Kerry reassures religious voters

Candidates will focus on battleground states during the last eight days.
WASHINGTON POST
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- John Kerry, in what aides called an appeal to undecided religious voters, said Sunday he was a Democrat of deep Christian faith who would unite a pluralistic society and rebuff attempts by his Catholic church to outlaw abortion and stem cell research.
"I love my church, I respect the bishops, but I respectfully disagree" with those who want to "write every doctrine into law," Kerry, a Roman Catholic who supports abortion rights, told supporters at a performing arts center here. "That is not possible or right in a pluralistic society. But my faith does give me values to live by and apply to the decisions I make."
While Kerry was targeting undecided voters with three stops in Florida, President Bush flew to New Mexico, a state Al Gore won in 2000, for a late-day rally in Alamogordo, where he accused Kerry of weakness on terrorism and said Kerry would raise taxes.
It's good to be in country where the cowboy hats outnumber the ties," Bush told a crowd of 8,000 under a blue sky. "I'm a compassionate conservative, and proudly so. At a time when our country has much to accomplish and much more to do, I offer a record of reform and results."
Continuing to fight an idea Kerry has been seeding, Bush said, "There will not be a draft."
Terrorism uncertainty
But the president's comments about terrorism in a Fox News Channel interview, released earlier in the day, overshadowed his speech. "Whether or not we can be fully safe is up -- you know, up in the air," Bush said in the interview to be aired today on Fox's "Hannity and Colmes." "I would hope we could make it a lot more safe by staying on the offensive." Bush also suggested terrorists might strike again before the election, but said, "We have no actionable intelligence."
At a campaign stop in Boca Raton, Fla., Kerry pounced on Bush's remarks, saying, "You make me president, and we will win the war on terror, and it won't be up in the air whether we make America safe."
The two candidates will spend the final eight days in many of the same battleground states, from New Mexico to Florida. But they will work from markedly different playbooks.
Bush plans to close out the election much as he started it: promoting himself as the war president who can best protect America. His campaign's ads focus on his stewardship of the war on terror and what the ads call Kerry's shortcomings on national security.
The Bush campaign is planning a 60-second ad highlighting his leadership qualities. It "encapsulates why the American people trust the president in the times we live in," said White House adviser Dan Bartlett. Bush also plans radio interviews with conservative talk show hosts to stoke GOP voters, aides say, and some outreach directed at women.
Democrat's camp
Kerry's message will be more diffuse, stretching from stem cell research to homeland security and the Iraq war. Aides said his speeches will become increasingly optimistic and positive in tone.
Some Democratic officials privately say Kerry is making a tactical mistake by not focusing more on Iraq and terror to counter Bush. But Kerry aides say they have specific audiences, such as socially conservative blacks, gun-owning independents and undecided Jewish voters to lock up. In Boca Raton last week, for instance, Kerry made a long appeal to Jews, talking about his trips to Israel and speaking one line in Hebrew.
There is a general consensus among strategists from both parties that a majority of voters appear willing to oust Bush. At the same time a large number of voters tell pollsters that they are not sold on replacing Bush with Kerry during such tumultuous times. "The argument we have made about change -- the substantive case for change -- is now breaking through," said Mike McCurry, a Kerry strategist. "The question many of those who are undecided is, 'Can I put my faith in John Kerry?'"
A half-dozen national polls released over the weekend showed a statistical tie or very slight lead for Bush. State polls in critical states such as Ohio are more troublesome for the incumbent, strategists from both parties say.
Bush was endorsed Sunday by two major Ohio newspapers he had courted, the Columbus Dispatch and Cincinnati Post, but his staff is looking at ways for him to win without Ohio, where polls once showed him ahead but now have him even at best.
Adjusting schedule
Kerry is leading or tied in three states with the most electoral votes at stake: Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Yet Kerry was forced to adjust his schedule to campaign in Michigan today, where several polls show a closer-than-expected race, and Kerry aides say Bush is gaining ground in Ohio. Two recent polls taken in Hawaii, a Democratic stronghold where Bush received just 37 percent in 2000, shows Bush running even with Kerry; Democrats say Arkansas, once considered a virtual lock for Bush, is tightening and might entice a last-minute appearance by former President Clinton, who will campaign with Kerry in Pennsylvania today and then go to Florida.
While the Kerry camp seems optimistic, there is concern among some aides about the Democratic nominee's ability to close the deal with undecided voters.
McCurry talks openly about Kerry's need to reveal a more personal and likable side to these voters. McCurry, a Catholic, helped the candidate craft Sunday's faith and values speech. It was perhaps the most overtly religious speech of the campaign by either candidate. In it, Kerry talked in personal and deeply spiritual terms about a lifelong Catholic faith that sustained him through war and crisis and a belief in a "common destiny" under God that carries with it a moral and social obligation for government to help the least of America's people.
Kerry ended with a call to voters to pray for both candidates -- which was interrupted by partisan chants of "no more Bush."