PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, Sept 24 (AFP) - Democrat John Kerry outlined Friday his plan for a "tougher, smarter" war on terror as President George W. Bush clung to a lead in their White House race dominated by national security concerns.
With 39 days to go before the November 2 election, two new polls confirmed Bush's advantage and suggested the Kerry camp's claim of new momentum this week was not translating into votes.
The latest surveys were released as both candidates prepared to hunker down and bone up for next Thursday's televised debate, the first of three that could help decide the presidency.
Kerry, who has stepped up his attacks on Bush over Iraq in the last week, sought Friday to cut Bush's hefty lead among voters on the issue of terrorism in a speech at Temple University in the eastern city of Philadelphia.
The Massachusetts senator said that he would "fight a tougher, smarter, more effective war on terror. My priority will be to find and capture or kill the terrorists before they get us."
He accused the president of a series of "wrong choices," including the decision to use Afghan warlords to hunt terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and the diversion of US resources to Iraq over the objection of many US allies.
"There's just no question about it: the president's misjudgment, miscalculation and mismanagement of the war in Iraq all make the war on terror harder to win."
Kerry, who has pledged to muster more international troops and Iraqi soldiers to take the burden off US forces, said: "As president, I will finish the job in Iraq and refocus our energies on the real war on terror."
The Democrat outlined a seven-point plan to combat terrorism but broke no new ground. His strategy included boosting US intelligence capacities and expanding the army by 40,000 troops.
He also pledged to intensify efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, crack down on terrorist financing, strengthen homeland security, move against terrorist havens, develop ties to the Muslim world and repair US alliances.
Bush, meanwhile, took his campaign to the midwestern state of Wisconsin as a fresh CBS News poll gave him a 49-41 percent lead over Kerry among registered voters, down a point from last week.
The Republican continued to enjoy more voter trust than Kerry on Iraq and the war on terrorism but remained vulnerable on the economy.
While Kerry has been hurt by Republican attacks on his Vietnam war record and command capabilities, the new survey showed more voters felt the Democrat had been slinging more mud than Bush.
Twenty-seven percent felt only Kerry was responsible for unfair allegations, while 19 percent blamed only Bush. Sixty-one percent thought the Democrat was spending most of his time in attack mode; 44 percent felt Bush was.
The poll, conducted from Monday to Wednesday, suggested Kerry had made little headway with what his camp hailed as a turning-point speech on Iraq he delivered Monday in New York.
Sixty-one percent of those polled had a lot or some confidence in the president to make the right decisions about Iraq, up five points from last month. Kerry's numbers were down from 63 to 51 percent.
A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll also had bad news for Kerry concerning the stack-up of electoral votes, which are apportioned among the states, won in separate, mostly winner-take-all, contests and decide the presidency.
The survey showed Bush ahead in eight of 11 key "battleground" states, including Florida, which was pivotal in the 2000 election. The Republican led in three states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa, that went Democrat four years ago, and was tied in a fourth Minnesota.
The two candidates, meanwhile, planned extensive "down time" to prepare for their televised debate on foreign policy and homeland security Thursday at the University of Miami in Coral Gables.
Bush was to spend most of his time at his Texas ranch, with a brief stop in Ohio on Monday. Kerry was heading home to Boston for the weekend and travel Sunday to the Wisconsin resort of Spring Green to bone up for the debate.
They will also meet on October 8 at Washington University in the midwestern city of St, Louis, Missouri and on October 13 at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.