WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry are sprinting toward the finish line of a bitterly fought political marathon that started back in March and will end Tuesday with both candidates running neck and neck.
The race kicked off eight months ago, on March 2, when Kerry triumphed in the Democratic primaries after a fierce three-month fight against eight fellow Democrats.
With his victory, the 60-year-old Massachusetts senator was introduced to the nation. Despite a 20-year career in the Senate, he was not a well known political figure.
Republicans wasted no time using television spots to attack Kerry's Senate record and highlight Bush's response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"We have no illusions about the Republican attack machine and what our opponents have done in the past and what they may try to do in the future," Kerry told supporters in March as he acknowledged that a long, hard road was ahead of him.
One month after Kerry's triumph, Bush's popularity took a plunge in the polls amid a series of problems in Iraq: the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, a Shiite Muslim uprising and a record number of US troops killed in combat in April.
Plus, Bush's former counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke in March told the commission investigating the September 11 attacks that "by invading Iraq, the president of the United States has greatly undermined the war on terrorism."
But Kerry was unable to capitalize on Bush's setbacks and move ahead in the race.
Under a relentless Republican assault painting him as a "flip-flopper" who changes position on major political issues, Kerry had trouble defending his decision to vote for the congressional resolution authorizing Bush to wage war in Iraq.
His lack of charisma also worried Democrats.
Meanwhile, former president Bill Clinton took over the headlines in June with the release of his highly anticipated memoir, "My Life."
Another Republican enemy, filmmaker Michael Moore, released his incendiary anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" the same month, hoping his controversial film would influence the election.
Kerry finally fired up his troops at the Democratic National Convention in July in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts.
"I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty," the Vietnam War veteran said as he saluted the boisterous partisan crowd. "I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president."
But a group of Vietnam War veterans set out to undercut Kerry's military record with television advertisements accusing him of exaggerating his Vietnam record. The attacks hurt Kerry in opinion polls.
The Republican Party crowned Bush as their 2004 candidate at their own festive national convention in New York in late August highlighting the president's strengths as the commander-in-chief.
Kerry came under fire during the Republican convention with continued attacks calling him a flip-flopper who is not qualified to fight an effective war on terrorism, a theme the president has not abandoned.
Kerry bounced back in September with the arrival of former president Bill Clinton's former advisers as reinforcements who helped him fine-tune his positions on Iraq and the economy and offer an alternative to Bush.
The senator shined during the three televised debates in late September and October, giving him a boost in the polls, which currently show the two rivals running even ahead of Tuesday's vote.
In an "October surprise," Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden emerged on videotape on Friday for the first time in a year warning that only a change in US policies could ensure security for the United States.
10/31/2004 02:27 GMT - AFP