MYRIAM MARQUEZ Let's focus on leadership here and now

After the Swift Boat Boys and the shoddy CBS reports, after spinning from both sides over a war that ended 30 years ago, finally, the presidential candidates are back to America's future, talking about what matters: the war on terror and Iraq.
Before the United Nations, President Bush pressed his case once again against Saddam Hussein and why the United States had to go to war in Iraq. Predictably, Kerry's Swift Boat critics were still spinning Tuesday night on Fox News, but what else is new? It's certainly no longer news.
The same day, at an Orlando pep rally, John Kerry and John Edwards homed in on Bush's war record in Iraq -- and not on whether Bush skipped out on National Guard duty in the 1970s. Good. Few people besides rabid partisans care about Kerry's or Bush's Vietnam record. Lost in all the hubbub about the Swifties and Dan Rather's lousy news judgment on CBS came the news again from the U.S. Navy stating that Kerry had earned his medals. And Bush was discharged honorably, too. Period.
So let's get on with it. Let's focus on leadership in the here and now. Both men can make compelling cases as to why they should be president, but clearly Bush has had the upper hand of late, particularly with so-called Security Moms. They trump the Soccer Moms of four years ago as the undecided voters up for grabs.
Security Moms, polls tell us, are more worried about another terrorist strike than men are. And the recent rampage in Russia in which Chechen militants killed scores of children brought the war on terror straight to the female heart in America. It's no wonder Bush has fared better among women in polling when it comes to security issues.
Kerry needs to stay on message, which he seems to be doing. But can Flip-Flop Man drop the nuances of policy and his zigzag voting record to strike a strong position on achieving peace?
The Democrat's hoarseness may be a sign that he's fighting mad -- unlike the summer months in which he kept mostly mum as the Swifties made outrageous charges against him. For too long Kerry has seemed to be "above it all," perhaps wanting to appear presidential. Instead, he has appeared indecisive, as if he has no real yearning to get elected, no real fire in the gut.
You can say a lot of things about Bush, but there's fire there.
Energetic and tough
In Orlando, Kerry was energetic and tough -- and delved once again into his plans for an exit strategy in Iraq that will secure the peace and save American lives. He laid out his criticisms of Bush's leadership in a straightforward way that can connect with average voters.
On the same day the president was telling reporters some nonsense about his intelligence agencies' reports, which outlined the debacle in Iraq and offered poor projections for peace, being of little bearing since they're "just guesses," Kerry was making a compelling case about Bush's poor judgment. If the administration's own intelligence is meaningless to Bush after four years on the job, during a war, what's that say about his judgment?
"Every time this president has exercised judgment in Iraq, he has turned his back on the best advice in America, and now America is paying the price."
Kerry wasn't talking about Democratic naysayers or even U.N. opportunists taking Bush to task on the war in Iraq. He was pointing to the president's own advisers, in the military, in the intelligence community, and senators in Bush's own party, including Chuck Hagel, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Richard Lugar.
Of course, this is just a snapshot of one day on the Kerry campaign trail. Polls change like hurricanes heading to Florida -- one day heading this way; another, in the opposite direction.
Voters can't predict the future any more than candidates can, even with women's intuition. But we can feel in our guts who's more trustworthy and will fight to defend America the right way -- not just any which way, discounting history's lessons and today's intelligence as if they were simpleton guessing games.
X Myriam Marquez is an editorial page columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.