PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN Blue-collar crowd cheers Kerry in Cleveland

Meanwhile, President Bush was in Missouri defending his economic policies.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Critics of President Bush's economic policies shouldn't be portrayed as pessimists or partisans because concern about job losses should cross party lines, a prominent Ohio Democrat says.
A main campaign theme of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's has been that the country is bleeding jobs because of Bush's economic policies. Kerry campaigned Monday in northeast Ohio, which he often cites as an example of Bush's failing job initiatives.
Democratic Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic said tax cuts and other Bush decisions have not helped businesses such as his city's Goodyear Tire & amp; Rubber Co., which has cut 6,000 jobs over the past year or so.
Plusquellic said he's upset that Bush supporters call economic critics pessimists or too political.
"It's very hard for anyone to say these are Democratic or Republican issues. These are people's jobs," he said. "There's no reason not to be talking about these issues."
John Kerry made his 14th visit to Ohio on Monday at a Labor Day rally in this blue-collar city, hit hard by job losses in the last four years. Ohio has lost more than 200,000 jobs since Bush took office.
Supporters
A crowd of several thousand mostly black Ohioans gathered at a park in a working class neighborhood near downtown Cleveland to hear Kerry's speech.
Many in the crowd wore union T-shirts, including the Kerry-endorsing Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Teachers. A large handmade sign draped over a tractor-trailer read "Cleveland for Kerry-Edwards."
April Kenney, a city worker, said she supports Kerry because he is not a Republican and because she thinks he would be better for working people.
"There's so many people in my family who got laid off and don't have jobs. Bush wants to cut out overtime and I think that's wrong," she said.
The crowd cheered wildly for Kerry, especially when he criticized Bush's economic policies. Kerry put blame for Ohio's job losses -- including thousands in the neighborhood where he spoke -- on the president.
"On every issue of importance I believe 'W' stands for 'wrong,"' Kerry said. "Jobs is where I think this president has been more wrong than anywhere else."
Kerry campaigned today in North Carolina, where he continued to hammer Bush on the jobs issue. He also leveled harsh criticism over the war in Iraq, declaring that the president had sent U.S. troops to the "wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time."
President in Missouri
Bush dismissed Kerry's remarks on the war as yet another switch in position by a senator who originally voted to give the president the authority to act in Iraq.
"No matter how many times Senator Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America then and it's right for America now if Saddam Hussein is no longer in power," the president told supporters in Poplar Bluff, Mo., Monday.
Bush said the jobs picture is improving, largely due to his tax cuts, which he said have helped push down the unemployment rate to 5.4 percent.
The economy "is strong and is getting stronger," he told the Labor Day crowd.
Political analysts point to one potential problem for Kerry in Missouri -- lingering bitterness in the Democratic Party's ranks over a primary election that ousted incumbent Democratic Gov. Bob Holden. Kerry needs a huge turnout of loyal Democrats to win the state in November.
"There are problems in the party; you would not have that loss by Holden with a unified party," said University of Missouri political science professor Rick Hardy.