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•Friday, April 9, 2004 | 9:20 a.m. ET
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
Chattering Class and media reviews of Condoleezza Rice's testimony yesterday generally agree: Issues and questions can be raised over the substance, but she scored on style, while the commission inched closer to becoming viewed as a partisan entity.  As USA Today says, "Rice's appearance exposed partisan divisions on the commission, which could undercut the credibility of the conclusions and recommendations it is scheduled to make on July 26."

We head into the weekend awaiting White House declassification -- which the White House says they're working toward -- of the now-famous PDB from August 6, 2001 about a bin Laden threat to the United States from within.  The Wall Street Journal suggests President Bush's appearance with Vice President Cheney before the commission is coming soon, "probably this month."  And one source advises that former Vice President Gore appears before the commission today, after former President Clinton met with them yesterday and got a gold star from the commission co-chairs for being helpful.

Democrats' current presidential nominee passed yesterday on commenting on Rice's testimony and gave his stock response on Iraq in general, reiteratinghis disappointment with the Bush Administration's unilateral approach.  On Imus this morning, prep school-combative Kerry questioned why Bush feels a need to appear with Cheney.  Kerry said he didn't hear Rice's testimony yesterday, but that it's "important to be open and direct with the American people" about September 11.  And he dangled the idea of "Vice President Don Imus."

When President Bush's first round of TV ads featuring September 11 images were excoriated by some September 11 families, included some who may have been politically motivated, the Bush campaign was (relatively) quick to put forth some families who were not offended by the ads.  Yesterday, as confused and upset family members told the media they weren't satisfied by Rice's testimony or still had questions, the Bush campaign and Republican National Committee stayed quiet.

Meanwhile, Democratic groups like the 527s formed to back Kerry, and the party's newest think-tank, issued a flurry of releases picking apart Rice's testimony.  Later in the day, as the focus turned to the August 6 PDB, they seized on how Bush got that briefing, then "embarked on the longest presidential vacation in history," as one staffer put it.

Bush's current downtime in Crawford also became an issue yesterday as Kerry (whose staff, we'd note, so recently pointed us to "great" footage of Kerry snowboarding in Idaho) rapped Bush for being on vacation during this time of US bloodshed in Iraq.  The Washington Post: "This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president.  He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News.  Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency."

Bush is in Crawford today with no public events currently scheduled.  He is expected to attend church and make informal remarks at Fort Hood on Sunday.  Vice President Cheney heads to Asia, stopping in Alaska to boost vulnerable GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski. 

Kerry wakes up in Chicago, attends a breakfast fundraiser at 9:00 am, does a jobs event with his party's Illinois US Senate nominee Barack Obama at 10:30 am, then heads to Boston for the weekend.  He has no public events scheduled for the weekend, but is expected to attend church on Sunday.

The latest AP poll finds the race for president basically tied at 45% for Bush, 44% for Kerry, "despite millions of dollars spent on advertising, though Americans are growing concerned that violence in Iraq is increasing the threat of terrorism."  Nader gets 6%.

"Asked whether the military action in Iraq has increased or decreased the threat of terrorism around the world, half in the poll, 49 percent, said it has increased the threat, while 28 percent said it has decreased the threat.  The number of people who thought the Iraq situation increased the terrorism threat grew slightly from Monday through Wednesday as the poll was conducted."

"The current poll found that 41 percent approve of Bush's performance on foreign policy issues and 51 percent approve of his handling of the war on terrorism.  His standing with the public on those issues has dropped since January."

"While the public may still have doubts about Kerry, the view of Bush remains lukewarm."

The 8/6/01 PDB
The Washington Post analysis says Rice's testimony "helped to narrow the focus to this: What did President Bush and his senior advisers know in the summer of 2001 about a flurry of terrorist threats picked up by intelligence services, and what did they do about it?" 

"The briefing tantalizes many Democrats because it cuts directly to Bush's own understanding of the al Qaeda threat before the attacks.  Judging from news accounts at the time, terrorism was hardly a cloud on the national radar.  Reporters covering Bush worried over the heat, the length of the president's vacation, the controversy over stem cell research, and the differences between Crawford and Kennebunkport."

Condi TV
The New York Times, analyzing the substance of her testimony, says Rice didn't "defuse" the argument that the Bush Administration was inattentive to terrorism before September 11.  "At every turn in her three hours of often-contentious testimony, she stuck to the White House script: Everything that could have been done to prevent the attacks had been done.  She did not acknowledge failings, apart from the institutional tensions that have long plagued the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a culture that made it impossible for a succession of administrations to see the threat unfolding in front of them."

"She also did not concede that the newly arrived Bush administration was part of that problem, or that it, too, underestimated what it confronted or was distracted by other issues like tax cuts, China and missile defense.  Moreover, her tone... left many panel members wondering if she was defending a position that several of them have publicly said is indefensible."

The Post's Shales on Rice's style: "If it were to be viewed as a battle, or a sporting event, or a contest -- and of course that would be wrong -- then Condoleezza Rice won it...  She probably could have done the whole thing with a teacup and saucer balanced on her head.  She's that cool."

The Boston Globe's Jurkowitz: "While the commission may not be overtly partisan, the hearing featured a confrontational inquisitor followed by a friendlier one, which meant that Rice did not face the kind of lengthy stretch of prosecutorial questioning that can knock a witness off stride and ignite fireworks."

The Washington Times says "Miss Rice often found herself sparring with Democrats on the panel, who routinely interrupted her answers - much harsher treatment than that given to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Mr. Clarke or Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright."

The Times also notes that most networks "honed in on testy behavior from two commission members."  "Former Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste and former Sen. Bob Kerrey, Nebraska Democrat, gleaned some notoriety as their strident attacks on Miss Rice were replayed throughout the afternoon..."

The New York Post says, "One of the smartest things she did was to avoid a tit-for-tat attack on ex-aide Richard Clarke...  Rice stood her ground when Democrats like Richard Ben-Veniste interrupted her rudely and grilled her like a pit-bull prosecutor cross-examining a criminal."

USA Today of the live coverage on all three networks, "at a time when the Big Three are accused of focusing on entertainment and ceding news to cable, it buttressed their claim that when key issues face America, broadcast networks will be there."

Family reax
The Washington Post focuses on some relatives of September 11 victims who were present yesterday and whose "judgment of the Bush administration's handling of the terrorist threat is somewhere in the middle.  And they left the hearing knowing not much more than they did when they came."

"It was like that for a lot of people.  After such a massive buildup for the national security adviser's public testimony -- first it was stonewalled by the White House, then it was stoked by the media -- not many minds were changed really.  The 'truth' of what led up to the terrorist attacks seemed as much a matter of perspective and politics as ever.  Was anything accomplished?"

The Los Angeles Times has one victim's sister praising Rice (the sister also appeared on NBC’s TODAY show this morning), amidst criticism by others.

A little collateral damage: NBC's Bob Windrem reported yesterday that parents of at least one PanAm 103 victim were angered when Rice, in her litany of terrorist attacks going back 20 years, did not mention Libya's bombing of the 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which took 270 lives.  Until September 11, 2001, PanAm 103 was the worst terrorist attack against a US target.  Susan Cohen, who lost her 20-year-old daughter in the attack, said she believes the exclusion was deliberate because the United States does not want to upset the Libyan government.  Windrem notes the Administration has pointed to Libya as an example of a nation that has forsaken terrorism, even though a Libyan intelligence agent was convicted of carrying out the attack.  Cohen said she was so angry at Rice's statement that she called the National Security Council but could not get a good reason why Pan Am 103 was excluded from Rice's testimony.

The Washington Post follows up: "Within hours of her appearance, Rice sent a letter to the families saying the omission 'was a mistake, for which I want to apologize to you and all the families who lost relatives on that terrible day in 1988.'  Rice said that when she was preparing her remarks, she listed the major attacks by al Qaeda and other terrorist groups and 'did not include attacks that were the work of a government, such as the Libyan government's bombing of Pan Am 103.'"  Another relative of a #103 victim told the Post, "'They're so desperate to bolster their policy in Iraq that Lockerbie is dead as an issue for this administration.'"

Bush v. Kerry: National Security
The AP says of Kerry's town hall in Milwaukee yesterday, "During a question-and-answer session with the audience, the daughter of 1972 Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern, Susan, warned Kerry about opposition from independent candidate Ralph Nader.  She said many in Wisconsin want to hear 'strong statements' against Bush's foreign policy and environmental record."  Kerry's response: "'George Bush and the Republicans in Washington today have run the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in the modern history of this country.'"

The Washington Post notes "Kerry was greeted at the Milwaukee airport by a group of Hmong veterans, originally from a tribe in southeast Laos and Vietnam."

More politics of information
Some news organizations cover the Wednesday incident in which a US deputy marshal erased two reporters' recordings of SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia's remarks at a Mississippi high school.  The Los Angeles Times says the marshal was "apparently acting on the orders of... Scalia."  But the Washington Post quotes a US Marshals Service spokesperson saying, 'The deputy's actions were based on Justice Scalia's long-standing policy prohibiting such recordings of his remarks,' but that 'Justice Scalia did not instruct the deputy to take that action.'"  The Times says First Amendment experts "questioned the legal basis" for the erasure.

Bush v. Kerry: jobs
Some mixed reviews of the seemingly positive jobs outlook.  The Wall Street Journal: "A top Federal Reserve official said it's unclear if the job market has begun a sustained recovery despite a big employment jump in March.  Last week's report that nonfarm payrolls rose 308,000 last month is 'an encouraging sign,' said Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson.  'But the question of whether this improvement is fundamental and durable will take some time to answer.'  Mr. Ferguson's remarks yesterday to community leaders in San Francisco suggest the Fed needs more evidence on top of last week's jobs report to decide interest rates should rise."

The Journal also reports, "Economists lifted their forecasts for job creation but not enough to change the outlook for unemployment or suggest the economy is picking up steam.  The 55 economists who participated in the latest Wall Street Journal Online economic-forecasting survey, on average, expect the economy to add 177,000 jobs each month over the coming 12 months.  Two months ago, the group predicted growth of 155,000 a month through Election Day."  That said, "Economists, on the whole, don't believe the pickup in payrolls will spur much additional economic activity."

The Journal's Washington Wire adds, "Kerry will react by focusing more on the middle-class burdens arising from stagnant wages and rising health and education costs.  In a forthcoming 'Jobs of the Future' speech, he will tout using broadband technology and hydrogen-powered vehicles to create high-wage employment."

The Washington Times: "The Labor Department yesterday said new applications filed for jobless claims fell from 342,000 to 328,000 for the week ending April 3, an indication companies aren't shedding workers because they believe the economy is picking up.  Weekly jobless claims have not been that low since Jan. 13, 2001."  Also, "many retailers in March posted a fourth month of solid sales gains."

"The nation's unemployment rate increased, however, edging up to 5.7 percent in March as the number of people looking for work increased."

The AP says Kerry is "working to shift his focus back to jobs in a swing through industrial Midwestern battleground states hammered by a stagnant economy," but "is having mixed success" because of questions about Iraq and September 11.  The Los Angeles Times says of his event yesterday "on the way to the budget, ...Kerry diverged from his campaign script, as he did at a riverbank rally in Cincinnati on Tuesday, at a major address in Washington on Wednesday and here in the hardscrabble heart of Wisconsin on Thursday."

MSNBC's Felix Schein notes Kerry didn't even speak with the local media in Wisconsin, and drew only about 200 people to his jobs event. 

Bush nominated a manufacturing czar yesterday, a carpet company executive who was born in Mexico.  The Kerry campaign criticized the choice and the Democratic National Committee pointed out that "the textile manufacturing industry has lost 126,500 jobs, including 5,000 jobs in carpet manufacturing, since Bush took office - a 35% decline.  In the seven months that it has taken Bush to announce a manufacturing czar, 13,000 American textile jobs disappeared."

The Los Angeles Times reports the nominee "gave $2,000 to the campaign of Republican Rosario Marin, a former U.S. treasurer who lost a March 2 California primary race to oppose U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in the November general election.  He also has donated several times, usually in amounts of less than $1,000, to the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups, campaign finance records show."

Bush v. Kerry: taxes and spending
The Wall Street Journal editorial page on Kerry's budget proposal: "Never mind that just five months ago he reviled Howard Dean as a 'balanced-budget freak' and practically accused the onetime Democratic front-runner of wanting to take away Grandma's cane by slowing the growth of Medicare...  Mark this down as smart politics rather than a road-to-Damascus conversion.  Mr. Kerry, advised by Clinton-era officials, has decided to run on Bill Clinton's economic record."

"The problem is that Mr. Kerry isn't really interested in shrinking the size of government, and that makes it impossible to get the numbers to add up."

"Mr. Bush left himself exposed to a Democratic challenge on fiscal stewardship.  Since 2001 more than half of new spending has been unrelated to the war on terror.  Nevertheless, Mr. Kerry's conversion to fiscal responsibility won't convince those who keep the faith."

The Washington Post says "Kerry's campaign pledge this week to deflate the ballooning federal budget deficit contains several provisions that could affect the federal workforce...  Federal union leaders called Kerry's promise to wipe out 100,000 federal contractors an important counter to Bush's efforts to move as many as 434,820 federal jobs to the private sector as part of his 'competitive sourcing' initiative."  But critics say "the loss of so many contract workers would hurt the government's ability to carry out important missions such as rebuilding Iraq."

The AP picks apart the campaigns' math on taxes, or what it calls "attack accounting."

More Bush v. Kerry
The Wall Street Journal reports Kerry plans new bio TV ads (since, we'd note, his first TV ad had to counter attacks from Bush).  "Bush's woes with the Sept. 11 commission and Iraq sap the impact of the president's TV blitz, asserts Kerry's camp, insisting tax-increase charges haven't stuck.  'They've spent $40 million and we're still tied,' an adviser boasts.  The coming biographical ads respond to intraparty pressure to define Kerry's image.  The patrician candidate skips alma mater Yale on his college-campus tour."

"Bush forces step up mobilization this month with nearly 2,000 'Parties for the President' in volunteers' homes, including a conference call with Cheney.  Concerned that allies are illegally shielding Kerry with their ads, Republicans will press the Federal Election Commission next week to shut down The Media Fund and curtail activities by MoveOn.org."

"Rocker Bon Jovi will appear with Kerry in Pittsburgh."

The Boston Globe on Gov. Mitt Romney's stumping for Bush in "Romney country" Michigan yesterday: "Yesterday's trip, Republican strategists said, highlighted the expanded role the Bush-Cheney campaign sees for Romney, whose state is home to an intense debate over gay marriage, the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Boston, and the likely Democratic nominee.  The visit to Michigan marked Romney's first trip outside New England for a public appearance on Bush's behalf."

"Romney said that he has no more trips planned on behalf of the Bush-Cheney campaign.  But he said in a brief interview, I'll do what I'm asked to do and if my schedule permits.  They know I have a state I'm responsible for and can't spend a lot of time on the road.'"

The Chicago Tribune reports on Kerry's $2 million fundraiser in Chicago last night: "Kerry is in the midst of a 20-city fundraising tour to stock up on cash in advance of the fall campaign.  The Chicago dinner was his sixth stop, and [national finance chairman Louis] Susman said the fundraisers "have been incredible successes beyond our projections.  'If this keeps going, we'll feel very comfortable,' he said."

"President Bush, by contrast, has raised $182 million for his re-election effort."

Make every vote count
This morning at 9:30 am, the US Commission on Civil Rights, which close observers know is comprised of some pretty partisan members and an outspoken Democratic chair, meets at its HQ to begin "probing the question - Is America Ready to Vote?" per the release.  "In the first in a series of briefings, the Commission will convene technology experts and others who will discuss issues regarding security of high technology voting systems; uniform voter identification requirements; voter accessibility to polling places and machines; availability of provisional voting; and the Federal role in implementing the Help America Vote Act."  The briefing will be done by two panels, one on technology and security, and the other on access.

•Thursday, April 8, 2004 | 9:05 a.m. ET
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
Shortly after 9:00 am, Condoleezza Rice gets welcomed by the September 11 commission, gives a 20-minute opening statement, then takes questions from the commissioners on what the Bush Administration did and did not do to prevent the September 11 attacks.  The session wraps at 11:30, followed by a short press avail with the commission chairs. 

Much as it will be picked apart, Rice's testimony will be measured -- instantaneously, all day, in overnight and weekend public opinion surveys, and on Sunday shows -- against bars of varying heights set by the commissioners, relatives of September 11 victims, partisan Republicans, partisan Democrats, the media and punditocracy, and the general public for one overarching question: Was it enough? 

President Bush is at the Crawford ranch with no public events currently scheduled.  The Washington Post says Bush will no longer stay out of public view until Monday, as was previously planned.  He will make "an Easter Sunday speech at nearby Fort Hood... and a possible appearance Friday."  The Wall Street Journal says that per one commissioner, Bush and Vice President Cheney will testify before the commission "'within a week.'"

The AP says Bush will meet with "wildlife conservation organizations" at the ranch while Rice testifies.  "Aides said Bush had given no indication of planning to watch the testimony Thursday live on television.  Rather, Bush intended to receive updates from his top advisers, a senior administration official said.  Bush was attending his usual national-security meetings in the morning."

Kerry focuses on the economy at a 1:00 pm town hall in Milwaukee, but obviously it's his comments on Rice's testimony, if he offers any, which will make the news.  He also has a 7:00 pm fundraiser in Chicago.  Kerry has gone back and forth between saying he doesn't want to politicize Rice's testimony and the war against terror, and accusing the Administration of playing politics.  Yesterday his campaign knocked the White House for not releasing to the commission a speech Rice was supposed to deliver on September 11, 2001; the White House later gave the commission a draft. 

Meanwhile, even as both parties are split internally over what to do about Iraq now, the two sides line up to play (both) offense and defense.  The ad campaign by MoveOn, joined earlier this week by Sen. Ted Kennedy calling the war "Bush's Vietnam," is now bolstered by "fact check" releases from less ideological Democratic 527 groups backing Kerry.  One such release notes Rice is testifying today for "just two and a half hours."

The Republican National Committee and the Bush campaign, by the way, continue to challenge/protest the legality of these 527s spending money to support Kerry and attack the President.  The New York Post covers Kerry's hire of MoveOn's Internet guru:  "Republicans say [Zach] Exley's hiring is one more sign of illegal coordination...  Exley claims he won't communicate with MoveOn until after the election, but MoveOn's executive director... acknowledged that Exley will be able to make use of 'what he's got in his head.'"

And Roll Call reports Senate Republicans will go on offense even before Rice concludes her testimony, starting with floor speeches around 10:00 am and "a press conference outside the Hart hearing room... immediately after Rice's testimony concludes...  Republicans said that they want to be every bit as aggressive in rallying to the administration's defense as Democrats were in going after President Bush and Rice..."

"One of the lead floor speakers will be Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who lashed out earlier this week at Sen. Edward Kennedy after the Massachusetts Democrat compared Bush to Richard Nixon and the current battles in Iraq to the Vietnam War...  The GOP Senators are expected to focus on pushing back against suggestions that the Bush administration is to blame for the attacks that left nearly 3,000 Americans dead, according to lawmakers and aides.  Republicans want to shift the focus to the question of how to prevent future terrorist attacks and the idea that if there is blame to be spread around it should be pinned on the Clinton White House as well as the Bush administration."

"Democrats are planning their own set of speeches to rebut Rice's testimony.  Those will be led by Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who co-chaired the 2002 probe by the House and Senate Intelligence committees into Sept. 11, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)."

Rice's Testimony
"When the Bush administration took office in 2001, officials say, it adopted a fresh approach to combating al Qaeda: Talk softly and carry a big stick," says the Wall Street Journal.  "The theory, as officials explained it at the time, was that it was preferable to talk less in public about Osama bin Laden, thereby minimizing his profile, while working harder to defeat him..."

"The problem is that only the first part of that policy was apparent prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.  That is a major reason... Rice faces a difficult time when she testifies" today.  "There is hardly any public evidence from that period to back up her claim that the administration saw the threat from Mr. bin Laden's terror organization as a pressing national-security problem."

"Democrats on the commission are planning to bore in on the White House role."

"Ms. Rice will need to be careful not to open up new questions about Mr. Bush's involvement in counterterrorism prior to Sept. 11, 2001."

The New York Times: "Panel members said that... the commission settled on their procedures for questioning Ms. Rice, with Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton as the leading questioners at the start of the hearing, followed by a round of questions by each of the other commissioners.  That would suggest a gentler tone in the initial questioning of Ms. Rice than was seen with Mr. Clarke and other Clinton and Bush administration witnesses...  Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton, who are considered moderate in both their politics and their temperaments, have asked few questions in recent public hearings."

That said, commissioner Kerrey (D) tells the New York Times he will ask tough questions.  Kerry writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today that Rice's appearance "will test the commission's resilience to the partisan pressures which threaten to collapse the goodwill needed to achieve consensus.  Among the most dangerous forces is the tendency in politics to become personal and question motives instead of confronting the substance of the argument made by any individual.  If we yield to this tendency, all hope for an honest and constructive report is lost.  We will most certainly fail."

USA Today, among other news organizations, suggests Rice will "be in her element.  Performance comes naturally to her."

The Washington Times notes Rice's "testimony will be carried live by cable news and broadcast networks, which will bump normal talk and game shows at 9 a.m. for up to three hours of coverage.  Miss Rice may face a newly critical television audience, primed by unflattering print and broadcast coverage that has questioned her competence..."

"Broadcasters have been infatuated, however, with former White House counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke, says the Media Research Center's Brent Baker."

The Wall Street Journal editorial page on Rice's appearance: "let's not confuse this with serious inquiry.  Like something out of MTV's "The Real World," this hearing is a TV set onto which people are dropped and their buttons pushed.  As if to underscore the unreality of the exercise, the cameras will be filming Ms. Rice at the same moment American troops in Iraq are demonstrating the differences between the Bush Doctrine and what preceded it."

"And as the pundits busy themselves with their instantaneous reviews of her performance in the hot seat, the more important story backstage will go largely unattended: Iraq...  Whatever one thinks about the decision to go to Iraq, does anyone really believe that anything less than victory will leave Americans safer?"

Bush v. Kerry: National Security
The Washington Post: "Bush has put a consistently hopeful face on his Iraqi policy as he aims for the June 30 transfer of power back to the Iraqis.  But that very optimism could turn into a political liability if the American people conclude that it does not square with their evaluation of events.  Faced with a growing debate over his policies, Bush's credibility on terrorism, once the linchpin of his political strength, is under serious challenge."

An academic tells the Post that while many of the analogies to Vietnam being drawn are incorrect, "'the one that has the most resonance to contemporary events is the credibility gap between what a president says and what is happening.'"

"Advisers to the president and administration allies said it was too soon to measure the political impact on Bush, but they were clearly nervous and expected erosion as a result of the events of the week.  Meanwhile, a second Democratic senator in three days drew a parallel between Bush's Iraq policy and Vietnam."

The Los Angeles Times: "President Bush is facing a political reality that once seemed implausible, one in which setbacks on the defense and foreign policy front are crowding out good economic news at home."

"It is too soon to say what consequence this might have in the presidential race.  Elections in November are rarely decided by events that take place in April...  But if the death toll mounts and Iraq spins utterly out of control, even Bush supporters concede his reelection prospects could be seriously jeopardized, regardless of how strongly the economy is performing this fall."

"Recent events in Iraq have forced an adjustment on Kerry's part as well.  He hoped to spend the week talking about budget matters as part of his effort to flesh out his record for voters.  But even though Kerry delivered what was touted as a major policy speech... on Wednesday, he spent a good deal of time responding to circumstances in Iraq."

The New York Times says the escalating violence raises issues for both Bush and Kerry.  For Kerry: even as he attacked Bush, he "was notably vague in saying how he would handle the matter as president.  His advisers said he had no plans to offer a policy speech about a war that aides to Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry alike said they now expected to provide a bloody backdrop for the campaign for months...  Mr. Kerry ignored two questions shouted to him by reporters at a meeting he held with economic advisers, about whether he would 'take out' Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite clergyman, a pool report said."

For Bush, the Times notes that conservative voices Bill O'Reilly and Pat Buchanan are beginning to question the Administration's involvement in Iraq.  Republican Members of Congress, however, say the country needs to put politics aside and unite behind Bush. 

The Chicago Tribune has a similar take.  "Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush's strength has revolved around his credibility on national security and the perception he is best positioned to lead the war on terrorism.  But as the casualty count grows... some Republican strategists express concern about the fresh fighting and a growing fear that the U.S. occupation of Iraq could be turning into a major liability."

"Although Kerry criticizes the Bush administration for failing to secure international support for its Iraq mission, he has offered few concrete solutions for how he would handle the occupation.  When a CNN interviewer pressed Kerry on Wednesday on what he would do differently in Iraq, he snapped: 'Look, I'm not the president and I didn't create this mess so I don't want to acknowledge a mistake that I haven't made.'"

Meanwhile, the Washington Times covers the split amongst Hill Democrats between the Kennedys and Byrds who want to pull out, and "other Democratic leaders" who, "while saying that the Bush administration hasn't produced a plan for the June 30 transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis, acknowledge that the recent developments only unify the resolve of Republicans and Democrats alike."

And Bob Novak, writing that US generals are concerned that the troops levels in Iraq are too low, has this kicker: "While Democrats roar, the generals are silent -- in public.  Many confide that they will not cast their normal Republican votes on Nov. 2.  They cannot bring themselves to vote for John Kerry, who has been a consistent Senate vote against the military.  But they say they are unable to vote for Don Rumsfeld's boss, and so will not vote at all."

Bush v. Kerry: deficit politics
Kerry yesterday argued that his budget proposal, which includes spending caps, would revive the economic boom of the 1990s.  Republicans argued that Kerry's plan would trigger the economic malaise of the 1970s.  Most coverage today notes how Kerry delayed offering specifics, and other possible flaws in his plan.

The AP says of Kerry's budget: "Kerry's pledge to abide by spending caps could open him to criticism that his campaign promises cannot be trusted.  He has promised to explain how he would pay for every new campaign proposal without raising taxes on the middle class or increasing the deficit, but has yet to provide such detail.  And in the speech, he emphasized that his spending plan would cut taxes for 98 percent of Americans and for 99 percent of U.S. businesses."

"A cornerstone of Kerry's plan is his proposed repeal of Bush's tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000 a year.  Policy director Sarah Bianchi said that alone would pay for his education and health care proposals, but that other spending programs will have to be financed by trimming existing initiatives."

The Los Angeles Times says Kerry "sharpened his attack Wednesday on President Bush's budget record, but failed to detail how he would reconcile his own promises of cutting the deficit in half while increasing spending on domestic priorities and reducing middle-class taxes."

"Kerry offered few new details on how he would balance his goals of fiscal responsibility and increased public 'investment' in areas such as education and health care.  More specifics, he said, will come 'in the months ahead.'"

The Washington Post: "Kerry's speech echoed widespread criticism of Bush's fiscal policies that contributed to the largest fiscal swing in the nation's history: the record budget surplus of $236 billion in 2000 has turned into a record deficit that could reach $500 billion this year...  Yet Kerry avoided some of the most difficult choices in his budget framework.  For instance, it does not spell out ways to cut or contain the costs of entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, which together eat up nearly a third of the federal budget.  Nor does it account for how Kerry, as president, would pay for many other programs, such as those for veterans, that could prove expensive over the next decade."

"The real problem comes... in 2011, when all of Bush's $1.7 trillion in tax cuts are set to expire.  In 2012 alone, the expired tax cuts would add $249 billion to federal revenue.  To draw out his comparison to Bush's fiscal policies, Kerry shows how his budget proposals would compare with Bush's if all the tax cuts were made permanent, as Bush has demanded of Congress.  But even Kerry advisers acknowledge that his plan would worsen the deficit, compared with where it would be if the tax cuts were allowed to disappear, as current law holds."

The Wall Street Journal highlights "two unaccustomed assets" Kerry has "in his attempt to assail the Republican incumbent for the nation's 'budget crisis.'  One is that fact that Mr. Bush's Democratic predecessor bequeathed a surplus in 2001; the other is Mr. Bush's record of fueling renewed deficits by supporting big tax cuts and spending increases at the same time.  But even some fellow Democrats are skeptical that Mr. Kerry could make much headway on the deficit under current circumstances."

The Bush campaign had Commerce Secretary Evans prebutting Kerry's proposal by likening the Kerry agenda to the Carter-era economy.  Why the sudden comparison between Kerry and Carter? MSNBC's Nina Bradley asked the campaign.  Spokesperson Steve Schmidt told Bradley, "Because his ideas are tired, old and failed.  Kerry will return us to the days of higher taxes and more spending, he will return us to the Carter era.  Kerry has a job-killing agenda." 

Overlooked amidst the bigger events of the day, Kerry got some of his middle-class tax cut mojo back in his budget rollout.  MSNBC's Felix Schein notes that Kerry, in a mere 100 words or so, finally managed to concisely explain his stance on middle-class tax cuts, a topic he emphasized during the Democratic nominating contest but has largely ignored of late.  "We will not raise taxes on middle class Americans; we will lower them...  We will expand middle-class tax cuts for families with children and married couples and pass new tax cuts to make education and health care more affordable while cutting our deficit in half.  But for Americans making more than $200,000, we will simply roll back the Bush tax rates to the level they were under Bill Clinton to pay for education and health care.  With these resources, we can expand health care for all of our children and cover virtually all Americans while lowering the health care premiums that are squeezing families and hurting job creation."

The Washington Post's Broder acknowledges the uphill fight faced by Hill supporters of the "pay as you go" approach to getting the deficit under control, but pushes for it nevertheless.

Veepstakes (D)
Since McCain took himself out of contention on TODAY yesterday morning, presumably Kerry's four references to McCain in his economic speech yesterday were simply meant to appeal to independent voters.  MSNBC's Schein reports that Kerry met with former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin yesterday; Rubin refused to answer any questions about possibly getting picked as Kerry's running mate.

More Bush v. Kerry
Yesterday, MSNBC's Bradley reports, the Bush campaign officially opened its Florida HQ.  Campaign chairman Marc Racicot told about 100 Bush supporters in Tallahassee how important their efforts will be, and how grassroots will make the difference in the election.  Regarding the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Miami, taking place next week, the state GOP spokesperson told Bradley, "This is a meeting of the core Republicans in this region who get together to discuss strategies, plans, and grassroots efforts to support the party and the President."  Scheduled speakers include RNC chairman Ed Gillespie, Bush campaign Southeast chair Ralph Reed, and Gov. Jeb Bush.  An RNC source told Bradley that a news conference scheduled for next Friday in Miami, "A group of prominent southern Republicans will join RNC chairman Ed Gillespie in an analysis of John Kerry's positions as they relate to important issues of concern to Southern voters."

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns for Bush today in Michigan, where Romney's father was once governor, reports the Boston Herald. 

Roll Call says Kerry "is unlikely to introduce any major legislative proposals in the Senate this year, aware that Republican opposition and an abbreviated calendar in the chamber make approval of any bills he authors doubtful...  Instead, Kerry will continue to promote his main legislative themes on the campaign trail, where he can have fuller control of these proposals than he would in the Senate, where they could be turned into a political football by Republican Senators."

Make every vote count
The AP reports, "Seven months before the general election, the Pentagon has not fixed military absentee ballot problems that were pivotal in the disputed 2000 presidential contest, according to the Defense Department's inspector general."  The report "said nearly six of every 10 troops interviewed didn't know who their voting officers were."  And the story reminds us that "the Pentagon scrapped a $22-million Internet voting experiment this year after computer experts said it was vulnerable to attacks."

•Wednesday, April 7, 2004 | 9:15 a.m. ET
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
President Bush and challenger Kerry continue to grapple with the politics of Iraq as they battle over economic stewardship.  Bush, whose presumed strength may seem more like a millstone during this violent week, is at the Crawford ranch today with no public events scheduled.  NBC's David Gregory says Bush will huddle with his national security team.  MSNBC's Nina Bradley notes it's unclear whether Bush will appear in public tomorrow, when Condoleezza Rice testifies before the September 11 commission.  At this writing, his next scheduled public appearance isn't until Monday.

Kerry, whose main event today is a 12:30 pm economic speech and budget rollout, is walking a fine line on Iraq both in terms of his own positioning and in accusing the Administration of political motivations in sticking to the June 30 deadline for the transfer of power.  Kerry yesterday told NPR, in an interview for this morning, that the deadline "almost clearly has been affected by the election schedule."  But the AP notes "Kerry later said he hopes the date has nothing to do with the Nov. 2 presidential election."

Kerry also said US troops are being killed in "numbers that are very very disturbing," MSNBC's Felix Schein reports, but when asked specifically what he would do differently in Iraq, Kerry said, "There's so many things you could do differently in Iraq that it's hard to know where to begin in terms of that list.  Most important is to get the international community involved..."

The Wall Street Journal points out that Kerry "hasn't laid out a comprehensive plan for tackling Iraq.  While he says in general he would do more to bring the United Nations into the picture to ease America's burdens, advisers acknowledge there is little chance of convincing the U.N. to take on a big security role now, amid broad security problems."

"If Mr. Kerry doesn't have a full-blown schematic for dealing with Iraq, Democrats and other critics say that is only because Bush administration missteps have limited U.S. options in Iraq.  Nonetheless, Democratic leaders say Mr. Kerry still needs to come up with a plan, offering his own vision as Iraqi problems register on voters' minds."

"The Bush administration says it isn't impressed with Mr. Kerry's thoughts on Iraq.  'It's never stopped being 1968' for Democrats, says one senior Bush adviser, in an oblique reference to Mr. Kerry's role in eventually opposing the Vietnam War in which he fought."

The Washington Post says Kerry's "comments reflected the competing pressures he faces of trying to discredit Bush's foreign policy stewardship without appearing to politicize the twin issues of war and terrorism."  The story notes Kerry's need to distance himself from recent attacks on the Administration by the more stridently anti-war Kennedy and Dean.  The Boston Globe, suggesting Kennedy "is emerging as the Dick Cheney of the Kerry presidential campaign," says "Kennedy's blunt rhetoric comes with risks...  But prominent Democrats say the political benefits of Kennedy's speaking out outweigh the costs."  This morning on TODAY, McCain shot down Kennedy's Monday suggestion that Iraq is Bush's Vietnam. 

Kennedy appears with Kerry at Kerry's fundraiser tonight.

Kerry gives a big economic speech and lays out his budget proposal at Georgetown University in DC at 12:30 pm.  "There is a fundamental difference in this election: President Bush has no real economic plan for long term prosperity and higher standards of living," he will say.  "I do."  He will call unchecked deficits "a fiscal cancer that will erode any recovery and threaten the prospect of a lasting prosperity."

Though he has pared back some proposed spending since the primaries, Kerry said yesterday that he will not "pare back at all my program on health care, that will be the first bill I submit to Congress that's the first priority.  And I will not pare back my effort on education with respect to the... No Child Left Behind Act and the effort to ratchet up the special needs education and I will not pare back the economic proposal I made with respect to the creation of new jobs those are the three greatest priorities."  So what IS he paring back?  His proposed spending on early childhood education.  Since he is not cutting his health care plan, estimated by nonpartisan analysts to cost $900 billion, nor backing away from his pledge to introduce the plan ASAP once in office, the Bush campaign likely will continue to presumptively charge that Kerry wants to raise taxes by at least $900 billion during his first 100 days.  

Prebutting for Bush is Commerce Secretary Evans, who will give a speech on Kerry's proposed budget at the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation's leading small business lobby, at 11:00 am.  After Evans' speech was announced yesterday afternoon, the Kerry campaign scheduled a conference call for reporters with Kerry economic advisors Gene Sperling and Roger Altman for 2:00 pm.

Kerry otherwise fills his day with a meeting with the SEIU at 8:15 am, a sitdown with reporters at 9:45 am, a meeting with UNITE at 11:15 am, a meeting with the Business Roundtable at 4:15 pm, and a fundraiser at 6:30 pm.  Per an SEIU spokesperson, Kerry and the union leadership will discuss health care, the union's top priority.  The SEIU endorsed Dean first in the Democratic nominating contest because of his health care proposal but also because Dean could "hang" -- i.e., the union's members found him to be the more likeable candidate, a quality which SEIU president Andy Stern thinks factors big into voters' choices for president... 

September 11 Commission/the politics of information
The Los Angeles Times previews Condoleezza Rice's testimony tomorrow: "What is potentially pivotal about Rice's appearance... is that she will testify at a critical moment.  Bush has made fighting terrorism the centerpiece of his presidency, and the war in Iraq is the centerpiece of his fight against terrorism.  Yet American voters are expressing increasing doubts about his handling of the war as U.S. troops face deadly new attacks."

The Washington Times, following up on its report yesterday, says the "commission will look at the discrepancy between the testimony of Richard A. Clarke that the Clinton administration considered the threat of al Qaeda 'urgent' and its final national-security report to Congress, which gave the terror organization scant mention."  A commission spokesperson "said commission members are familiar with an article in yesterday's editions of The Washington Times, which showed that President Clinton's final public document on national security never referred to al Qaeda by name and mentioned Osama bin Laden just four times."

Timed, they say, to Rice's testimony tomorrow, Democratic 527 MoveOn goes up on today on CNN with a second TV ad accusing President Bush of taking political advantage of September 11 and using it as an excuse to invade Iraq.  The ad will air through Sunday.

Bush v. Kerry: National Security
The Los Angeles Times: "Kerry appears to sense a political opening to confront the president more aggressively.  His comments Tuesday were his harshest to date...  Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, called Kerry's comments just 'another example of John Kerry playing politics with the war in Iraq.'  Kerry's Senate vote in favor of the Iraqi war was made 'through the filter of his presidential candidacy,' Schmidt charged."

"Schmidt questioned Kerry's motives in ramping up talk about Iraq, and noted that the candidate had felt pressure from Democratic primary voters to run on an antiwar plank.  Kerry voted for the congressional resolution giving Bush authority to use force in Iraq, but then voted against $87 billion in additional funding for the war effort."

The New York Sun reports that Kerry also, in his NPR interview, "initially described as 'legitimate' an Iraqi newspaper that the American military has accused of inciting violence against Americans in Iraq.  A moment later, the apparent Democratic presidential nominee revised his remarks, suggesting that the newspaper had been legitimate but that the Shiite cleric who runs it recently aligned himself with terrorists."  Seems Kerry caught/reversed himself pretty quickly, though.

The Republican National Committee spokesperson tasked with commenting "linked Mr. Kerry's remarks together with a speech Monday in which one of his staunchest supporters, Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts, referred to Iraq as 'George Bush's Vietnam.'"

USA Today: "More than any other candidate since John F. Kennedy,... Kerry is running as a veteran and counting on veterans to help him win the White House.  What Kerry is doing is unusual and hardly guaranteed to succeed.  The nation's 26.4 million veterans do not vote as a bloc and have generally ignored military status in making their choices...  But this election comes against the backdrop of the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq...  Each claims an advantage among veterans."

"Nearly one-third of veterans alive today are from the Vietnam era, by far the largest veterans' population in the 2000 Census.  The Bush team, however, believes Kerry's warrior image is undercut by his anti-war activities."

Bush v. Kerry: deficit politics
Per advance excerpts of his remarks, Evans will say in his critique of Kerry's spending proposals today, "When I hear Senator Kerry and the economic naysayers, the image that comes to mind is of President Carter, sitting in the White House wearing his sweater, blaming the state of the economy on 'malaise.'  What he fails to realize is that this is a growing economy in which we want to foster job growth and opportunity, not close it off...  America must not to go back to the days when the government kept more of your money and decided how to spend it."

MSNBC's Schein says the Kerry campaign believes Evans' critique will be based upon a Treasury Department review of Kerry's economic proposals, which the Treasury Department is now weighing a probe of possible illegal use of taxpayer money for political purposes.  That said, Bush Hill point person Rep. Rob Portman told reporters yesterday that he'd like to see Kerry submit his numbers to the House Budget Committee.

Just a reminder: On Meet the Press in August 2003, Kerry sounded quite confident he could spend and cut the deficit:
Russert: Senator, if you eliminated the entire Defense Department, you could balance the budget.  If you eliminated Social Security, you could eliminate the deficit.  If you eliminated Medicare, you could eliminate the deficit.  If you kept Defense, Social Security and Medicare and eliminated all the rest of the government, you would still have a deficit.  How can you possibly cut the deficit in half when you listed all the programs-health care, education-that you're for?  It doesn't add up.
Kerry: It does add up.  It absolutely does add up, and I have been very careful in doing this.  I have gone to some of the best people who've already been tested in this 'cause they did it with Bill Clinton.  People like Roger Altman and Gene Sperling and Alan Blinder and others are working with me; Bob Reischauer, who was at OMB.  We've crunched the numbers, and when you get rid of the top end of the Bush tax cut and put back in some of the inheritance tax, you get more money than I am spending.

The Kerry campaign wants to make sure you see USA Today's report that "Republican leaders in Washington say they're committed to reducing the federal budget deficit and will cut it in half, but an analysis suggests their plans would actually make the deficit bigger than if Congress and the White House simply did nothing."  The analysis was conducted by "the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities." 

"Republicans say the deficit is the price of coping with a dangerous world and a troubled economy."

The Washington Post focuses on the corporate alternative minimum tax relief that House Republicans "quietly" inserted into the highway spending bill.  The House-passed version also "would allow multinational companies with extensive offshore operations to fully use foreign tax credits to offset their tax liability."  Amidst warnings to the House GOP of a presidential veto, "White House budget officials stuck to their criticism of the spending in the House transportation measure."

Bush v. Kerry: jobs.
The Washington Times focuses on Kerry's charge yesterday that Bush's "trade policy, which includes jobs going overseas, weakens America...  He also said the Commerce Department under Mr. Bush had hosted workshops to show American companies how to outsource jobs to China."

Veepstakes (D)
McCain begged Matt Lauer on TODAY to put an end to questions about his possibly getting picked as Kerry's running mate.  Meanwhile, NBC's Mike Viqueira reports that per a Congressional Black Caucus spokesperson, Rep. Elijah Cummings, who is African-American, is not just being consulted by the Kerry veepstakes operation -- he is being considered as a possible running mate.

And Roll Call reports that Edwards "is picking up the pace of his political appearances on behalf of Democratic candidates as he seeks to cement his status as a leading vice presidential pick for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)."

The shadow campaign (D).
The Bush campaign has been e-mailing supporters and asking them to write letters "TODAY to the Federal Election Commission asking that John Kerry's soft money special interest groups obey the law."  By which the campaign means the Democratic 527 groups backing Kerry.  Roll Call reports that over the past week, "more than 97,000 individuals across the country deluged the Federal Election Commission with their thoughts on the controversial committees."

"Liberal-leaning anti-Bush groups such as MoveOn.org, meanwhile, have also been mobilizing voters, asking them to write to the FEC 'opposing the rule change.'"

"The FEC will hold hearings" on the legality of the 527s "on April 14 and 15 and the commission said its objective is to adopt any new regulations by mid-May.  While it is unclear whether the agency will be able to reach a consensus within that tight time frame, if it does, the regulations won't immediately go into effect.  Once newly-approved regulations are printed in the Federal Register, Congress has 30 legislative days during which it may choose to rescind the regulations.  Moreover, regulations that are determined to have a major impact on economic entities are subject to a 60-day waiting period before going into effect."

USA Today says it's not just Bush and MoveOn supporters who are writing in: "Hundreds of non-profit groups and their members are flooding the Federal Election Commission with objections..."

Energy politics
Those 527s just issued a release attacking Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot as a former Enron lobbyist and for supporting, as governor of Montana, a gas tax increase of 10 cents per gallon.

The Washington Post reports, "A court-appointed investigator has resigned from his job probing the federal government's management of hundreds of millions of dollars owed Native Americans, and charged that the Department of the Interior blocked his work in a bid to conceal its deals to enrich energy companies and cheat American Indians."

More Bush v. Kerry
In the second of two articles looking on getting out the vote, the New York Times focuses on how the two parties are using technology and commercial marketing techniques.  "The two parties have drawn enthusiastic publicity about the Datamart (Democratic) and Voter Vault (Republican), their computerized databases of millions of names, rumored to be crammed with all manner of personal information...  The bipartisan hope in this tight election is that computer technology will offer a shortcut to the critical job of differentiating Republican from Democrat, so grass-roots campaigners can find and motivate their voters more accurately and less expensively than in the past.  But can campaigns 'microtarget' voters the way marketers can zero in on likely customers for a potato chip?"

In a story which doesn't mention the word "Kennebunkport," the AP looks at Kerry's upbringing "in a world of elite private schools and vacations on a French estate, something most Americans could only dream about.  His parents, a U.S. diplomat and a homemaker, turned to a wealthy, childless great-aunt, Clara Winthrop, to help pay the bills...  Social prominence and affluence etched Kerry's early life."

"Kerry has blamed his rootless childhood for his perceived aloofness.  But those years also taught Kerry the difference between wealth and status, and how to rely on the latter when money was tight."  Kerry's Yale roommate tells the AP that Kerry was cheap.

The Washington Times covers the letters sent to news organizations (like NBC) by H.J. Heinz Co. "to squash rumors circulating on the Internet and radio talk shows that it is involved with Mr. Kerry's campaign."

"The company's move came after the Heinz Endowments, two private foundations unrelated to the company's foundation, were accused of funding Peaceful Tomorrows, a nonprofit group of families of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.  Peaceful Tomorrows strongly criticized President Bush's use of footage from the attacks in his television ad that began running in early March."

The Boston Herald says Kerry's visit to a Protestant church on Sunday and receiving communion there was a "catechism no-no."  Meanwhile, the AP says Bush, at his town hall in Arkansas yesterday, insulted one woman by saying her and his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, go to the same "hair-dye person."  The woman proclaimed she was a "natural blonde."

Nader
Speaking in Chicago yesterday, Nader said his initial failure to get on the Oregon ballot wasn't a setback, says the Chicago Tribune.  "'It [not qualifying in Oregon] doesn't say anything,' Nader said at a news conference after appearing before a crowd of mostly supportive students at Columbia College in downtown Chicago...  Nader predicted that his name will appear on the Oregon ballot and that he will be on more state ballots this year than in 2000."

More: "Nader said he wants to continue a dialogue with the Kerry campaign to push forward an anti-Bush agenda, but said he has no plans to drop out of the race and back Kerry...  'We can collaborate against George Bush and still compete in a modest way,' he said.  'I am running as an independent.  We are going to run a full-out campaign.'"

• Tuesday, April 6, 2004 | 9:20 a.m. ET
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray and Huma Zaidi
The presidential campaign shoot-out over job creation, interrupted yesterday by a need for both candidates to comment on the escalating violence in Iraq, continues today.  Bush talks about jobs in El Dorado, AR at 12:15 pm, Kerry in Cincinnati at 12:30 pm. 

Kerry has just the one event on the schedule, but MSNBC's Felix Schein says to expect an added stop highlighting training programs or joblessness.  Per Schein, Kerry will focus today on how many jobs Ohio has lost, zeroing in on manufacturing job losses and on what he's calling the President's "$6 billion dollar spending spree."  Kerry overnights in DC and rolls out his budget proposal here tomorrow.

Bush campaign spokesperson Steve Schmidt, countering Kerry's charges on Bush's spending: "John Kerry has consistently voted for higher taxes and more spending and this week released a spending analysis attacking the President's full tax cut.  Kerry is either admitting that he will repeal all the Bush tax cuts, or he is backpedaling from his own position.  John Kerry should explain which taxes he would raise and which programs he would cut."

The local ABC affiliate on Bush's stop: "The visit by a president is the first for El Dorado, an oil, timber and manufacturing hub that has seen plant closings and near double-digit unemployment...  Bush's second visit to Arkansas this year comes just days following the release of government reports showing the nation's unemployment rate nudged one-tenth of a percentage point higher to 5.7% in March while the state jobless rate fell to 5.4% from 5.6% in February."

The Cincinnati Enquirer on Kerry: "Making his first campaign visit to Cincinnati with a midday rally at Sawyer Point, the Democratic nominee-to-be will focus on what polls show could be the key to his election: the economy."

"An Ohio Poll out Friday showed Bush's approval rating in the state at its lowest point since he took office.  Even in Republican Southwest Ohio, more people disapprove of how he's doing his job than approve."

The Pew poll released yesterday found 57% saying the United States was right to use force in Iraq, but only four in 10 approving of the way Bush is handling the war; Bush's overall job approval is at 43%.  Pew research director Andrew Kohut suggests to the AP that "the drop in Bush's overall approval rating might be the result of a combination of foreign and domestic concerns, including high gasoline prices.  Kohut said the effect of Friday's report of more than 300,000 new jobs might not yet be reflected in polls."

The Wall Street Journal corners the market on all big political questions for today.

The Journal's editorial page: "The next few days in Iraq may be the most critical since President Bush ordered the invasion a year ago.  Millions of Iraqis, and millions of Americans, are waiting to see if the U.S. is still fighting in Iraq to win."

"Americans will support their President in war -- far more than liberal elites appreciate.  But they won't support a President who isn't fighting with enough force and the right strategy to prevail."

And CNBC's Alan Murray, in his Journal column, reviews the charges flying back and forth between the two campaigns over the economy.  First, Murray shoots down the Bush campaign's accusation that Kerry supports a 50-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase by noting that "Kerry hasn't proposed, never voted for and doesn't support a 50-cent gas tax." 

Then Murray says, "Meanwhile, the Kerry campaign spent the week touting its plan to 'create 10 million jobs' over the next four years...   The bigger question is: Exactly what would John Kerry do to have such an effect on job creation?  His proposal to reduce the tax deferral that companies get for their overseas earnings and use that revenue to cut the corporate tax rate, isn't a bad one.  But no serious economist would argue that it would have a major effect on job creation...  Truth is, while 10 million jobs in four years is a reasonable goal, there's little the government can or will do to make it happen."

Murray outlines the "economic debate the candidates need to be having: What will either of them do to actually meet their deficit-cutting goals and deal with the retirement of the baby-boom generation?...  Mr. Bush's credibility on the deficit-cutting front is shot.  He has continued to allow large increases in spending, even as he has pushed for more tax cuts...  Sen. Kerry, meanwhile, will have to substantially trim his campaign promises... before he can claim the high ground on deficit reduction.  He's expected to take a step in that direction tomorrow with a new budget proposal.  He'll also have to show he's willing to take on the powerful interest groups in his own party, who will dig in their heels to fight any effort to rein in the runaway costs of Medicare and Social Security."

Nader, who was unsuccessful yesterday in his first effort to get on the Oregon ballot, gives a 4:30 pm speech at Columbia College in Chicago. -- AP

One of Dean's biggest roles on Kerry's behalf may be to bracket Nader.  The AP: "Dean warned yesterday that 'a vote for Ralph Nader is the same as a vote for George Bush' as Nader sought to qualify for his first state ballot.  Dean, speaking before Nader's appearance in Oregon, urged the state's voters to ignore the independent's presidential bid and stick with" Kerry.

September 11 Commission/the politics of information
As Democrats jump on the Bush folks for suggesting the Clinton Administration is largely at fault for September 11, the Washington Times reports: "The final policy paper on national security that President Clinton submitted to Congress - 45,000 words long - makes no mention of al Qaeda and refers to Osama bin Laden by name just four times.  The scarce references to bin Laden and his terror network undercut claims by former White House terrorism analyst Richard A. Clarke that the Clinton administration considered al Qaeda an 'urgent' threat, while President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, 'ignored' it."  The paper notes, "The document is publicly available, though no U.S. media outlets have examined it in the context of Mr. Clarke's testimony and new book." 

The New York Daily News says a new book about the Bush dynasty asserts that 41 fretted about his son's Iraq war.  "In 'The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty,' Peter and Rochelle Schweizer cite as evidence a summer 2002 interview in which the older Bush's sister said her brother had expressed his 'anguish' about the administration's preparations for war.  'But do they have an exit strategy?' the former President is quoted as worrying.”

"'Although he never went public with them,' the authors assert, 'the President's own father shared many of [the] concerns' of Brent Scowcroft, his national security adviser and a leading war opponent."

"Top Bush aide Jean Becker denied the allegations yesterday.  'From the very first day, President Bush 41 unequivocally supported the President on the war in Iraq,' she said.  'He had absolutely no reservations of any kind.'"

Bush v. Kerry: jobs
MSNBC's Schein notes that yesterday, Kerry continued to charge that the jobs being created under the Bush Administration are worse than those they are replacing.  Speaking to print reporters, Kerry again claimed "all the industries that are creating jobs in the United States today are downscaling the quality of life in America," and tried to argue that "the 308,000 jobs that they're making a big deal out of now, almost 100,000 of those jobs were straight, one-time return of the grocery strike ending, and 40,000 were part-time workers in the construction industry."  Consequently, Kerry claims, "you are not looking at the kind of robust, important job creation that the country really needs to raise the standard of living in our country." 

Asked whether he needs to change his own message in light of the new employment data, Kerry said, "No, my message is not predicated on the net number of jobs over the next few months.  I hope we create jobs..."

The AP says of Bush's multi-purpose trip yesterday, "Bush also made North Carolina the setting for his announcement of a new initiative meant to outflank Kerry on job creation, a central issue in the presidential campaign.  He proposed to double the number of people receiving federal job-training assistance to 412,000 a year, from 206,000.  Bush proposed no new federal spending for the initiative, which instead would fall under $250 million in spending Bush proposed earlier this year."

The Washington Times: "Yesterday's speech repositions the White House for the seven-month presidential campaign...  Kerry and other Democrats have flayed the president over the loss of 2.2 million jobs since he took office and scoffed at the report that the economy created 308,000 new jobs in March.  Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton called Mr. Bush's proposals for job training 'a phony baloney plan that does nothing more than shift money between programs and doesn't offer a dime to unemployed workers.'"

Bush v. Kerry: taxes and spending
The Boston Globe says Kerry's new ad attacking Bush on spending is his "harshest attack ad yet against President Bush, but he reserved the lengthy cartoon indictment of a grade-school Bush for the relative safety of the Internet."

"'Well, George, if you're going to spend all this money, you have to figure out a way to pay for it,' a teacher tells a character named 'Little George' in a script provided by Kerry's campaign.  'Well, you just watch.  When I'm president, I'm gonna spend as much money as I want,' the fictitious Bush replies."

The Washington Times on the Kerry campaign's $6 billion calculation: "After protesting the way the Bush campaign calculated the $900 billion number" in charging how much Kerry would raise taxes, "the Kerry campaign is fighting back with its own calculations of Mr. Bush's spending proposals...  But Mr. Bush's campaign manager, Ken Mehlman, said Mr. Kerry has yet to produce a complete budget comparable to the document the president is required to produce each year.  He also said Mr. Kerry's spending would have been even more profligate."

"Mr. Mehlman also said Mr. Kerry showed his priorities when he equated tax cuts with spending in the analysis."

"To drive home the Bush-Kerry differences on fiscal responsibility, Kerry advisers say their candidate's campaign-spending proposals always include how Mr. Kerry plans to pay for them.  The senator intends that to mimic congressional budget rules that require any new spending or new tax cuts to be offset by spending cuts or tax increases."

Here's one campaign development that dates back squarely to the Clinton era.  The Wall Street Journal reports, "More than 60% of U.S. corporations didn't pay any federal taxes for 1996 through 2000, years when the economy boomed and corporate profits soared...  The disclosures from the General Accounting Office are certain to fuel the debate over corporate tax payments in the presidential campaign.  Corporate tax receipts have shrunk markedly as a share of overall federal revenue in recent years, and were particularly depressed when the economy soured."

"The latest report has given new ammunition to the campaign of... Kerry, who has criticized President Bush for failing to crack down on corporate tax dodgers.  Mr. Kerry wants to end corporations' ability to park their overseas earnings in tax havens, in order to discourage outsourcing; in return, he is proposing a lower U.S. corporate tax rate."

"Tomorrow, Mr. Kerry is expected to outline his ideas for reducing the budget deficit.  Yesterday, he criticized Mr. Bush for dropping a budget rule, used in prior administrations, mandating that any new tax breaks be paid for by revenue or spending cuts elsewhere in the budget."

"To be sure, Mr. Kerry has supported some of the most recent big corporate breaks, such as those contained in a 2002 economic stimulus bill.  And the latest GAO report focused on tax avoidance that took place entirely during the Clinton years.  A spokesman for the Bush campaign said Mr. Kerry's own campaign has acknowledged its plan wouldn't stop outsourcing."

While the Bush Administration has blasted Kerry for supporting gas-tax increases, the New York Times notes that in 1986, then-Rep. Dick Cheney introduced legislation to create an import tax that would have increased the price of oil -- and thus also gasoline -- by billions of dollars per year. 

Veepstakes (D)
Kerry spokesperson Stephanie Cutter told MSNBC's Becky Diamond recently that the campaign would release a short list of running-mate candidates "at some point," but backtracked on that yesterday, saying that the campaign "is not looking to be conventional about this" and "there's no set way to do this -- nothing is set in stone." 

Diamond notes, as other close Kerry watchers have pointed out, that Kerry does not make decisions easily.  He is extremely calculating and weighs every option.  Asked about his favorite vacation spot, he lists 10 places and cannot pick the one he loves best.  It's the same with movies, restaurants and books.  So Kerry may not be picking that running mate all too quickly.

Asked yesterday whether his pick would come from the South, Kerry refused to comment, says MSNBC's Schein.  Kerry also wouldn't comment on speculation about his possibly picking the Republican McCain. 

The Boston Globe says Kerry's own aides believe McCain would be "the boldest and most potent pick," and that "many high-level staff members believe -- based on Kerry's past and recent comments -- that McCain will get serious consideration."

"Those within the Kerry camp acknowledge that picking McCain as a running mate would be fraught with political peril, both from within the Democratic Party as well as from the Republicans.  McCain, for example, opposes abortion, in contrast to the official Democratic position in favor of abortion rights...  McCain chastised Kerry last year for voting against $87 billion in supplemental funding for the Iraq war, which McCain supported."

"Meanwhile, a defection by McCain would probably trigger an even harsher critique of his record from Bush and the GOP than the senator faced in February 2000, after he surprised Bush with an 18-point victory in New Hampshire.  The then-Texas governor and his supporters responded with a withering assault that, among other things, portrayed McCain as a brainwashed Manchurian candidate after his wartime confinement.  Inconsistencies with Kerry, such as their split on the congressional resolution authorizing war with Iraq, would also be fair game for criticism."

Kerry aides "aides note that despite their political differences, Kerry and McCain both voted against the tax cuts proposed by the Bush administration, opposed administration plans to drill for oil in Alaska, jointly presented a proposal to raise automobile fuel-efficiency standards, and worked together on tobacco-control legislation."

Meanwhile, a close McCain advisor tells First Read, "He and I have repeatedly used the following: 'I will not be a candidate for vice-president in 2004' in response to endless inquiries.  Sounds pretty categorical to me.  Neither I nor the Senator have been contacted by Jim Johnson.  If anyone else close to [McCain] has, they haven't shared it with us."

The air war
The head of the Annenberg Political Fact Check tells USA Today that "[u]nfair and inaccurate TV ads have so far been more of a problem in this presidential campaign than in other elections."  But: "The campaigns dispute [the] analysis.  Each says the other's ads are full of unsubstantiated claims.  But both say their own are fair..."

The Los Angeles Times covers the deluge of campaign ads hitting Columbus, OH viewers.  "Many viewers say they already are trying to ignore the ads, but that is proving increasingly difficult."

The shadow campaign (D)
The Washington Times declares, "If there is a shadow behind the 'shadow campaign' of independent Democratic groups opposing the re-election of President Bush this fall, it is former President Bill Clinton.  Denied a meaningful role in the 2000 presidential campaign of his vice president... Mr. Clinton is the common denominator in the major political organizations established to help level the financial playing field against Mr. Bush..."

"Moveon.org... began as an effort to defend Mr. Clinton from impeachment in 1998...  The Center for American Progress, a public-research group established to counter the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, is headed by former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.  And former Clinton adviser Harold Ickes directs the Media Fund, which is raising money for issue ads in battleground states in the presidential contest.  Add Mr. Clinton's prodigious fund-raising talents to the mix, his keen strategic insights and his ability to inspire large segments of the Democratic faithful, and it becomes clear that the former president is going to be Mr. Kerry's not-so-silent partner, whether Mr. Kerry wants him or not.  There is no suggestion at all from the Kerry camp that Mr. Clinton is not a welcome addition to the campaign."

More Bush v. Kerry
The AP says Bush "is going far beyond his predecessors in using government means to accomplish political ends," and rounds up how: "The Treasury Department analyzes John Kerry's tax proposals and the numbers quickly find their way to the Republican National Committee.  The Health and Human Services Department spends millions on ads promoting President Bush's prescription drug plan.  The House Resources Committee posts a diatribe against Kerry's 'absurd' energy ideas on its website."

"Bush is flying Air Force One to battleground states at a clip that eclipses even that of President Clinton...  His Cabinet secretaries are covering additional ground to spread good news about the Bush administration."

"This year, congressional committees have posted anti-Kerry commentary on their websites.  Senate majority leader Bill Frist was out front in attacking the credibility of Richard A. Clarke, the former Bush administration official who criticized the president's terrorism policies.  And House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, regularly uses his daily chats with reporters to critique 'John Kerry & Co.'"

"To one extent or another, all recent presidents have used the advantages of incumbency to promote their reelection -- 'at least the ones that get reelected did,' says Joe Lockhart, who was Clinton's White House spokesman.  Except for the Medicare prescription drug ads run by HHS, Lockhart says most of what the administration has done is fair game."

MSNBC's Nina Bradley interviewed the President's uncle and Missouri state chairman Bucky Bush yesterday.  How did President Bush decide to come to St. Louis for opening day?  "First of all, he's got several close friends and family here.  His close friends happen to be very involved in the Cardinals, they were his partners in the Rangers.  The fact that we are in the middle of the country is important, to show the people in the Midwest that he thinks as much about our baseball as he does the Orioles.  He loves to get out of Washington, and get with real people and get away from the flak."

Why does he deserve four more years in the White House?  "...I don't think the story gets translated particularly well because there's been so much flak from the other side.  Remember we had nine people taking him on at the end of the day.  The economy is getting stronger, the truth about the war will get out, and this whole thing with Mrs. Rice will blow over.  He will be very popular on November 2."

Ann Wagner, co-chair of the Republican National Committee and chair of the Missouri GOP, was outside Busch Stadium registering new voters and new volunteers for Bush-Cheney '04 yesterday, Bradley reports.  Instead of the 18-wheeler "Reggie the registration rig," the RNC had "Reggie Junior" there -- a Hum-vee.  (Reggie was in Cincinnati yesterday, where Vice President Cheney threw out the first pitch.)  Wagner: "All of Missouri is Bush country.  We delivered in 2000 for President Bush.  We are a battleground state just like Ohio and West Virginia.  They love him here..."

The New York Times front-pages the increasing importance of the ground game.  "[W]ith the Kennedy-Nixon campaign of 1960, television took over and made such tactics anachronistic.  Why knock on 100 doors when one TV ad can reach millions?  Now, campaign tacticians have decided that all those millions of people do not necessarily want to hear the same message.  They want to hear about what they care about.  Solution: everything old is new again; the return of ward politics, sometimes with a high-tech twist."

Roll Call reports several Democratic entities are eyeing the $7 million Gore still has left in his general election compliance fund.

And the AP notes: "Teresa Heinz Kerry... can add scarf designer to her resume.  Heinz Kerry has been draping a new red, white, and blue silk scarf around her neck that she helped design for her husband's campaign.  The scarf is covered with little flags and her husband's initials and says 'John Kerry for President 2004' in script at the bottom.  Heinz Kerry worked on the design with professionals at Vineyard Vines in Greenwich, Conn.  Vineyard Vines spokeswoman Demi Wasilko said Kerry usually wears the company's $65 neckties, favoring bright pastels.  The campaign tie and scarf -- both 100 percent silk -- are not available for sale.  Just 100 of the scarves and around 400 of the ties were made for the campaign to give to donors."

• Monday, April 5, 2004 | 9:30 a.m. ET
From Mark Murray and Huma Zaidi
While Kerry has spent the past couple of weeks on vacation and under the scalpel, the Bush campaign has worked tirelessly to define the Massachusetts Senator as a liberal tax-raiser who hasn't given U.S. soldiers the body armor and pay hikes they need. Well, now back on the trail this week, Kerry and his supporters are trying to do some defining of their own -- by portraying Bush as an untrustworthy spendthrift.

The AP: "For weeks, Bush's campaign has been saying Kerry would raise taxes $900 billion over 10 years. Kerry is striking back with a report to be released Monday that says the president would increase the deficit with his unfunded spending proposals and tax cuts. 'We intend to run to President Bush's right on this,' said Roger Altman, who was deputy treasury secretary under President Clinton and is advising Kerry's campaign." (More on this below.)

Kerry surrogate Sen. Ted Kennedy, meanwhile, takes aim at Bush's credibility at an 11:00 am speech at the Brookings Institution. Here's an excerpt: "The most important principle in any representative democracy is for the people to trust their government. If our leaders violate that trust, then all our words of hope and opportunity and progress and justice ring false in the ears of our people and the wider world, and our goals will never be achieved."

"Sadly, this Administration has failed to live up to basic standards of open and candid debate. On issue after issue, they tell the American people one thing and do another. They repeatedly invent 'facts' to support their preconceived agenda - facts which Administration officials knew or should have known were not true."

The Kerry campaign focuses most of this week on the economy. Today, Kerry conducts a roundtable with reporters on the economy at his headquarters in Washington at 12:30 pm; on Tuesday, he travels to Battleground Ohio to focus on manufacturing jobs; on Wednesday, he gives an economic speech at Georgetown University; and on Thursday, he hits Wisconsin and Chicago. 

But the Los Angeles Times says that Kerry is encountering a changed landscape. "After months of having to counter news reports about stagnant employment, President Bush now can promote economic figures that show 308,000 jobs were created in February - giving his administration a boost and blunting a favorite line of attack by the Democrats."

MSNBC's Felix Schein also points out that after spending four days in Boston -- appearing publicly only at a church on Sunday -- Kerry will spend two of the next four days in Washington. In fact, according to Schein's calculations, Kerry has been on the trail only nine of the last 22 days if you don't count DC or Boston as stops on the trail.

Meanwhile, basking in those hefty job numbers from Friday, Bush will unveil a workforce-training initiative at 10:10 am in Charlotte, NC, which the Charlotte Observer previews. And just in case you didn't think battleground states and baseball mix, Bush - the baseball lover and former owner of the Texas Rangers -- throws out the first pitch, in St. Louis, at the Cardinals-Brewers game at 4:10 pm ET. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch covers the Hurler in Chief's first pitch. Not to be outdone, VP Cheney does the honors in Cincinnati at the Reds-Cubs game at 3:00 pm.

A source close to the Cardinals tells MSNBC's Nina Bradley that Cardinals legend Stan "the Man" Musial will play a role in the President's opening pitch. Bradley has more: Due to security concerns, fans are being told to show up at Busch Stadium as least four hours before game time, and the Cardinals will present the President with a jersey, with No. 43 on it.

Bush v. Kerry: jobs and the economy
MSNBC's Bradley has more on the President's job-training initiative that he will unveil this morning in Charlotte. According to a senior administration official, Bush will be articulating a big, national goal of doubling the number of people who are trained in the workforce development system in one year, from 206,00 to 412,000. The Washington Post says the Administration isn't putting any new money into this initiative. "A White House fact sheet said Bush's plan, to be announced in Charlotte, calls for saving $300 million through the reduction of 'unnecessary bureaucracy.'"

The New York Times covers yesterday's release of a Kerry report showing that the Bush Administration has ballooned the deficit and crippled state governments by approving or proposing programs worth more than $6 trillion without paying for them. This report "is the opening round in what Kerry aides said would be a weeklong focus on the economy... But the release of the report is significant, too, because it signals a new aggressiveness by Mr. Kerry, who, some Democrats have said, has allowed Mr. Bush to define him as a tax-and-spend liberal while he has been largely out of sight and off the trail."

"Mr. Kerry's strategy of focusing this week on economic issues was planned before the government's release on Friday of numbers showing an increase of 308,000 jobs last month. Democrats said that news made it even more imperative for Mr. Kerry to demonstrate that he would be a better steward of the economy than Mr. Bush has been."

The Boston Globe: "Kerry is expected to release his own version of the 2005 federal budget Wednesday in Washington, D.C., a document that will include a reduction in some of the spending proposed during the primaries. Aides said Kerry will argue that the explosive projected growth in the deficit has required a recalibration in program spending, but not in Kerry's core commitment to such programs as free college in exchange for social work and early childhood education for all. Instead, they may be enacted as pilot programs."

The Wall Street Journal's editorial page argues that, "[l]ike Rodney Dangerfield," the U.S. economy is experiencing a recovery that doesn't get any respect. "Today's unemployment rate of 5.7% is close to the level Bill Clinton boasted about as he sought re-election in 1996. Meanwhile, inflation has fallen by a full percentage point over the past eight years.

"[T]he economy compares favorably by re-election standards and President Bush's policies should be enjoying at least a modicum of respect. Instead, the media have done a terrific job of convincing everybody that these are the worst of times."

Bush v. Kerry: National Security
Whether the Bush team likes it or not, says MSNBC's Bradley, the big focus this week will be on Condoleezza Rice when she raises her right hand and promises to tell the whole truth in front of the cameras and the whole world on Thursday. Dr. Rice will have to make the case for her boss that he did not ignore Al Qaeda's warnings and he was not fixated on Iraq, as Richard Clarke has claimed.

Not surprisingly, the New York Times profiles Rice on its front page. "Senior White House aides concede that Mr. Bush has a huge amount riding on how Ms. Rice does. 'She's the one who can make our most forceful case,' one close colleague of Ms. Rice said this weekend. 'They don't call her the Warrior Princess for nothing,' a reference to the moniker her staff gave her after the Sept. 11 attacks."

"But a review of the record, from testimony and interviews, suggests that Ms. Rice faces a daunting challenge because her own focus until Sept. 11 was usually fixed on matters other than terrorism, for reasons that had to do with her own background, her management style and the unusually close, personal nature of her relationship with Mr. Bush."

The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, uses Rice's upcoming testimony to speculate about what position she would hold in Bush's second term, if he's re-elected. Secretary of State? Secretary of Defense? Or will she move back to California?

USA Today, the Washington Times and the Washington Post break down the Sunday talk shows' focus on the 9/11 Commission.

The AP writes that the press office for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq is packed with GOP operatives, who are promoting mostly good news about events in Iraq. "More than one-third of the U.S. civilian workers in the press office have GOP ties, running an enterprise that critics see as an outpost of Bush's re-election effort."

"[Dan] Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), said his office is guided by ethical 'red lines' that prevent it from crossing into the Bush campaign. 'We have an obligation to communicate with the U.S. Congress and the American people, given that they're spending almost $20 billion in Iraq and have committed over 100,000 U.S. troops here,' Senor said."

But: "One CPA staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity said the press office had sent targeted 'good-news' releases to American television, radio and newspaper outlets that were timed to deflect criticism of Bush during the Democratic primaries." 

More Bush v. Kerry
The Wall Street Journal looks at all of the campaign cash that's pouring into political war chests. In the first quarter of 2004, the paper says, the Bush campaign raised $37 million, the Kerry camp collected $50 million, the DNC got $27 million, and the RNC received $48 million. "The vibrant fund raising is striking given that it comes in the wake of a law banning political parties from accepting unlimited donations -- so-called soft money -- from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals."

"'The political players are adjusting to the new world,' said Fred Wertheimer, a nonpartisan analyst of political giving... 'Obviously there are some problem areas, but on the whole the reform law is working in breaking the corrupting relationship between large contributions and elected officials.'"

On the campaign trail, the Los Angeles Times' Brownstein writes, Kerry has largely retreated from his earlier stand of demanding more accountability in education. "Kerry and other skeptics point to some legitimate problems in No Child Left Behind. But many education reformers worry that the changes he's demanding will do more to hide problems in the schools than to fix them. Put another way: His proposed revisions mostly favor the adults working in the school system over students and their parents."

Here might be some more flip-flopping: The Washington Post reports that in a 2000 debate with Al Gore, Bush championed legislation -- like the law in Texas -- that would give patients the right to sue HMOs. But now "the Bush administration's Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to block lawsuits under the very Texas law Bush touted in 2000."

In the two cases argued at the Supreme Court last week, the President "is not only taking the side of powerful Republican constituencies at the national level, such as large employers and health insurers. He is also reflecting changed public priorities: Voters no longer place as high a value on suing HMOs as they do on other concerns, such as drug costs."

Meanwhile, the Washington Post notes how Bush's proposals to ban gay marriage, reform the nation's immigration laws, and send astronauts to the moon and Mars are languishing on Capitol Hill. "The main reason is not Democratic obstruction but a lack of vigorous follow-through by the administration once the initial hoopla died down, according to some Republican and Democratic lawmakers... The administration's low-energy approach to these issues contrasts sharply with its promotion of unquestioned priorities such as tax cuts and educational accountability, for which the president and his staff relentlessly marshaled public and congressional support to overcome opposition."

"A White House spokesman and some Republicans defended the administration's approach, saying the president is waiting for the appropriate time to press for action on some of his initiatives, while recognizing that others may have to wait for a second term."

The Wall Street Journal examines perhaps the biggest lightning rod in politics: John Ashcroft. "On the left, Democrats cast him as the administration's leading foe of civil liberties. One of presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's signature applause lines is his vow to appoint 'an attorney general who is not John Ashcroft.'"

"On the right, Mr. Ashcroft is a symbol of Mr. Bush's tough law-enforcement stance and ties to the evangelical right. 'Both core constituencies' need him, says Democratic consultant Gary Nordlinger."

Relatedly, the Washington Times says the Patriot Act has divided conservatives and has even put "several Republicans in the peculiar position of defending Sen. John Kerry."

The Washington Post's Style section profiles RNC chairman Ed Gillespie, calling him "a killer choirboy, full of infectious laughter."

"'I don't like Republicans,' says Laura Nichols, Dick Gephardt's former communications director, 'but I love him. Great man. Evil chairman. As a Democrat, he's everything in a chairman you don't want: Wicked smart, fierce competitor, well-spoken, great on TV, your basic nightmare.'"

Make every vote count
Despite the efforts "to erase doubts about new touch-screen voting machines by backing up digital votes with paper records is gaining ground nationwide" ... only one state expects to have such a measure in place before November the AP says.

• Friday, April 2, 2004 | 9:30 a.m. ET
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray and Huma Zaidi
Over the past few weeks, it seems, it's been all 9/11 and terrorism, all the time. Dick Clarke. Condi Rice. Murdered U.S. civilians dragged through the streets of Fallujah. Deadly terrorist bombings in Spain (in fact, another bomb was discovered today on a Spanish train, the APreports).

But today we pivot to an entirely different story: jobs and the economy.

And the news on the jobs front appears to be good for the Bush Administration. The AP reports that although the unemployment rate inched up to 5.7 percent in March, companies added 308,000 new jobs -- the most in four years. MSNBC's Nina Bradley got Bush-Cheney press secretary Scott Stanzel to say this yesterday: "The choice is between someone who will create jobs and someone who will kill jobs. We are glad to have any argument about the economy and jobs. John Kerry's plan will take our country backward." (We imagine that the rhetoric from the Bush camp today will be even more jubilant than that.)

Keeping up with the jobs-and-economy theme, there's a new Kerry ad running in 17 states that criticizes recent Bush Administration comments lauding job outsourcing; a new Democratic Media Fund ad airing in a handful of states that blasts the Administration for spending $87 billion in Iraq but doing little to meet U.S. domestic needs; and a new Bush ad running in 18 states that enumerates the tax increases that Kerry has supported, adding that these tax increases are troubling for the U.S. economy.

Fittingly, Bush travels to West Virginia today to participate in a conversation on job training at 11:40 am; the Huntington Herald-Dispatch previews this visit. Kerry, meanwhile, is down in Boston, but still meets with Robert Rubin, the AFL-CIO's John Sweeney, and other economic experts. And fellow Bay Stater Sen. Ted Kennedy will keep this story rolling into next week when he gives a Brookings Institution speech on Monday knocking the Administration on health care, education, and jobs.

This attention on jobs isn't a coincidence. As one GOP analyst tells First Read, the economy will most likely decide the outcome of the presidential election, despite all the attention on 9/11 and Iraq. "It's still about the number of jobs created," the Republican says. And as a result, one of the biggest political stories until the November election will be -- like it is today -- the unemployment numbers that are released on the first Friday of each month.

In news that's not related to the economy, the Kerry campaign holds a conference call at 10:00 am to announce its record-breaking fundraising total for the first quarter of 2004. The Washington Post says the amount will be $43 million. "[T]he unexpected fundraising surge shows Democrats are far more competitive financially against Bush and suggests the pool of Democratic money runs much deeper than officials from both parties originally projected, GOP and Democratic strategists say. The Kerry campaign initially projected it would raise $80 million this year, then Kerry fundraisers said in interviews last month it could top $100 million in 2004 alone."

The Boston Globe: "The Kerry take would set a quarterly record for a non-incumbent, breaking the mark of about $30 million set by George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, in 2000, [Kerry spokesman Michael] Meehan said. It would also put the Democrat more than halfway to his $80 million fund-raising goal for the general election campaign."

MSNBC's Felix Schein notes that this fundraising windfall couldn't have come at a better time for the Kerry campaign. With a burn rate close to 90 percent just over the last month, the campaign is shoveling money out the door as fast as it comes in. Case in point, Schein says, is the new TV ad campaign.

Kerry, recovering from shoulder surgery in Boston this week, was supposed to appear on Imus in the Morning at 8:29 am today. But shortly after 8:30 am, Imus announced that Kerry was instructed by his doctors to "sleep in" and would not be on the show. The show tells us the Kerry camp called in shortly after 5:00 am this morning to cancel the interview.

On Sunday, Meet the Press has exclusive interviews with 9/11 Commission Chair Thomas Kean and Vice Chair Lee Hamilton, and also Karen Hughes.

Bush v. Kerry: jobs and the economy
The AP says that Kerry's new ad is his first negative ad of the general election. "The new commercial is meant to exploit one of Bush's weaknesses -- more than 2 million jobs lost on his watch -- while highlighting Kerry's recently released economic plan that focuses in part on keeping jobs in the United States."

Meanwhile, USA Today chronicles the flurry of ads yesterday. "At 3:45 p.m. ET, just 62 minutes after Kerry's campaign e-mailed reporters about his new ad ... the Bush campaign e-mailed the media to say it would have a response. At 4:35 p.m. ET in a conference call with reporters, that response was revealed: Bush had a new ad of his own."

But "Bush's campaign advisers said their new ad ... was not prepared specifically in response to Kerry's. The Bush ad had already been scheduled to begin airing this weekend, they said. But in response to Kerry's ad, the campaign posted 'Troubling' on its Web site ... a day early and called reporters' attention to the ad."

And "[a]t 3:49 p.m. ET, the Media Fund e-mailed reporters to say it would begin airing a new ad Thursday night across the country."

Some truth-squadding on the new ads: Kerry's, the New York Times says, "refers to the 2004 economic report to the president from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which said the short-term pain of overseas job losses because of global trade would be offset by long-term gains to the economy. Though Mr. Bush signed the report, delivered to Congress in February, he has never voiced support for sending jobs overseas. 'The president has been clear and on the record,' said Ken Mehlman, Mr. Bush's campaign manager. 'His goal is to create jobs in this country; his goal is to keep jobs in this country.'"

Meanwhile, the new Bush ad "asserts that Mr. Kerry 'opposed tax relief for married couples 22 times" and "supported higher taxes over 350 times.' Mr. Kerry's campaign said this spot unfairly cherry-picked provisions in tax cut bills proposed by Mr. Bush that Mr. Kerry believed favored the wealthy. Stephanie Cutter, Mr. Kerry's press secretary, said he had voted at least seven times to preserve marriage-penalty relief and had proposed to do so in his economic plan, which includes other tax cuts for the middle class."

In a second-day write-up of its most recent poll, the Los Angeles Times writes that the public thinks Kerry "would better look out for their financial futures than would President Bush. Asked to name the candidate who would be 'best at protecting the financial security of the average American,' 47% named Kerry, while 34% picked Bush. Among independents, a group that could play a crucial role in determining the winner of the presidential election in November, the gap was even wider: 49% for Kerry and 26% for Bush."

"Those polled also view the Bush White House as much more aligned with business interests than the interests of ordinary workers, and they express widespread doubts about the integrity of corporate America."

Bush v. Kerry: National Security
The New York Times writes that the White House confirmed yesterday "that it had withheld a variety of classified documents from Mr. Clinton's files that had been gathered by the National Archives over the last two years in response to requests from the [9/11] commission... Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said some Clinton administration documents had been withheld because they were 'duplicative or unrelated,' while others were withheld because they were 'highly sensitive' and the information in them could be relayed to the commission in other ways."

"The commission and the White House were reacting to public complaints from former aides to Mr. Clinton, who said they had been surprised to learn in recent months that three-quarters of the nearly 11,000 pages of files the former president was ready to offer the commission had been withheld by the Bush administration. The former aides said the files contained highly classified documents about the Clinton administration's efforts against Al Qaeda."

The Times adds that this debate over Clinton's files came as the 9/11 Commission announced that Condoleezza Rice will testify before the commission on Thursday.  "It also came as the White House, in an effort to bolster Ms. Rice's credibility before the hearing, released some of the language of a presidential directive awaiting Mr. Bush's signature on Sept. 11, 2001. It instructed the Pentagon to plan action against Qaeda terrorists and their Taliban sponsors in Afghanistan, 'including leadership, command-control-communication, training and logistics facilities.'"

The Washington Post: Also yesterday, several commission members dismissed complaints from Democratic lawmakers and family members of terrorist attack victims that two Republican commissioners spoke with the White House's chief lawyer last week on the day that Clarke testified. Commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean ... said that the two GOP panel members, Fred F. Fielding and James R. Thompson, have each served as liaisons with the White House and that their roles are well-known to the rest of the 10-member bipartisan panel."

"Two Democratic commissioners, former Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste and former Indiana congressman Timothy J. Roemer, also said they would not be concerned about such contacts. Several commission sources said that some Democratic members have had similar contacts with lawmakers from their party."

The New York Times also reports that prosecutors investigating the charge that someone from the White House leaked the identity of a CIA agent "have expanded their inquiry to examine whether White House officials lied to investigators or mishandled classified information related to the case."

"The expansion of the inquiry's scope comes at a time when prosecutors, after a hiatus of about a month, appear to be preparing to seek additional testimony before a federal grand jury, lawyers with clients in the case said. It is not clear whether the renewed grand jury activity represents a concluding session or a prelude to an indictment."

Bush v. Kerry: the battleground states
The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire notes that Bush Cabinet secretaries are doing quite a bit of travel to the swing battleground states. "Homeland Security czar Ridge brings a grant to Cleveland today, after doing so in Pittsburgh. Health and Human Services chief Thompson begins town-hall meetings on diabetes in Ohio. Treasury's Snow lauds economy that's 'turned the corner' in Cincinnati, then follows Bush to New Mexico, Arizona."

"Transportation's Mineta unveils an airport grant in West Virginia. He and Interior's Norton separately hit Louisiana; she also visits Florida to hail Bush parks record. Energy's Abraham interrupts a Florida vacation next week for an event. Powell suddenly announces trip Monday to Haiti, a big issue for Floridians worried about refugees."

Bush v. Kerry: abortion
President Bush signed legislation yesterday that "elevates the rights of fetuses by making it a separate offense to harm an 'unborn child' while committing a violent federal crime against a pregnant woman," the Washington Post reports. "The law is entangled in the politics of abortion, but Bush sidestepped the larger controversy, portraying the hard-fought measure as a matter of criminal justice... The White House used the signing ceremony as visible evidence that Bush remains loyal to his conservative base. The president shared a small stage in the East Room with parents of several pregnant women who were killed in recent years."

The Washington Times adds that "Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry voted against the bill last month in the Senate. Yesterday, his spokesman called the new law an infringement of a woman's right to choose."

In a front-page article, the New York Times notes that Kerry is the first Roman Catholic to run for President in 44 years. "President Kennedy had to overcome accusations from non-Catholics that he would follow the bidding of the pope. Now, Mr. Kerry faces accusations from some within his own church that he is not following the pope's bidding closely enough" -- especially on an issue like abortion.

The Times adds that some bishops "were troubled by Mr. Kerry's vote against a bill that makes it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman. President Bush signed the legislation on Thursday, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops immediately issued a news release applauding him."

"The bishops are unlikely to make overt endorsements, and consistently say that they favor neither Democrats nor Republicans. But if some influential prelates choose to publicly embrace Mr. Kerry or to snub him - by refusing to offer him communion, withholding an honorary degree or canceling an event at a Catholic institution - it could have an impact on some Catholic voters."

More Bush v. Kerry
MSNBC's Bradley notes that Bush spoke at last night's dinner gala for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which raised $7 million from the event. Saying that he's "ready for this campaign," Bush also sounded confident about his party's future. "We intend to increase the Republican majority in 2004," he said.

Not only are many in Hollywood raising money to defeat Bush and send Kerry to the White House, the New York Times says, but they are also expressing their displeasure with Bush in their TV scripts.

While the Kerry campaign is thumping its chest over its fundraising haul, the Los Angeles Times reminds us that the Bush campaign has raised more than $175 million, much of it by the help of its bundling Rangers and Pioneers. On these Rangers and Pioneers: "'They're doing such an amazing job of getting people's competitive juices going,' said Kirk Jowers, a Republican election lawyer in Washington. 'As I talk to people around town, it's like watching my daughter and her friends sell Girl Scout cookies. Who can raise the most money?'"

Finally, Republican Senator John McCain said yesterday he feels his party has gone "astray" and criticized Bush on the Iraq war and the GOP on "environmental and minority issues," the Boston Herald says.

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