TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan, Aug 17 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush crisscrosses battleground states this week seeking to close a gap in preference polls between him and his Democratic rival, John Kerry.
On Monday, Bush was in Ohio and Michigan. On Tuesday, he heads to Pennsylvania and West Virginia, while on Wednesday he is expected in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
All these states are considered crucial for victory in the November 2 election, both by Bush and by Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee.
For three weeks, the US president has worked in Washington an average of one day a week, which was enough to announce last week his decision to nominate a new director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
He has skillfully mixed his campaign and presidential duties. Speaking Monday in Cincinnati, Ohio, he announced his decision to withdraw up to 70,000 troops from Europe and Asia over the next decade.
The redeployment plan does not concern troops serving in Iraq, but Bush promised "our military will complete this mission as quickly as possible so our troops do not stay a day longer than necessary."
He accused his Democratic rival, in passing, of sending a "wrong message" to the outside world by promising to reduce the number of troops deployed in Iraq -- their current number is 140,000 -- in the first six months of his administration.
Ohio and Michigan are seen as "swing states," which could tip the balance on November 2 toward one or the other candidate. Bush won Ohio in his 2000 contest against former vice president Al Gore, but Gore beat Bush in Michigan.
Pennsylvania also voted Democratic four years ago, but West Virginia, surprisingly, swung toward Republicans.
Minnesota also voted for Gore in the last election. In Wisconsin, however, Gore won by only 5,708 votes.
Under the US electoral system, a candidate wins all the electoral college vote in a state, even if the margin of his victory is razor-thin.
According to recent opinion polls, Kerry could win about 300 out of 538 electoral college votes, and Bush, slightly fewer than 200.
The remainder are in states where the situation is too fluid for reliable forecasting.
Bush, meanwhile, is an expert in campaigning down to the finish line. In 2000, he managed to overcome Gore's initial lead in the polls and to snatch victory after a protracted legal battle over election results in Florida.
During the 2002 mid-term elections, his constant presence in that state allowed Republicans to win there.
The Republican camp is also counting on a bounce in opinion polls following the Republican National Convention, which will take place in New York between August 30 and September 2.
In order to recover from his electoral marathon and to prepare for his acceptance speech, the president will spend the week between August 19 and 25 at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Usually, Bush spends four weeks in August at his ranch. But the example of his father, who lost his 1992 reelection battle due to, some say, insufficient campaigning, has forced the current president to revise his plans.