Kerry-Bush rematch set for tonight

ST. LOUIS -- President Bush needs to do a lot more than improve his body language for tonight's second debate, says Democrat John Edwards. The Republicans say it's John Kerry who's got the explaining to do about his policies.

"The president of the United States, in order to perform well in a debate, needs to do more than not screw up his face and needs to do more than string a sentence together," vice presidential candidate Edwards said Thursday in Bayonne, N.J. "He needs to level with the American people."

Bush's campaign manager, Ken Mehlman, sees the debate differently. He said, "It's an opportunity for Senator Kerry to defend a 30-year record of being wrong on defense" and to explain how he'd pay for an expansive domestic agenda.

Bush's performance in last week's first debate in Miami was widely criticized, especially the grimaces he made while Kerry was answering some questions. The arrangement will be different at tonight's confrontation -- a town hall-style format with audience members rather than journalists asking the questions at Washington University in St. Louis.

There will be new information on the economy and the Iraq war for the candidates to fight over: this week's report from the U.S. arms inspector and new figures, due out this morning, on national unemployment.

Democrats say the last job numbers released by the Labor Department before the election are bound to show that Bush is the first president since the Depression to preside over an economy with fewer jobs at the end of his term than when he started. Bush will focus on recent improvement.

The candidates were already battling on Thursday about the arms inspector's report that found no evidence Iraq produced any weapons of mass destruction after 1991.

Bush, at the White House, said the report showed that the Iraqi leader had retained "the knowledge, the materials, the means and the intent" to produce weapons of mass destruction.

Kerry, in Colorado, said the report showed Iraq had essentially dismantled its weapons program. "You don't make up or find reasons to go to war after the fact," he said.

Both campaigns portrayed the other's candidate as having the advantage in a town hall-style debate. At the same time, they questioned how many viewers would tune in on a Friday night.

A new Associated Press-Ipsos Public Affairs poll suggests Kerry goes into the second debate with at least one advantage over Bush. Nearly six in 10 respondents said the country was headed down the wrong track.

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On the Net:

Kerry campaign: http://www.johnkerry.com

Bush campaign: http://www.georgewbush.com