US: A week after emerging as the undisputed Democratic challenger for the presidency, Senator John Kerry has taken an eight-point lead over President George Bush in what is shaping up to be an eight-month political brawl.
A new opinion poll shows the Massachusetts senator ahead of Mr Bush by 50 to 44 per cent, with independent Ralph Nader at 2 per cent. Without Mr Nader, Mr Bush's number stays the same but Mr Kerry moves up two points.
This is one of the poorest showings by an incumbent at this stage of an election year and has put the White House on counterattack mode, with both Mr Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney attacking Mr Kerry on national security.
The Gallup poll, commissioned by CNN and USA Today, contains troubling trends for Mr Bush. For example, male voters, who usually support Republicans, now prefer Mr Kerry by 47 to 46 per cent, and women back the Democratic candidate by 53 to 43 per cent.
Mr Bush comes out on top on foreign affairs and national security, but Mr Kerry leads on the economy, healthcare and education, and two in three likely voters say the economy is more important than the war on terrorism.
The poll was taken from Friday to Sunday following Mr Kerry's primary triumph and at a time when the Bush campaign was being criticised for running commercials showing a body being carried from the ruins of the World Trade Centre, an image that 54 per cent found inappropriate.
With Mr Bush's job approval rating dipping to 49 per cent, equal to his lowest showing two months ago, many conservative commentators are criticising the White House for an inept start to the election campaign.
One aspect of the Republican fightback, that Mr Kerry flip-flops on issues, seems to have had an impact on voters, however. Mr Bush is seen as less likely, by 49 per cent to 37 per cent of those polled, to change his positions for political reasons.
The President pointed out that Mr Kerry had voted for NAFTA, the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act and the war in Iraq. Now he opposed these measures "and the liberation of Iraq," Mr Bush said.
With American casualties at their lowest for several months, and a new constitution approved in Baghdad, 55 per cent of voters say the war in Iraq was worth it, up six points from January.
Another poll in the Washington Post showed that Mr Bush has a job approval rating of 50 per cent, but 57 per cent of Americans want the next president to steer the country away from the course set by Mr Bush, and two in three believe the President cares more about protecting large business corporations.
In this poll Mr Bush holds a more than 20-point lead over Mr Kerry among voters who were asked which one would do a better job prosecuting terrorism, but he scores only 39 per cent on his economic performance.
One criticism by Mr Kerry - that the President could find time to spend at a rodeo in Texas on Monday but planned to give no more than one hour to the commission investigating 9/11 - seems to have hit home. Yesterday the White House shifted its position and said it was possible Mr Bush could be questioned longer.
Republicans fear the 9/11 commission's findings later this year will be damaging if there is evidence of Bush administration intelligence failures before the attacks.
The Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, yesterday rejected as "absolute nonsense" Mr Kerry's claim that Mr Powell has been prevented from doing his job by hawks in the administration who "lock the keys to the airplane up sometimes".
Mr Cheney attacked Mr Kerry for voting against the budget for the Iraq war, and at the same time reiterated the Bush policy of pre-emptive strike.
"The United States will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country," he told a fund-raiser in Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday, in a swipe at the United Nations.
Kerry aides protested yesterday about Mr Bush's charge that a bill Mr Kerry introduced in the Senate to cut intelligence funding after the Cold War a decade ago was so "deeply irresponsible" no one would sponsor it.