Bush, Kerry focus on Florida as polls indicate tied race

ORLANDO, Florida (AFP) - President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival, John Kerry, were continuing their battle for votes in the key state of Florida as a series of new opinion polls indicated the race remained a virtual dead heat two weeks before polling day.
Bush was scheduled to campaign in St. Petersburg and other parts of the state that became the site of a bitter legal dispute during the 2000 presidential election and narrowly handed victory to Bush over his then Demoratic rival Al Gore.
Kerry was to campaign in the Sunshine State at least part of the day, and accused Bush of "arrogant boasting" on Iraq as advance voting opened in Florida Monday.
But Bush hit back charging that Kerry's policies were "giving up" the terror fight.
Their attacks heralded a fiercely partisan countdown to election day on November 2, with some polls showing the race tied, although Bush appeared to have a slight edge in others.
The president travelled to New Jersey, a state bordering New York City, supposedly solid Kerry country, to rekindle memories of his leadership following the September 11 attacks in 2001.
He said Kerry was ready to ditch his global anti-terrorism campaign for a "piecemeal and symbolic" strategy of the 1990s, which he said had emboldened extremists while Americans lived in a "mirage of safety."
"Senator Kerry's approach would permit a response only after America is hit. This kind of September 10 attitude is no way to protect our country," he said.
The Democrat challenger got his retaliation in first, preempting Bush's speech at a rally in Florida's West Palm Beach.
"The bottom line Mr President: your mismanagement of the war has made Iraq and America less safe and secure than they could have been and should have been today."
Kerry's campaign went even further in a statement.
"The only thing significant about Bush's policy on the war on terror has been his significant failure to focus on terrorism before September 11."
But Kerry's oft-repeated argument that US troop had "oursourced" the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan's eastern border region of Tora Bora in the wake of the September 11 attacks was dismissed Tuesday by retired general Tommy Franks, a former commander of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"As commander of the allied forces in the Middle East, I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora and I can tell you that the senator's understanding of events doesn't square with reality," Franks wrote in The New York Times.
Kerry had three rallies in Florida on Monday and was to campaign in the state on Tuesday morning. Bush flew to Florida for a dinner before a full day on the stump in the crucial state on Tuesday.
Both men are exhorting core voters to use an early voting system so they can concentrate their efforts on the still undecided.
In Miami, about 100 people waited in line at lunchtime to vote at one of 17 polling stations around the city.
More than half the 50 US states have early voting, and Florida adopted the system after THE 2000 electoral chaos.
Legal wrangling in Florida in 2000 held up the final result for 36 days until the US Supreme Court ordered a halt to vote recounts, leaving Bush with a 537-vote lead over Gore in Florida, which gave him the presidency.
The former vice president took his own shot at Bush Monday.
"He is arrogantly out of touch with reality, he refuses to ever admit mistakes, which means that so long as he is our president, we are doomed to repeat his mistakes. It is beyond incompetence. It is recklessness," Gore said.
According to latest polls, Bush has grabbed a small lead, but the race could hinge on voter turnout.
A CBS News/New York Times poll showed Bush leading Kerry, by 47-45 percent, with independent Ralph Nader taking two percent.
The Washington Post had Bush leading the Massachusetts senator 50-47 percent. Time magazine and Rasmussen put the edge at two points and Zogby International had Kerry pulling into a dead heat at 45 percent each.
Newsweek magazine had Bush ahead 48-46 percent among registered voters, but 50-44 percent among likely voters. A Gallup poll had the same trend: Bush up 49-46 percent among registered Americans, 52-44 percent among likely voters.