President George W. Bush, going on the attack after a slip in the polls, said today that Democratic rival John Kerry's "mind-set of September 10th" would paralyze the United States and weaken its ability to respond to threats.
Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, campaigning in Florida the day after a heated debate with Vice President Dick Cheney, responded that Bush was "in a complete state of denial" about Iraq and unable to fix the deteriorating security situation.
The exchange came two days before the next debate between White House rivals Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, and Bush and hours after the encounter between their running mates produced plenty of sparks but no decisive winner.
Bush, at a campaign appearance in the swing state of Pennsylvania that was originally slated to address medical liability reform, attacked Kerry's Senate record and said his opponent "has looked for every excuse to constrain America's action in the world."
"On national security, he offers the defensive mind-set of September the 10th - a global test to replace American leadership, a strategy of retreat in Iraq and a 20-year history of weakness in the United States Senate," Bush told supporters in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Bush, trying to regain his footing after a widely panned performance in last week's debate, said Kerry's "record of weakness" made him unfit to respond to the threats posed after the September 11th attacks and claimed he had insulted US allies.
"Senator Kerry said our soldiers and Marines are not fighting for a mistake but also called the liberation of Iraq a colossal error. He said we need to do more to train Iraqis, but he also said we shouldn't be spending so much money over there," Bush said.
"You hear all that and you can understand why somebody would make a face," he said, poking fun at his angry expressions during the debate with Kerry.
Kerry aides said Bush's speech was an attempt to rectify his mistakes in last week's debate. The two meet on Friday in St. Louis, Missouri, in a debate that will cover all topics, and next week they will meet in Arizona on domestic issues.
"The president tried to redo the debate from last week by giving a speech full of untruths he couldn't say on stage with John Kerry because he knew Kerry would knock them down," Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said.
Kerry was in Colorado preparing for Friday's debate after a Tuesday night showdown between Cheney and Edwards, a North Carolina senator, that was full of bitter personal put-downs and sharp exchanges on Iraq.
Edwards accused Cheney of not being "straight" with the American people about the war in Iraq and Cheney said his Democratic foes did not have what it takes to lead US troops in combat.
In Florida on Wednesday, Edwards noted Charles Duelfer, the chief US weapons inspector in Iraq, testified to the Senate that Iraq had no stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons before last year's American-led invasion -- one of the prime justifications for the war.
"Dick Cheney said again last night that he would have done everything the same. George Bush has said he would have done everything the same. They are in a complete state of denial about Iraq," Edwards told reporters at West Palm Beach, Florida.
Cheney, beginning a two-day swing through the battleground state of Florida, picked up where he left off at the debate by blasting Edwards and Kerry and casting doubt on their ability to wage the war on terror.
"Try as they might, John Kerry and John Edwards cannot with tough talk obscure a record that goes back 30 years where they have been consistently on the wrong side of virtually every issue that dealt with the nation's security," Cheney told a town hall meeting in Tallahassee.
Snap polls taken after the debate found mixed results, with ABC calling Cheney the winner and CBS giving the edge to Edwards among undecided voters. The ABC poll showed the broader horse race did not change significantly, with Kerry closing the gap on Bush from three points to one four weeks before the November 2nd election.