CLEVELAND, United States (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic rival John Edwards were to clash in their only televised debate, amid surprising criticisms of the Iraq war 28 days from the November 2 election.
Cheney and Edwards were to face off at 9:00 pm (0100 GMT) in an exchange made more important by a recent tightening of the White House race after US President George W. Bush`s tepid showing in his first debate last week.
Political analysts agree that vice presidential debates, which date back only to 1976, usually have little impact on the battle for the top job, though they usually offer more rhetorical fireworks than do the headliners.
As Cheney and Edwards prepared for what was expected to be a high-octane exchange, Washington`s strategy for the war to oust Saddam Hussein drew fire from an unlikely source: the former US civilian overseer of Iraq, Paul Bremer.
"We never had enough troops on the ground," Bremer told a conference of insurance professionals in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on Monday, noting that a lack of adequate patrols after Baghdad`s fall led to "horrid" looting.
"We paid a big price for not stopping it, because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," said Bremer, who left his post when the US-led coalition officially handed power to Iraq`s interim government on June 28.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who has leveled similar charges against Bush`s handling of the war in Iraq, jumped on Bremer`s remarks, saying the Republican had admitted "two big mistakes" in strategy.
Bremer "has admitted we didn`t deploy enough troops to get the job done. And two, we didn`t contain the violence after Saddam Hussein was deposed," Kerry said at a campaign rally in the up-for-grabs state of Iowa.
"The president of the United States needs to tell the truth to the American people," said the Democrat, who openly wondered: "I don`t know if the president is constitutionally incapable of acknowledging the truth."
But amid eroding support for the war in Iraq, Bremer sought to insulate Bush and Cheney from potential political fallout in an e-mail to The Washington Post late Monday, saying he supported the current strategy there.
"I believe that we currently have sufficient troop levels in Iraq," Bremer said, noting that his recent references to inadequate troop levels referred to May 2003, when he arrived in Baghdad -- "and when I believed we needed either more coalition troops or Iraqi security forces to address the looting."
But, speaking hours before the Cheney/Edwards debate, Kerry threw down the gauntlet for the vice president, saying: "I hope tonight Mr. Cheney can acknowledge those mistakes. I hope Mr. Cheney can take responsibility."
The vice presidential debate stakes will be higher than usual, not only because the confrontation will occur in the crucial battleground state of Ohio but because of Bush`s weak showing against Kerry in the first of their three televised debates.
Republicans said Cheney would seek to repair the damage from the Democrat`s relentless attacks on the Iraq war and renew the focus on Bush`s leadership after the September 11, 2001 strikes.
The 63-year-old political veteran was also likely to highlight his knowledge and experience and portray Edwards, a first-term senator from North Carolina, as part of a Democratic team unfit to lead the war on terror.
Kerry campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart, speaking to reporters in a conference call, made it clear that Edwards would call on his skills as a trial lawyer to take the offensive against Cheney and Bush.
He said Edwards would hold the White House "accountable for their record from everything to squeezing the middle class while taking care of the powerful and the well connected to the failed energy plan and to the mess that we are in in Iraq."
The 51-year-old Democrat was ready to skewer Cheney as the architect of the administration`s security policies that produced chaos in Iraq but led to windfall reconstruction contracts for his former company, Halliburton, Lockhart said.
A poll released Monday by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that Edwards had a better image among voters than Cheney. Thirty-eight percent rated him favorably and 31 percent unfavorably; 37 percent had a positive view of Cheney and 42 percent had a negative view.
Asked whether Bush would have any words of wisdom for Cheney, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters: "I don`t think he needs to extend any."