Sprint to final poll for rivals

United States President George W. Bush and Democratic senator John Kerry began an 18-day sprint to the November 2 presidential election yesterday by renewing their fight over who offered the best leadership for the middle class.

With the last of three debates behind them, the campaigns trained their attention on 10 states that will decide the race for the White House.

Both camps also aired bitter complaints about the debate. Vice-President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne, denounced Kerry for "a cheap and tawdry political trick" in mentioning their daughter Mary, a lesbian, during a discussion of homosexuality.

Democrats were incensed by Bush's denial that he once claimed he was not too concerned about al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Bush and Kerry made their first campaign stops in Las Vegas after the debate in Tempe, Arizona. Nevada has five electoral votes and the two are running neck and neck there in the polls.

"Now it's a sprint to the finish," Bush told reporters in Las Vegas. "I'm excited about it. My spirits are high. I'm enthusiastic about my chances."

He shrugged off post-debate polls showing that Kerry swept all three encounters, seen on television by tens of millions of voters, and renewed his attacks on Kerry for being too far out of the mainstream.

"On issue after issue ... he takes the side of more centralised control and more bureaucracy," Bush said. "There's a word for that attitude: It's called liberalism."

Kerry dismissed Bush as out of touch, out of ideas and out of time.

"I believe we need a fresh start in America," he told the American Association of Retired People. "I believe we need a President who will fight for the great middle class and those struggling to join it and if you give me the chance, I am ready to be that President."

The senator said Bush had helped his "powerful and well-connected friends" at the expense of average Americans.

"George Bush had four years to do something - anything - to make life better for hard-working families," Kerry said. "But instead of seizing the moment, he has squandered the opportunity and then he has spent his entire campaign trying to make us believe the unbelievable."

From shipping jobs overseas to becoming the first President in 72 years to lose jobs on his watch, Bush had ignored reality, Kerry said.

"The President has proven beyond a doubt that he's out of touch with the average middle-class family, he's out of ideas and he's unwilling to change course.

"The good news is that is in 19 days we can change all of this."

The exchanges followed a final debate that featured sharp disagreements on domestic issues but also a personal discussion of topics such as faith and family.

But the fights over Kerry's mention of Mary Cheney and Bush's claim he never said he was not that concerned about bin Laden dominated the day after the debate.

"The only thing I could conclude is this is not a good man," Lynne Cheney said of Kerry at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Kerry responded with a written statement: "I love my daughters. They love their daughter. I was trying to say something positive about the way strong families deal with this issue."

Democrats said Bush's denial of the bin Laden comments were indicative of his refusal to take responsibility.

"I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden," Bush said in the debate. "It's kind of one of those exaggerations."

Kerry's campaign quickly produced a White House transcript of a March 13, 2002, news conference where Bush said of bin Laden: "I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run."

Kerry is to spend the next week in seven states where the race is close - Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Nevada. Bush headed from Nevada to Oregon, where polls show him trailing Kerry.

- REUTERS