Gun-toting Kerry sets sights on geese and swing votes

1.00pm

BOARDMAN, Ohio - For Democratic challenger John Kerry, the presidential race has come down to three words -- focus, focus, focus. Even a hunting trip on Thursday was more about votes than geese.

"We are in that stage of the campaign where in addition to substantively closing the argument, we want people to have a better sense of John Kerry the guy," senior adviser Mike McCurry said.

As part of the "regular guy" strategy, the Massachusetts senator allowed himself to be photographed relaxing in his Boardman hotel room with staff and a beer as he watched his beloved Boston Red Sox defeat the New York Yankees to make it to Major League Baseball's World Series.

And in an effort to win over swing voters -- especially social conservatives -- who might be uncertain about Republican President George W Bush but have yet to connect with Kerry -- the camouflage-wearing Democrat, 12-gauge shotgun in hand, made a predawn assault on waterfowl in Ohio, a key battleground state.

But neither the game nor the hunt was total rest and recreation for a candidate with a reputation for laser-like intensity in the final days of a campaign.

"Eyes on the prize," he chided reporters who asked earlier this week if he might rearrange his schedule ever so slightly to allow him to see the entire Red Sox game. "We're focused on the task at hand here," he said on Wednesday night, cutting off attempts to change the subject.

The real task was to wrap Kerry, a Boston blueblood who has served in the Senate for 20 years, in an all-American image and rebut the "liberal elitist" tag pinned on him by Bush and other Republicans.

In the face of some withering attacks, Kerry has stuck to his game plan for the final two weeks of a race that public opinion polls show is too close to call.

Unlike Bush, who is concentrating almost exclusively on turning out his base, Kerry is in the midst of delivering a series of "closing arguments" -- detailed policy speeches stuffed full of five- and six-point plans like his 57-minute address in Iowa on Iraq, homeland security and the war on terror.

In the past week, he also has spoken at length about the economy, the Social Security retirement system and health care.

Kerry plans a direct appeal to women voters, who could play a critical role in deciding the election, with a speech in Milwaukee on Friday and will discuss faith on Sunday in Florida, expanding on his own Catholic-inspired core values.

The three-and-four rally days will come next week.

"We're defining some real issues on serious and substantive policy matters," McCurry said. He contrasted that with Bush's argument that Kerry "is a bad man" and said: "We've elected to say we can make America a better place."

The campaign's aim was to strike a balance between "the tactical political stuff that really keeps your supporters excited in the field and the substantive message," he said.

Republicans and their allies tried to knock Kerry off balance as he hunted on the 100-acre Molnar family farm near Youngstown. The National Rifle Association bought a full-page ad in the local newspaper accusing the senator of posing as a sportsman while opposing gun-owners' rights.

Kerry said he bagged one bird, although there was no independent verification. Reporters were not allowed to witness the hunt itself and Kerry was empty-handed when he left the cornfield, leaving others in his party to tote four goose carcasses.

- REUTERS