by Griffin Shea
MIAMI, Aug 27 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush campaigned Friday in Florida ahead of his party`s convention, on top in the polls but battered by negative economic news and a situation in Iraq he admits he miscalculated.
Bush came to Florida, the key state in the disputed 2000 election, with a promise of an additional two billion dollars in federal money to help with recovery efforts from Hurricane Charley, which tore through the state two weeks ago.
After visiting a firehouse and receiving a briefing on recovery efforts, Bush gave a speech sprinkled with Spanish that took aim at Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
"I believe and strongly believe the people of Cuba should be free from the tyrant. And I believe that enforcing the embargo is a necessary part of the strategy," he said to applause.
Some 1.2 million Cuban-Americans live in Florida, the state the controversially gave Bush his victory in the 2000 election by 500-odd votes.
Bush vowed to continue using airplanes to circumvent Cuban electronic jamming and broadcast US-funded Radio and TV Marti into the island.
The US government began the broadcasts last weekend, using a C-130 military cargo airplane.
"We`re continuing to implement our strategy of `hablar` the truth," Bush said, using the Spanish word for "speak."
"We launched the first of what will be regular airborne broadcasts into Cuba," he said. "We will continue those broadcasts. The Cuban people are hearing the truth once again.
Bush also attacked his Democratic rival, Senator John Kerry, who he said wanted to loosen travel restrictions to the island.
His visit to this key electoral state came as Bush`s Republican party prepared to open its convention Monday in New York, where he will officially become the party`s candidate in the November 2 election.
A series of polls out this week show that the scales have tipped back in Bush`s favor, giving him a slight lead over Democratic challenger John Kerry for the first time in several weeks.
Still, the two remain locked in a tight race, separated in the polls by only two or three percentage points, less than the margin of error.
But Bush is also getting a boost from a slight gain in his popularity rating, according to a recent Gallup poll. Some 54 percent of those surveyed said they had a favorable opinion of Bush, marking his highest rating since April. Fifty-two percent said they looked favorably upon Kerry, his lowest showing since January.
In an interview with USA Today, Bush expressed confidence that he would be re-elected, even if Americans disagreed with his decision to go to war in Iraq.
"We`ll prevail," he declared. He said voters "know who I am, and I believe they`re comfortable with the fact that they know I`m not going to shift principles or shift positions based upon polls and focus groups."
"They`ve seen me make decisions, they`ve seen me under trying times, they`ve seen me weep, they`ve seen me laugh, they`ve seen me hug," he added.
In an interview with The New York Times, which the daily referred to as his first acknowledgement of the issue, Bush admitted having miscalculated the conditions in postwar Iraq.
He said the miscalculation was an unintended byproduct of US troops` "swift victory" over deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein`s forces, who quickly went into hiding in Iraqi cities and mounted a rebellion far faster than the Americans had anticipated.
Bush said his policies on Iraq -- where he fought a war despite strong international opposition -- were "flexible enough" to respond to the insurgency.
He added that even now, "we`re adjusting to our conditions" in places like the holy city of Najaf, where US and Iraqi forces have been battling the militias of Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr for weeks.
But Bush must also confront some less-than-rosy news on the economy.
The Commerce Department announced Friday that the US economy braked harder than first thought in the second quarter, skidding to a 2.8 percent annual growth rate. It had weakened from 4.5 percent in the first quarter.
Growth in the second quarter, downgraded from the government`s first estimate of a 3.0 percent expansion, was the slowest in more than a year but roughly in line with many economists` expectations.