PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN Kerry turns toward battling Bush as he works to keep primary lead

Bush said Democrats are poised to raise taxes.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sparring with President Bush over the economy, Sen. John Kerry is looking ahead to the general election campaign at the same time he works to strengthen his hold on the Democratic nomination in a pair of Southern primaries today.
"This president has the worst jobs record of the last 11 presidents combined," the Massachusetts senator said Monday, campaigning in advance of elections in Virginia and Tennessee. "He has lost over 3 million jobs."
After being battered by Democrats for months, Bush gave as good as he got. Democrats who oppose his call for making tax cuts permanent really want higher taxes and bigger government, he said, without mentioning Kerry by name.
"They're going to say, 'Oh, we've got to raise it so we can pay down the deficit.' No. They're going to raise the taxes and increase the size of the federal government, which would be bad for the United States economy."
Kerry's focus on Bush is a luxury he can afford.
The far-away front-runner in the Democratic race, he has won 10 of 12 primaries and caucuses to date, and hoped for additional success today in the Southern battlegrounds of Virginia and Tennessee.
His rivals, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, Sen. John Edwards and Howard Dean, face other imperatives as they struggle to slow Kerry's momentum.
"You've got a choice in this race. You've got a front-runner, you've got a good lawyer and you've got an underdog. I'm the underdog," Clark said Monday in Tennessee, eager to draw a contrast between himself and his Democratic rivals.
Edwards, a successful trial lawyer before entering politics, told reporters he intends to remain in the presidential race regardless of the outcome of the day's primaries.
"What we have been preparing for the entire time is a nomination process that's going to go on well into March," he said after a speech in Norfolk, Va. "We're prepared for that, we have the resources to do that, and most importantly, we have a message that obviously resonates when voters hear it."
Dean also focused on Kerry at one point, saying the Massachusetts senator's record must undergo examination. "I think that has not happened to Senator Kerry."
"That needs to happen," said Dean, whose campaign stumbled after he was subjected to the intense scrutiny that a front-runner customarily receives.
In a turnabout, the former Vermont governor said he intends to stay in the presidential race regardless of the outcome in the Feb. 17 primary in Wisconsin. "I've just changed my mind," he said in an interview with Wisconsin television reporters.
Pre-primary polls made Kerry the favorite in Virginia and Tennessee, and he hoped to show strength in the South following last week's election defeats in South Carolina and Oklahoma.
Virginia had 82 pledged delegates at stake in the day's primary, and Tennessee offered 69.
Kerry's lead in the delegate hunt matched his supremacy in the primary and caucus elections. He had 431 delegates in an Associated Press count, Dean had 182, Edwards 117 and Clark 84. It takes 2,162 to win the nomination.
While Dean, Edwards and Clark hope to stop Kerry's rush toward the nomination, the Massachusetts senator is making plans for a general election race.
An official close to Kerry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kerry plans to tap into a $15 million fund the Democratic National Committee has set aside to help the nominee get off to a quick start.
Kerry plans to use the money to run television commercials in an attempt to counter ads the Bush re-election campaign is expected to run, this official said. Republicans are expected to begin running ads as soon as the Democratic race is settled.
Falling in polls
Bush, his poll numbers slipping, unleashed a campaign-style attack on Democrats on the issue of taxes.
"There are some in Washington that are going to say, 'Let's not make the tax cuts permanent.' That means he's going to raise your taxes," he said on the 15th visit to Missouri of his presidency.
"When you hear people say, 'We're not going to make this permanent,' that means tax increase," Bush added.
Kerry favors repealing the tax cuts that apply to individuals earning more than $200,000. An aide, Stephanie Cutter, said the senator supports a permanent extension of middle class tax cuts that Congress enacted in recent years, including measures that helped taxpayers with children as well as many married couples.