Senator John Kerry said Wednesday night that US President George W. Bush bears responsibility for a misguided war in Iraq, lost jobs at home and a rising number of Americans without health care. The Republican incumbent tagged his rival in campaign debate as a lifelong liberal bent on raising taxes and government spending.
"There's a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank," Bush said in the final debate of a contentious campaign for the White House. "Your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts."
Undeterred, the Democratic challenger said many of the nation's ills can be laid at Bush's feet.
He "regrettably rushed us into war" in Iraq, Kerry said, and pushed "alliances away and as a result America ... is not as safe as we ought to be."
On employment, he said, "This is the first president in 72 years to preside over an economy in America that has lost jobs. Eleven other presidents, six Democrats and five Republicans had wars, had recessions, had great difficulties. None of them lost jobs the way this president has."
As for healthcare, the Democratic senator said, "5 million Americans have lost" coverage under Bush's watch. "The president has turned his back on the wellness of America, and there is no system and it's starting to fall apart," Kerry said.
Kerry and the president also debated abortion, gay rights, immigration and more in a 90-minute debate that underscored their deep differences less than three weeks before the Nov. 2 election.
This third and final debate was similar in format to the first -- the two rivals standing behind identical lecterns set precisely 3m apart. Bush was on better behavior, though, and there was no grimacing and scowling this time when it was Kerry's turn to speak.
Two instant polls made the Massachusetts senator out to be the winner of the debate and a third said it was a tie, but that said nothing about the encounter's impact on the race for the presidency. A wealth of surveys said that was close -- and getting closer, with Bush and Kerry concentrating their time and money on a dozen or so battleground states.
The encounter also turned into a tug of war of sorts over Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican maverick who is Kerry's Senate friend but Bush's campaign supporter. Kerry twice invoked his name during the debate, and the second time Bush pounced.
"John McCain is for me for president" he said, because of his position on Iraq. Kerry, he said, offers a policy of "retreat and defeat."
Taxes was a particular flash point between the two men.
Questioned by moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS, Kerry said he would follow through on his plan to roll back tax cuts for Americans who earn more than US$200,000 a year while preserving the reductions that have gone to lower and middle income wage earners.
Under Bush, he said, the tax burden of the wealthy has gone down and that of the middle class has gone up. But Bush said Kerry would never stick to his promise, and his election would mean higher taxes for all.
The two men disagreed over abortion, Kerry saying the choice should be "between a woman, God and her doctor."
The president said he wants to promote a "culture of life," and said Kerry voted "out of the mainstream" when he opposed legislation to ban so-called partial birth abortions.
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