GREENBURG, Pennsylvania, July 31 (AFP) - President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger John Kerry shadowed each other Saturday, swapping barbs in vote-rich battleground states hit by severe job losses.
Riding a modest bounce in the polls after his party's national convention in Boston, Kerry ripped into Bush's economic record and mocked the president's campaign slogan about the country "turning the corner."
"Let me ask you ... if you're one of those whose job pays 9,000 dollars less than the job you lost overseas, are you turning the corner?" Kerry asked a rain-soaked rally in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
"I don't want to run talking about 'turning the corner.' I'm running to climb the mountain and get to the top," he said.
Bush, meanwhile, was in Canton, Ohio, seeking to push his positive outlook on the economy in a state that has lost more than 200,000 jobs since March 2001.
Vowing to protect US trade interests, Bush called on China to loosen its currency's decade-old peg to the dollar which has helped fuel China's massive 124 billion dollar trade surplus with the United States.
"We understand what currency valuations can do to manufacturing, particularly in eastern Ohio," Bush told a cheering crowd at an indoor campaign rally.
"We've been working with China to put fair policy in place. Just give us a chance to compete, is all we're asking," he said.
At the same time, Kerry was arguing in Greenburg that the Bush administration was encouraging the outflow of American jobs to other countries, by refusing to close tax loopholes for companies outsourcing their work.
"You deserve jobs that pay more and aren't fleeing overseas," the Massachusetts senator said. "We deserve better and we can do better."
Democrats see the issue of job losses as the key to victory in states like Pennsylvania and Ohio which, with their respective 21 and 20 electoral votes, will play a major role in deciding the presidency on November 2.
In the 2000 election, Bush narrowly won Ohio, while his then Democratic opponent, former vice president Al Gore, took Pennsylvania. Recent polls have shown Kerry with a slender lead in both states.
Bush last visited Canton in April 2003, when he told workers at the international steel company Timken that his tax cuts would create jobs.
But in May, Timken announced that it would close three facilities around Canton in the coming years, eliminating some 1,300 jobs.
A group of the affected workers spoke at the Democratic National Convention, where their plight was used to symbolize the loss of factory jobs around the country.
On his way to Canton, Bush stopped to bring 10 Timken workers on board his bus.
"They're concerned. I am too," Bush said at his rally.
"The economy is strong and getting stronger. It lags in places like eastern Ohio," he said. "In order to keep jobs at home, America must be the best place to do business."
Later Saturday, the White House rivals swapped states, with Kerry heading into Ohio and Bush addressing supporters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Striving to maintain momentum following the Boston convention, Kerry and his vice presidential running mate John Edwards are currently on a two-week, coast-to-coast road tour that will take in 40 cities in 21 states.
A Newsweek poll published Saturday showed Kerry leading Bush 52 percent to 44 percent in a hypothetical two-way race for the White House. In a three-way contest including independent Ralph Nader, Kerry would draw 49 percent of the vote, Bush 42 percent and Nader three percent.
The poll of 1,010 adults was taken July 29-30 as the Democratic convention wound down.
Campaigning in Michigan on Friday, Bush dismissed the Boston event as a collection of "clever speeches" that offered promises but no results.
"There'll be big differences in this campaign. They're going to raise your taxes, we're not," Bush said.