US: Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday tempered comments he made earlier this week that America was in danger of "being hit again" in a terrorist attack if voters failed to re-elect the Bush-Cheney ticket in November, writes Conor O'Clery in New York
"I did not say if Kerry is elected, we will be hit by a terrorist attack," Mr Cheney told the Cincinnati Enquirer, saying he wanted to "clear up" the stir created by his remarks in Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday.
He had meant that if the US was attacked again, he believed Kerry would fall back on a "pre-9/11 mind-set" treating terrorists as criminals rather than going to war. Mr Cheney was widely criticised for crossing the line and using scare tactics when he said if in November Americans "make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again".
Yesterday he said whoever was elected had to anticipate more attacks and asked: "Will we have the most effective policy in place to deal with that threat? George Bush will pursue a more effective policy than John Kerry." Mr Kerry's campaign spokesman Phil Singer responded: "Senator Kerry has been very clear in saying he will hunt down and kill the terrorists before they get us."
Yesterday in Iowa Mr Cheney came close to repeating his much-criticised comment. Accusing Mr Kerry of hesitating to take the offensive in the war on terror, he said: "Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness."
Campaigning in the battleground state of West Virginia, President George Bush said that if Mr Kerry had his way "Saddam Hussein would still be in power and would still be a threat to our security and to the world".
Mr Bush was accompanied by rebel Democratic Senator Zell Miller who told the crowd he supported Bush as "the one man who will keep on the offensive, never wavering, never wobbling never weak in the knees".
President Bush said: "When it comes to Iraq my opponent has more different positions than all the senators put together."
Speaking to retired people in St Louis Missouri Mr Kerry focused on health care: "George W Bush believes when it comes to Medicare the big drug firms come first, the insurance firms come second and seniors come last. Well, I'm going to put you first."
In Texas the daughter of a former Democratic House Speaker called her father a liar for telling CBS on Wednesday he had helped George Bush get a place in the Texas National Guard in 1968 to avoid serving in Vietnam.
Amy Barnes called a radio show to say her father was a Kerry fund-raiser and asked if she believed he lied about Mr Bush replied "Yes, I do. I absolutely do. And I think he's doing it for purely political, opportunistic reasons \ to promote his book that he's got coming out."
A Los Angeles fund-raiser for Mr Kerry yesterday disclosed he was a major donor to a new group criticising Mr Bush's National Guard service. Mr Daniel O'Keefe, a writer/producer whose work includes Seinfeld, donated $100,000 this week to Texans for Truth, an Austin-based group running anti-Bush television ads.
"I'm a conservative Democrat, but this administration is out of control, and I've never seen dirtier politics than the Swift Boat stuff," he said, referring to a series of anti-Kerry ads by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.