Kerry Turns to the Home Front

Shifting focus from Iraq to domestic matters, Sen. John F. Kerry said Saturday that President Bush was “stubborn, out of touch and unwilling to change course” on policies that harm the middle class.

“It’s not just in Iraq,” Bush’s Democratic challenger told supporters who filled an Orlando high-school auditorium. “Over the last four years, he has made a series of serious misjudgments here at home.”

Campaigning for a second day in central Florida, Kerry said the middle class was “paying the price” for Bush’s mistaken policies on the economy, healthcare and energy. He scoffed at Bush’s effort to make permanent what Kerry called “massive tax giveaways to the wealthiest few.”

“My fellow Americans, this is a man who can’t see a problem and can’t fix a problem, and we need new leadership to take this country in a different direction,” Kerry said.

The Orlando speech concluded a four-day trip by Kerry to Florida, where he debated the president in Coral Gables on Thursday. Dominated by the Iraq war and terrorism, the debate was widely seen as a victory for Kerry.

Kerry’s pivot Saturday from Iraq and terrorism to jobs and other domestic issues was aimed at laying a foundation for his next debate with Bush on Friday in St. Louis, advisors said. Domestic issues are expected to play a significant role in that debate, which will have a town-hall format with voters posing questions to the candidates.

The Massachusetts senator has long scored higher poll ratings on the economy and healthcare than on national security, so Democrats see the next debate as a chance for Kerry to build on the momentum he gained in the first one.

Reflecting Kerry’s shift in emphasis Saturday, his campaign released two television ads focusing on his pledges to cut taxes for the middle class, create jobs and adopt energy policies that stem U.S. reliance on the “Saudi royal family” for oil.

One of the spots accuses Bush and his fellow Republicans in Congress of giving the pharmaceutical industry “a $139-billion bailout while drug prices skyrocket.” It also alleges that the Republicans gave corporate executives “big tax breaks for shipping our jobs overseas.”

The ads are set to run heavily this week in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and a dozen other closely contested states, said senior Kerry strategist Tad Devine. Largely, he said, they will replace Kerry spots that condemned Bush’s handling of the Iraq war.

Responding to Kerry’s attacks in Orlando, Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said the Democrat’s proposals would cost the country $2 trillion, meaning “higher taxes for all Americans.”

“John Kerry’s tired ideas of more taxes and more spending will take control out of the hands of individuals and place it in the hands of the government,” Schmidt said.

Kerry denies that his proposals would cost $2 trillion or lead to higher taxes for all Americans. He says he can pay for all his plans by rolling back Bush’s tax cuts for those earning more than $200,000 a year, abolishing tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, closing tax loopholes, cutting government waste and other steps.

“We can continue to give massive tax giveaways to the wealthiest few in our country, or we can fight for the families who are working hard every day,” Kerry told the crowd in Orlando.

He recalled a joke that Bush told four years ago at a black-tie charity dinner in New York: “Some people call you the elite; I call you my base.”

“He meant it as a joke, but jokes are based on truth,” Kerry said. “Four years of Bush choices and four years of Bush policies later, nobody’s laughing.”

Linking Bush’s domestic agenda to his pursuit of the Iraq war, Kerry said “the real test of leadership is how you respond if things go wrong.

“Did you face the facts? Do you own up to the American people? Do you tell the truth, do you fix the problems? Or do you stick with your story and ignore reality?”

“Time and again,” he said, “George Bush has proven that he’s just plain stubborn, out of touch and unwilling to change course.”