ST. LOUIS, United States (AFP) - US President George W. Bush`s re-election bid, buffeted by bad news on the economy and Iraq, faced a crucial test Friday as he headed into a second debate with resurgent Democratic challenger John Kerry.
The Republican president, 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 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.
Hours before the debate, a poll showed Bush and Kerry virtually neck-and-neck, but with the Democrat perceived as a bit more likeable.
The two were tied at 45 percent in the Time magazine survey taken October 6-7. Independent Ralph Nader was down to three percent it found.
However Bush led Kerry 81 percent to 42 percent on the question, "sticking to his positions."
With other polls showing the race tightening and the economy particularly important to voters in key swing states, the Labor Department job report set spinmeisters on both sides of the political divide into overdrive.
Kerry wasted no time in lamenting the "disappointing" results he said meant the administration would be the first in 72 years to register a net loss of jobs over its four-year term.
The Massachusetts senator said 1.6 million private sector jobs had been lost since Bush took office in January 2001 and many of the positions recently created were low paying and often without health and pension benefits.
"He (Bush) believes this is the best America can do. I believe America can and will do better," Kerry said in a statement after release of the last jobs report before the election.
Some 2.6 million positions were lost in the first 32 months of Bush`s term but 1.8 million created since August 2003 for a net loss of 821,000. If 1.6 million private sector posts disappeared, the state payroll rose by 813,000 jobs.
The administration, predictably, focused on the jobs gained in the last 13 months, which a statement by Treasury Secretary John Snow attributed to "the pro-growth policies and strong economic leadership of President Bush."
The Bush campaign also sought to neutralize the Democratic attacks with a new television ad that hailed the recent job additions as "nearly two million more reasons why Americans are optimistic about our future."
Snow argued that the report "shows the steady creation of jobs fueled by the pro-growth policies and strong economic leadership of President Bush."
"The steady increase in jobs, which we`ve seen now for 13 consecutive months, continued in September. Since August of last year, America has added more than 1.9 million workers to the payroll," Snow said.
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 disarm 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.
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.