control of a country politically polarised as rarely before.

Less than 12 hours after delivering an uncompromising State of the Union address, Bush yesterday made what amounted to a pre-election swing to Ohio, taking his message of anti-terrorism and economic recovery to a vital state he carried in 2000, and without which no Republican has won the White House.

Bush unveiled a plan for US$500 million ($753.5 million) in new spending on education and job training.

As the race among Democrats for the nomination to challenge him intensified, the President visited Ohio and Arizona to tout a jobs-related message.

He was to travel today to New Mexico to discuss national security.

Polls show the economy may be a weak spot for Bush.

"Nationwide, this economy is strong," Bush told an audience of faculty and students at Owens Community College near Toledo.

But, he added, "I fully recognise that in Ohio there are still troubled times. The manufacturing here is sluggish at best, and, therefore, people are looking for work."

Faced with fierce competition from abroad, American factories have shed 2.6 million jobs since Bush took office in early 2001. Manufacturing has not had a net gain in jobs since mid-2000.

"People who could rely upon a steady job in the manufacturing sector are hoping to be able to realise their hopes by finding work elsewhere," Bush said.

Later, at Mesa Community College in Arizona, the President said a rapidly changing economy meant some workers had been "left behind", creating a need for training programmes.

The previous evening Bush in effect set out his election manifesto.

His State of the Union speech was aimed at his conservative base, urging Congress to make his tax cuts permanent, and saying America needed no "permission slip" from the United Nations to protect itself.

Bush defended his decision to attack Iraq, claiming that the US had broad international support in Iraq and naming 16 countries which had sent peacekeeping troops.

Barely two minutes into his 55-minute speech, the President threw down the gauntlet.

America, he said, faced a choice - to go forward, or "continue under the dangerous illusion that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat to us".

In domestic affairs it was the same: "We can press on with economic growth and reforms in education and Medicare [the Government-funded healthcare programme for the old and disabled] - or we can turn back to old policies and old divisions."

The response from Democrats - especially the presidential candidates on the campaign trail - was withering.

In Washington, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi savaged Bush's "go-it-alone foreign policy that leaves us isolated in the world and steals resources for education and health care abroad".

America, she said, "must be a light to the world, not just a missile".

The attacks were fiercer still from New Hampshire, where Democrat presidential hopefuls are gathering for the state's primary in five days.

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean denounced Bush's "empty proposals", and Senator John Edwards of North Carolina accused the President of pandering to lobbyists and "his CEO friends" and neglecting the concerns of ordinary Americans.

John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who is gaining on Dean in New Hampshire after a stunning win in Iowa, was also caustic.

Bush "still doesn't understand what's happening in our economy, and in the workplace", he said.

One poll yesterday found that Kerry had closed the gap on Dean - which once stood at almost 30 points - to 2 per cent.

The New York Times reported that senior aides to Dean took several steps yesterday to overhaul his candidacy, including softening the tone of his speeches and eliminating high-voltage campaign rallies in favour of dignified appearances where he would present himself as a mature ex-governor with a command of health care and the economy.

Senior advisers expressed concern in interviews that Dean's candidacy was imperiled after a third-place finish in Iowa and a roaring, raucous concession speech that many opponents say showed Dean is unfit to be president.

The Democrat nomination contenders hammered Bush's record on everything from ballooning deficits to the high cost of American health care and to the economic inequalities between rich and poor which have deepened during his tenure.

"The problem is that the President says that the state of the union is strong, but the question is, which union?" said Edwards.

"The President is not talking about the two Americas we have - the two public school systems, the two health care systems, two different governments - and how we're going to build one America that works for everybody."

Senator Joseph Lieberman rejected the rosy picture painted by the President.

"I've never seen as much fear of the future among the American people as I have in the last year," he said.

"They're worried about their jobs, they're worried about their health insurance, they're worried about the cost of childcare and whether they're going to be able to afford to send their kids to college without taking out a tremendous burden of debt."

Former general Wesley Clark, whose strengths are foreign policy and defence, slammed White House policy in Iraq and gave his own solutions for postwar stability there.

"What we need to do is to create an interim Iraqi government, but not in a manner which would compromise our security and our objectives in the region."

How Bush sees the State of the Union

Weapons of mass destruction

* What President Bush said: "Objections to war often come from principled motives. But let us be candid about the consequences of leaving Saddam Hussein in power. We're seeking all the facts. Already the Kay report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related programme activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations. Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programmes would continue to this day."

* What he didn't say: The main justification for war was to protect the United States from Saddam's arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons allegedly ready for use. The fearsome weapons of mass destruction have now become "weapons of mass destruction-related programme activities".

War on terror

* What he said: "We're tracking al Qaeda around the world and nearly two-thirds of their known leaders have now been captured or killed."

* What he didn't say: The mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Osama bin Laden, remains at large.

Middle East

* What he said: "America is pursuing a forward strategy of freedom in the greater Middle East ... I will send you a proposal to double the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, and to focus its new work on the development of free elections, and free markets, free press and free labour unions in the Middle East."

* What he didn't say: Bush did not mention the "roadmap", previously touted by his Administration as the most workable formula for Middle East peace.

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS