Bush, Iraq in the spotlight for second debate

ST. LOUIS, United States (AFP) - President George W. Bush was on the spot and Iraq in the spotlight as he geared for a second televised debate with reinvigorated Democratic rival John Kerry 26 days before the November 2 election.
The Republican goes into the "town hall" encounter Friday in the midwestern city of St. Louis, Missouri struggling to regain his footing after a poor showing in last week's debate and a string of bad news on his Iraq policies.
With most polls showed Kerry pulling even in the race, Bush was on the defensive over a new official report that put a final nail in his argument that he had to invade Iraq to rid Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction.
The conclusion that Saddam had not had such arms for years came after two top US policymakers cast further doubt on administration dogma over Iraq, including Bush's unshakable contention that Baghdad had ties to Al-Qaeda terrorists.
The Kerry campaign made it clear Thursday that the Massachusetts senator would zero in Friday night on last year's invasion which Bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney insist was a vital part of their war on terror.
"The vice president said he would not change a thing, the president said he would not change a thing, that is something they have to defend tomorrow night," senior adviser Joe Lockhart told reporters.
The Democrats planned to step up their attacks on Bush for allegedly misleading the US public on the rationale for the operation and failing to prosecute it with enough troops as former Iraq overseer Paul Bremer said Monday.
Bush brushed off the latest report on Saddam's non-arsenal by the US-led Iraq Survey Group and defended the March 2003 move into Iraq as key to efforts to keep nuclear, chemical and biological weapons out of terrorists' hands.
"We had to take a hard look at every place where terrorists might get those weapons," he told supporters Wednesday in the key eastern state of Pennsylvania. "One regime stood out. The dictatorship of Saddam Hussein."
Kerry boned up Thursday for the debate at a hotel and convention center in the western state of Colorado, before flying later to St. Louis. Bush was headed there after a brief campaign stop in the midwestern state of Wisconsin.
The Democrats expected a more-polished performance from Bush than in the first debate in Florida, where he appeared halting and repetitive and turned viewers off with clear signs of irritation at Kerry's hammering on Iraq.
Howard Wolfson, a senior adviser to the Democratic national committee said the Republicans had no doubt learned the lessons of the first faceoff. "I think we are going to see a new and a different George Bush this week," he said.
Republicans said Bush would seek to refocus the campaign on the war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks and sharpen his criticism of Kerry as weak and waffling as Cheney did more crisply in Tuesday's vice presidential debate.
It could be the president's last chance to score head-to-head points against Kerry on security, considered Bush's strong point. The third and final debate next Wednesday in the western state of Arizona will focus on domestic issues.
Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war veteran, hopes to persuade voters he would be a tougher and more thoughtful commander-in-chief than Bush, able to repair bruised alliances and take the burden off of US forces in Iraq.
Polls show him narrowing Bush's lead on who could do a better job of dealing with Iraq and terrorism. The Democrat sought to neutralize those issues and focus on the economy and health care, where the president is much more vulnerable.