Iraq overshadowed the traditional Labor Day kickoff of the fall campaign and its time-honored emphasis on jobs, as Kerry delivered some of his harshest rhetoric against Bush's handling of the war and highlighted its economic costs. The Democrat set, for the first time, a tentative time frame for completing a withdrawal that Republican opponents say is too soon even to begin.
''We want those troops home, and my goal would be to try to get them home in my first term,'' Kerry said, speaking to a fellow Vietnam War veteran at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania who had asked about a timetable for withdrawal.
Bush, campaigning in southeast Missouri, described Kerry's attack as the product of chronic equivocation combined with a shake up of his advisers.
''After voting for the war, but against funding it, after saying he would have voted for the war even knowing everything we know today, my opponent woke up this morning with new campaign advisers and yet another new position,'' Bush said in prepared remarks.
Kerry spoke with former President Clinton in a lengthy phone call during the weekend, hearing advice that he go hard after Bush's record. Clinton White House aides are taking a larger role in the campaign, and Kerry moved longtime adviser John Sasso into a top spot.
On Iraq, ''suddenly he's against it again,'' Bush said. ''No matter how many times Senator Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America and it's right for America now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power.''
Both sides sparred over employment, too, in tours of the heartland by the presidential candidates and their running mates covering eight states in all.
Speaking at the Minnesota State Fair, Vice President Dick Cheney declared low taxes are the key to robust employment. Kerry asserted that an employment surge over the past year has been driven by jobs that pay poorly and offer worse benefits and less security than jobs of old.
The Labor Department put out a rosy report on employment, declaring ''prospects for job creation remain bright,'' and noting gains in most sectors in recent months.
Bush is struggling to escape the distinction of being the first president since the Depression-era Herbert Hoover to finish a term with job losses. With 1.7 million jobs created over the past year, the economy is still down 913,000 jobs overall since he took office.
With the quantity of jobs rising, Kerry turned to their quality. ''If you want four more years of your wages falling . . . if you want four more years of losing jobs overseas and replacing them with jobs that pay $9,000 less than the jobs you had before, then you should go vote for George Bush,'' Kerry said in Pennsylvania.
Kerry cited a study by the liberal Economic Policy Institute from January indicating jobs in growing industries pay $8,848 less on average than jobs in fading industries. One-third of the new jobs are for janitors, fast-food workers and temporary employees, and they are less likely to offer health insurance than other work, his campaign said.
Polls indicate Bush and Kerry are running evenly in four of the states the candidates were visiting Monday - Minnesota, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The four offer a combined 58 electoral votes, more than 20 percent of the total needed to win.
Nationally, Bush led Kerry by 7 points - 52 percent to 45 percent - while independent Ralph Nader had 1 percent in a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll taken over the weekend.
