Bush and Kerry square off over Iraq

4.40pm

UPDATED - President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry differed sharply on Iraq, jobs and taxes in their second debate today, with Kerry questioning Bush's judgment and the president accusing Kerry of crumbling under political pressure.

In a sometimes testy confrontation, the White House rivals roamed the stage to battle over the decision to go to war in Iraq and repeatedly accuse each other of misleading Americans.

"The world is more dangerous today because the president didn't make the right judgments," Kerry said at the debate at Washington University, adding Bush "took his eye off the ball" in shifting his focus to Iraq while Iran and North Korea developed nuclear programmes.

Bush defended his decision to go to war and aggressively attacked Kerry's record, saying the Massachusetts senator's willingness to shift in the political winds made him an unsuitable leader.

"I don't see how you can lead this country in a time of war, in a time of uncertainty, if you change your mind because of politics," Bush said.

Kerry denied that he had shifted his position in Iraq and said Bush was running a campaign of "mass deception."

"Let me tell you straight up: I've never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat. I always believed he was a threat," he said.

"This president rushed to war, pushed our allies aside, and Iran now is more dangerous, and so is North Korea, with nuclear weapons. He took his eye off the ball, off of Osama bin Laden," Kerry said.

An angry Bush at one point cut off moderator Charles Gibson to upbraid Kerry for criticizing the size of the coalition backing the United States in Iraq, saying it denigrated allies like Britain and Poland.

Kerry responded that if troops in Iraq from the state of Missouri were counted as a separate military force, they would be the third largest bloc behind the United States and Britain.

"That's not a grand coalition," he said.

The encounter in St. Louis came amid an increase in momentum for Kerry, whose aggressive attacks put Bush on the defensive in the first debate and propelled him into a dead heat with the president in many polls.

Bush was more aggressive this time and put Kerry on the defensive more often, quickly shifting topics rather than falling back on lines from his stump speech.

TOWN HALL FORMAT

The debate was conducted in a town hall format, where the candidates perched on stools or moved around the stage to answer questions from an audience of undecided voters. They frequently turned and addressed each other.

"That answer almost made me want to scowl," Bush said at one point, poking fun at the adverse reaction to his facial expressions in the last debate.

Bush brushed off the report earlier this week from weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, which found that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had not rebuilt his weapons of mass destruction programme after the 1991 Gulf War.

"Saddam Hussein was a threat because he could have given weapons of mass destruction to terrorist enemies. Sanctions were not working. The United Nations was not effective at removing Saddam Hussein," Bush said.

Kerry said the goal of sanctions was not to remove Saddam, but to remove the weapons of mass destruction. Turning to Bush, he said: "Mr. President, just yesterday the Duelfer report told you and the whole world they worked. He didn't have weapons of mass destruction, Mr President. That was the objective."

Kerry cited a lackluster jobs report on Friday as proof the economy was still weak under Bush. The economy added just 96,000 workers in September, well short of economic forecasts for 148,000 new hires.

Bush said the economy was adding jobs since it bottomed out last year and warned that Kerry would halt the economic recovery by raising taxes on middle class Americans.

He accused Kerry of voting to raise taxes 98 times, a charge disputed by Democrats, and said his proposals would add up to US$2.2 (NZ$3.29) trillion in new spending. He said Kerry was the Senate's most liberal member and warned the audience: "He's going to tax everybody here."

"He's got a record. He's been there 20 years. You can run but you can't hide," Bush said, adding at one point: "Show me one accomplishment on Medicare."

Kerry has said he would end Bush's tax cuts for those making more than US$200,000 a year and promised a package of tax breaks for middle-class Americans. Asked if he would vow not to raise taxes on the middle class, Kerry looked at the camera and said: "I'm not going to raise taxes."

"This president is just trying to scare everybody here ... throwing labels around," Kerry said. "Labels don't mean anything."

Bush said he blocked the import of prescription drugs from Canada because he wanted to be sure they were safe, but Kerry said Bush had said four years ago in his debates with Al Gore that he would support such a move.

- REUTERS