WATERLOO, Iowa (AFP) - US President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival, John Kerry, move their battle to the Midwestern state of Iowa as the two candidates slug it out on issues ranging from national security to government-run pensions less than two weeks before polling day.
The president was Wednesday scheduled to address a rally in Mason City, Iowa, before heading for Wisconsin, another battleground state that can determine the outcome of the November 2 election.
On Tuesday, Bush stepped up his drive at a Florida baseball stadium rally in Saint Petersburg, suggesting Kerry would give other nations a veto over US military action.
"My opponent is not prepared and equipped to be the commander in chief," he said.
Throwing back familiar Democratic charges, Bush accused Kerry of resorting to "old-style scare tactics" and "the politics of fear" with his criticisms of the economy, government responsibility in a flu vaccine shortage and warnings of a possible return of the draft.
Kerry left Florida to campaign in Ohio and later arrived in this Iowa town. He, too, spoke at a baseball field, in the outfield of the Dayton Dragons.
"I will fight a smarter, more effective, tougher war on terror and I will make America safer," he said under a drizzle illuminated by floodlights.
He promised to "hunt down, find, kill or capture those terrorists wherever they are."
Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, he said, were trying to "scare" Americans into voting for them.
"President Bush doesn't have a record to run on -- he has a record to run away from," he told the crowd of about 7,000.
Earlier, in Florida, the Kerry campaign rolled out its media artillery to counter Bush's most withering assault on the Massachusetts senator's security policies.
The Democrats unveiled two new television advertisements that sought again to bolster Kerry's leadership credentials, an issue they thought they had put to rest in his three televised debates with Bush.
One ad bemoaned "the mess in Iraq created by George Bush" and trumpeted what it called Kerry's Senate votes for the largest military and intelligence budget hikes in the nation's history.
The spot also contained a Kerry rejoinder to Bush's charge that the Democrat did not believe in pre-emptive military action: "As president, I'll stop at nothing to get the terrorists before they get us."
A second ad featured a widow of a September 11 victim hitting Bush on his record against terrorism, which is the centerpiece of his re-elction bid and his strongest point in the polls.
Kristen Breitweiser said she voted for Bush in 2000, as did her husband, but felt betrayed. "I want to look in my daughter's eyes and know that she is safe, and that is why I am voting for John Kerry," she said.
Kerry campaign officials breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday, after it was announced that US media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group, which reaches about a quarter of US households, had backed down from its plan to air what was billed as a lengthy expose of John Kerry's role in the Vietnam War.
Most opinion polls gave Bush a slight lead in the race nationwide, but still within the margin of error. The Republican appeared to have checked Kerry's surge from his strong performance in their three debates.
In the latest surveys released Tuesday, the Washington Post put Bush up 50-47 percent while a New York Times/CBS News poll had the candidates tied at 46 percent.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey had Bush and Kerry tied at 48 percent each among likely voters.
On the front lines of the struggle, Kerry ran strong in key battles for a majority of the presidency-deciding 538 electoral votes, which are apportioned among the 50 states and three other jurisdictions, and which award all or none of their votes to a candidate, in most cases.
Several analysts suggested the next president will be the candidate who wins two out of three in the states of Florida, Ohio in the Midwest and Pennsylvania in the East. Kerry had all three on his schedule Tuesday.