Bush tries to win crucial votes in visit to Pennsylvania

Bush lost Pennsylvania to Gore in 2000.
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) -- President Bush is unveiling sharp new criticism aimed at Sen. John Kerry's positions on national security and domestic concerns, including taxes and Social Security, as he tries to win over a swing state he lost in 2000 and shore up support in two that he won.
Bush was making the 41st visit of his presidency to Pennsylvania today before moving on to Ohio and Florida. All are critical to the Nov. 2 election.
Pennsylvania is the only one of the three that Bush lost to Democrat Al Gore in 2000.
Bush planned to renew his criticism of health care, education and other policies supported by his Democratic rival while speaking at a rally in Wilkes-Barre.
The president was to appear later at an event in Canton, Ohio, before attending a private fund-raising dinner in St. Petersburg, Fla.
"He will talk about the choices in a way many moms and dads across America will make their final decisions," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
The president will roll out new speeches periodically through to Election Day, he said.
New poll
A new poll of likely voters in Pennsylvania found 51 percent supporting Sen. John Kerry and 46 percent favoring Bush with 4 percent undecided.
The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said its survey also tallied registered voters, showing Kerry with 47 percent, Bush with 41 percent and about one in 10 undecided.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said today he disagreed with Bush's assertion that Kerry had "a fundamental misunderstanding" of the war in Iraq but affirmed his support for Bush as better qualified than Kerry to lead the United States in the war on terrorism, which McCain called "the transcendent issue of our time."
"The rhetoric in this campaign is as bad on both sides or worse than I've ever seen it on both sides," McCain said on "Today" on NBC. "I could criticize many of the things that Senator Kerry has said about President Bush and vice versa, and I don't think it helps, frankly, the level of the campaign."
McClellan would not comment directly on McCain's remarks but said, "You look at Sen. Kerry's record and his views, he has a fundamental misunderstanding of the war on terror."
Released new ad
The Bush campaign released an ad today renewing its criticism that Kerry is weak on national security, a key theme of the re-election effort. The spot shows wolves prowling in a dense forest as a narrator says, "Weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm."
In an interview Thursday with the Spanish-language network Telemundo, the president blurred the lines between the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq.
The Sept. 11 commission found no connection between the attacks and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and only tenuous links between al-Qaida and Saddam's Iraq.
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