No Day of Rest as Candidates Push On

President Bush worked to rally his forces in southern New Mexico on Sunday, using what had once been a rest day to try to slow the momentum of Sen. John F. Kerry in this crucial battleground state.

And Kerry put his Catholic faith at the forefront of his campaign for the White House in a Florida speech detailing what he called “the values that will guide me as president.”

He also pounced on a statement by Bush to the Fox News Channel that it was “up in the air” whether America could ever be “fully safe.”

“Ladies and gentleman, you make me president of the United States, we’re going to win the war on terror,” Kerry said. “It’s not going to be up in the air whether or not we make America safe.”

Bush made the comment in a taped interview when he was asked whether the nation would always be vulnerable to terrorism and whether Americans would always have to live with that.

He said the nation was safer from terrorism but “whether or not we can ever be fully safe is up -- you know, up in the air.”

Bush’s late afternoon appearance in Alamogordo came one day after Kerry visited the state and accused the president of trying to scare voters by raising the specter of new terrorist attacks in the United States. Bush similarly accused Kerry of using scare tactics, especially on Social Security, a theme he returned to in Sunday’s remarks.

“Every election year there is a predictable event that takes place,” Bush said, recalling what he described as television advertising in the 2000 election saying he would end Social Security if he were elected. “In this campaign, as we’re coming down the stretch, tell your friends -- George W. got elected, and seniors got their checks.”

Before a few thousand supporters in a flag-bedecked high school football stadium in Alamogordo, Bush tried to motivate his supporters to get out the vote for his reelection.

“Con su apoyo, vamos a ganar,” Bush said -- which means, “With your support, we’re going to win.” -- a line he often uses in areas with large Latino populations.

New Mexico had the narrowest electoral margin in the 2000 election, with former Vice President Al Gore winning the state by fewer than 400 votes. It is also one of the battleground states where there has been a major effort to register new voters. More than 82,000 people have been added to the rolls, an 8.5% increase since 2000.

At the moment, state polls show Kerry with a slight edge, although the lead is too small to be statistically significant. Until a few days ago, the Bush campaign had said the president would spend Sunday at his ranch.

While campaigning in Florida, Kerry distanced himself from the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion and stem cell research, but invoked biblical teachings as an inspiration for his agenda on taxes, healthcare, the environment and other matters.

Above all, he cast himself as a champion of society’s most vulnerable while portraying Bush as beholden to the “well-to-do.”

“The Bible tells us that in others we encounter the face of God,” Kerry told 2,500 supporters at a Fort Lauderdale theater. “I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you received me in your home, naked and you clothed me.... This is the final judgment of who we are, and what our life will mean.”

His speech was an explicit appeal to voters of religious faith, a group that has overwhelmingly favored Republicans for two decades. In 2000, regular churchgoers favored Bush over Al Gore 2 to 1. For the election next week, Bush has mounted a vast effort to mobilize conservative Christian voters.

In Boca Raton, Kerry also appealed to South Florida’s large bloc of Jewish voters. Speaking at sunset to thousands of supporters gathered beneath swaying palms at Florida Atlantic University, Kerry said he would make Israel safer “because I’ll stand up to those Arab countries that are still supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and Al Aqsa Brigade,” He also seized on the latest news from Iraq to criticize Bush.

“You got 50 soldiers, Iraqis, who were killed in an ambush,” Kerry said. “You’ve got another State Department employee killed. You’ve got more mess going on. And only George Bush keeps standing up and seeing what’s happened as progress.”

Kerry’s day of South Florida campaigning started at a black church in Fort Lauderdale. After songs by the gospel choir, Kerry told parishioners at Mount Hermon African Methodist Episcopal Church of his plans for more after-school programs and less-costly prescription drugs, among other things.

In his speech at the Fort Lauderdale theater, Kerry directly addressed the clergy who have spoken out against his candidacy and have urged that he be denied Holy Communion.

“I know there are some bishops who have suggested that as a public official I must cast votes or take public positions on issues like a woman’s right to choose or stem cell research that carry out the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church,” he said. “I love my church. I respect the bishops. But I respectfully disagree.”

More broadly, he described his policy goals -- including the repeal of tax cuts for the wealthy and wider access to healthcare -- as part of his faith-inspired commitment to “the common good.”

“The anxieties of hard-pressed families are as much in our hearts as those who enjoy much more comfort,” he said. “Those are the values that will guide me as president of the United States. I will put middle-class families and those who are struggling to join the middle class ahead of the interests of the well-to-do and the well-connected.”

“I believe to my core,” Kerry added, “that we must keep faith, not only with the creator, but also with the present and future generations. Will we leave as our legacy a polluted land or are we going to pass on to generations to come a land that can truly be called America the beautiful, and is in better shape when we give to our children than when we got it from our parents?”

In an apparent swipe at Bush partisans, Kerry said he would not “claim that God is on my side.” “As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God’s side,” he said.

Kerry asked the crowd to pray for guidance from God “in the decision that we make nine days from now. We will elect a president, whether it is me or George Bush,” he said.

A wave of groans grew quickly into a roaring chant: “No more Bush! No more Bush!”

In response to the speech, Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said: “Only John Kerry could use a speech that was supposed to be about faith and values to launch political attacks against his opponent.”