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Bush, Kerry duel over jobs, health care
John Kerry, meeting President Bush in their third and final debate, said Wednesday night that Bush rushed to war and pushed decades-long allies away, and as a result "America is now bearing this extraordinary burden" of the war in Iraq. Bush said he had a comprehensive strategy to chase down al-Qaida.
With less than three weeks of campaigning left before the election, the 90-minute debate at Arizona State University gave the candidates a final nationwide chance to reach out to undecided voters in the battleground states and to encourage their strongest supporters to turn out in large numbers.
Democrat Kerry comes to the faceoff promoting a detailed health care plan and a promise to ease the financial pinch on middle-class families. He's put a spotlight on job losses and lobbed accusations that the Republican administration has spent four years doling out favors to powerful friends while raising the tax burden on the middle class.
The Bush camp hopes the last debate will erase any lingering negative impressions left by the president's scowling demeanor in the first. He tempered that image in the second, still testy, confrontation.
Kerry has to make sure voters would feel safe turning the White House over to him.
The first presidential debate this year drew 62.5 million viewers, the second 46.7 million. The vice presidential debate had 43.6 million.
In the hours before the debate:
_ Bush won an expected endorsement from the National Rifle Association, which plans to spend about $20 million on behalf of the president's re-election, mostly in battleground states. The NRA contends that Kerry wants to ban gun ownership.
_ Kerry's campaign rolled out new television ads accusing Bush of distorting the Democrat's health-care plan and criticizing the president for rising costs. Kerry, referring to comments made Monday by Treasury Secretary John Snow, said Snow delivered an "outrageous slap in the face to America's middle class" when he said it was a myth that there had been economic failures on Bush's watch.
In a statement released Wednesday evening, Snow said his comments were being misconstrued by critics of the Bush administration. "In my comments, I was responding to criticisms of the president's economic policies and unfounded comparisons that are being made. Those charges are simply not credible," Snow said. "The president's leadership and policies turned this economy around and put it on a strong upward path. This was the key point I was making."
The candidates leave after the last debate for a furious stretch of campaigning. Bush heads to Nevada, Iowa and Florida, as Kerry travels to Nevada, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio. |
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