Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was set to step up attacks on George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war, as the president prepared to go to the United Nations to unveil new proposals help rebuild the country.
In a new television advertisement six weeks before the November 2 election, Kerry accused Bush of diverting resources needed at home to fight the war in Iraq.
"Two hundred billion dollars. That is what we are spending in Iraq because George Bush chose to go it alone. Now the president tells us we dont have the resources to take care of health care and education here at home," Kerry says in the spot.
Kerry has struggled to make up ground lost to Bush with recent opinion polls giving the president a double-digit edge, but the US senator but reminded supporters in his home town of Boston Saturday that he has pulled out come-from-behind victories in past hard-fought elections.
"When I get in a fighting mood towards the end of September and towards the beginning of October, I think you know what happens here," Kerry told an enthusiastic crowd, adding that he already feels "the October juices flowing."
A Knight Ridder/MSNBC poll released Saturday shows that a plurality of voters in the five swing states of Missouri, Arizona, New Hampshire, Ohio, West Virginia support Bush over Kerry.
Nearly 80 percent of voters in each state said they weren't concerned about how each candidate served during the Vietnam War, and a clear majority said they favored a ban on gay marriage.
Bush's decision to go to war on Iraq was more controversial: a narrow majority of voters in four states approved, while voters in West Virginia narrowly disapproved.
The poll, conducted between September 14-16, has a plus or minus four point margin of error.
Bush narrowly carried those five states in the 2000 election.
There are about 15 states that are not yet firmly in the Democratic or Republican camp for the November vote, according to polls.
Kerry's s campaign was to launch Monday's new ad campaign as Bush comes under fresh criticism for refusing to own up to the explosion of violence that has left more than 400 dead in Iraq this month alone.
The Washington Post published a blistering editorial calling Bush's description of the unrest in Iraq "bland to the point of dishonesty."
"Not only has Mr. Bush not said how, or whether, he intends to respond to the worsening situation -- he doesn't really admit it exists," the Post said.
"This duck-and-cover strategy may have its political advantages, but it is also deeply irresponsible and potentially dangerous," the Post wrote.
The paper said Bush's record is "one of courage in setting goals and steadfastness in sticking to them but also one of extraordinary recklessness and incompetence in execution."
Despite daily attacks that have pushed the US miltary death toll past 1,000 in Iraq, Bush said: "I'm pleased with the progress.
"It's hard. Don't get me wrong. It's hard because there are some in Iraq who want to disrupt the election and disrupt the march to democracy, which should speak to their fear of freedom," he told The Union Leader newspaper in New Hampshire.
"Iraq has a strong prime minister" in Ayad Allawi and "there is a national council set up and they're going to have elections in January," he said in an interview published Sunday.
Bush also raised questions for the first time about documents used to bolster a report that he received preferential treatment during his Vietnam era military service.
"There are a lot of questions about the documents and they need to be answered," Bush told the paper.
"I think what needs to happen is people need to take a look at the documents, how they were created, and let the truth come out," he said.
Bush's military record has drawn new attention because of allegations his family used its influence to get him into the Texas Air National Guard and avoid seeing combat in the Vietnam War.
While the documents used by CBS have been called into question, media studies of Bush's military records -- which the White House has only grudgingly released -- found that Bush fell short of fulfilling his obligations and that senior aides misrepresented his service.
The White House has countered any and all suggestions that Bush missed drills or otherwise ducked assignments by pointing to his honorable discharge from the guard in 1973.
Bush has not denied the specific charges in the documents, but told the New Hampshire paper that "I did everything they asked me to do and met my requirements and was honourably discharged. I'm proud of my service in the Guard."
The US president will address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, with the crisis in Iraq mounting again amid almost daily attacks and the US military death toll now past 1,000.
Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday that he would talk about the need to "improve health, expand prosperity and extend freedom in our world."