ST. LOUIS, Missouri, Oct 8 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush`s re-election bid, battered by bad news on Iraq and the economy, faced a critical test Friday as he headed into a second debate with resurgent Democrat John Kerry.
The Republican, who shepherded the United States through the agony of September 11 and led the country into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, was on the spot for the second of three debates ahead of the tight November 2 election.
The latest blow was a government report Friday showing that US employers had hired 96,000 extra workers in September, far fewer than expected and below the pace many economists say is needed to keep up with population growth.
Kerry wasted no time in trumpeting that the latest "disappointing" figures meant the administration would be the first in 72 years to register a net loss of jobs over its four-year term.
He said in a statement that employment growth was seven million jobs behind the government`s 2002 projections, and many of the new positions were low paying and often without health and pension benefits.
"The president does not seem to understand how many middle-class families are being squeezed by falling incomes, and spiraling health care, tuition and energy costs," the Massachusetts senator said.
"He believes this is the best America can do. I believe America can and will do better."
Bush, coming off a scowling, lacklustre performance in his first debate with Kerry last week, went into the 90-minute encounter at Washington University here after taking a week of hits on Iraq that would likely dominate the exchange.
First his former overseer for Iraq complained he never sent enough troops to stabilize the country. Then Bush`s chief arms inspector definitively scuppered his argument he had to invade to rid Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction.
But the Republicans shed none of their combativeness, and senior Bush campaign adviser Karen Hughes angrily rejected Kerry`s notion that the White House had invented reasons for the war after the fact.
"It`s the height of hypocrisy for Senator Kerry to now suggest that, when he said the same thing, reached the same conclusions, voted for the war and said President Bush was right to invade Iraq," Hughes told CNN.
Borrowing a line of attack from the Democrats, she attacked Kerry for "a litany of misrepresentations" of Bush`s positions, and said, "Who is misleading whom is the question I would ask."
With Kerry clawing back into a virtual tie in the race after the first debate, the Republicans were itching to nail him for what they said was a long catalogue of inconsistency on how best to defend the United States.
The debate is "an opportunity for Senator Kerry to defend a 30-year record of being wrong on defense," said Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman.
Friday`s showdown promised to be one of the most bruising encounters in recent memory, with Bush branding Kerry`s foreign policy a danger to America, and his challenger accusing him of weaving a "pattern of deception" over Iraq.
Both candidates were to take questions from audience members in a town-hall-style debate expected to mix foreign policy with economic questions.
That format was believed to play into Bush`s common touch, although Vietnam War veteran Kerry, seen as aloof at the beginning of his campaign, has honed his technique in a blizzard of town hall meetings in recent weeks.
Hughes played down the stakes in Friday`s debate, which is expected to draw tens of millions of viewers. She rejected the suggestion it was "do or die" for either Bush or Kerry.
"I think the process of the American people making a choice in a presidential election is an accumulated process," she said. "I think in this one it will come down to who do the American people trust."
Hughes also tried to brush off the grimaces Bush made in the first debate, which appeared to cost him among voters. She said the president joked that listening to his rival`s distortions "makes one want to make a face."
Interestingly, Bush`s situation mirrored that of his opponent in 2000, then vice president Al Gore, whose second debate performance was hamstrung by a need to dispel images of his showing in the first encounter, compromised by his theatrical sighs.
Both Kerry and Bush marked out their battle lines Thursday before the debate.
Bush declared he would attack Iraq all over again, shrugging off the report that Baghdad had lacked the unconventional weapons at the heart of his case for war.
"Based on all the information we have to date, I believe we were right to take action, and America is safer today with Saddam Hussein in prison," Bush said in a hastily announced prepared statement as he departed the White House.
But Kerry said Bush was being dishonest with the American people.
"President Bush`s serious errors in judgment have left us more vulnerable and less safe as the terrorists continue to murder schoolchildren and target our brave soldiers," he said as he prepared for the debate in Colorado.