COLUMBUS, United State (AFP) - President George W. Bush called on the star power of actor-turned-California-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to boost his campaign appeal as Democratic challenger John Kerry shifted his attack from missing explosives in Iraq to domestic economics.
After a week of savaging Bush on the missing ordenance, Kerry changed tack, preaching hope and the promise of the "American dream."
"Do you want four more years of the same failed course? Or do you want a fresh start for America?" Kerry asked in Florida, a crucial swing state that could again decide the election as it did four years ago.
A day after Kerry got a boost from rock legend Bruce Springsteen, Bush was to use Schwarzenegger here in Columbus to bolster his bid for a second term, four days from the election and with polls still showing the two in a statistical dead heat.
Ohio is another state Bush narrowly won in 2000 but which is now under threat from Kerry.
Bush`s efforts to secure high-profile backing suffered a setback when Curt Schilling, star pitcher for the World Series baseball champions, the Boston Red Sox, pulled out of a scheduled campaign appearance with the president.
Earlier at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Bush was joined by people who lost relatives in the September 11, 2001, attacks.
They included David Beamer, whose son, Todd, was among the passengers authorities say rebelled against Al-Qaeda terrorists who hijacked their jet, which crashed in Pennsylvania.
"We face enemies who hate our country and would do anything to harm us," Bush said.
"I will fight these enemies with every asset of our national power. We will do our duty and we will protect the American people."
Bush did not once mention Kerry by name, but he did invoke British Prime Minister Tony Blair, recalling a telephone conversation in which he said Blair pushed aside political opposition to the war in Iraq. "I am with you, and I mean it," the president quoted Blair as saying.
Polls out Friday meanwhile suggested Bush moving onto Democratic turf in the country`s heartland, with Kerry fighting hard in other key swing states ahead of Tuesday`s vote.
One poll indicated neither candidate had made a dent in the basic attitude of Americans towards the war.
The Harris survey found the percentages who backed or disagreed with the invasion stayed constant through months Kerry criticism and Bush`s staunch defense of the war.
While Bush has sought to put forward his national security record in the final days of the campaign, a new video, apparently of the Al-Qaqaa munitions dump in Iraq, heightened a controversy over a huge cache of missing explosives.
While top administration officials have said there is no proof the explosives were at Al-Qaqaa when the US-led invasion was completed in April 2003, the video was shot nine days after the fall of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and shows what appears to be high explosives still in barrels and bearing International Atomic Energy Agency seals.
"The photographs are consistent with what I know of Al-Qaqaa," David Kay, a former head of the US hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, told The New York Times. "The damning thing is the seals. The Iraqis didn`t use seals on anything. So I`m absolutely sure that`s an IAEA seal."
Kerry has highlighted Bush`s refusal to explain administration action over the missing explosives.
"The president`s shifting explanations and excuses and attacks on me demonstrate once again that this president believes the buck stops everywhere but with the president of the United States," he said Thursday.
The Kerry campaign has also seized upon reports of an expanding FBI probe of the Halliburton oil and services company once run by Vice President Dick Cheney as evidence of administration favours to special interests.
Polls have indicated that the vote between the two on Tuesday will be agonizingly close and both candidates will be frantically touring swing states -- led by Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania -- in the final days.
But the two sides have also realized that the Hawaii result could be close, and the Republicans made a last-minute decision to send Cheney to the island to campaign.
In an interview with the USA Today newspaper published Friday, Bush said the battle "boils down to a matter of trust" and he believed he would win because he has "shown the American people I can do the job in tough times."
In a separate interview with the same paper, Kerry said: "I think proceeding with four more years of George Bush is very risky for America, and I think Americans will realize that."
10/29/2004 - 20:18 GMT - AFP