Sen. John F. Kerry on Thursday wrapped up a Midwest campaign swing by challenging President Bush to weekly debates, then traveled to Santa Monica where he raised about $3 million for the Democratic effort to capture the White House.
At a lunch today in San Francisco, Kerry also plans to raise money for the party.
Kerry's debate proposal came at a campaign stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Anoka. Amid sparring this week over Kerry's record as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam and his protests against the war after he returned, he cast the challenge as a way to keep the race focused on issues that matter.
"America deserves a serious discussion about its future," Kerry said. "It does not deserve a campaign of smear and fear."
He suggested debates on healthcare, education, national security, the environment and other topics, every week until the Nov. 2 election.
The Commission on Presidential Debates has scheduled three Bush-Kerry debates: Sept. 30 in Miami, Oct. 8 in St. Louis and Oct. 13 in Tempe, Ariz.
The panel has slated another for Vice President Dick Cheney and Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, on Oct. 5 in Cleveland.
Kerry's campaign has accepted that schedule, Bush's has not.
Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt said there would be "time for debates" after the Republican National Convention next week in New York. But renewing Bush's charge that Kerry tends to straddle issues, he said Kerry "should take the time to finish the debates with himself."
At Kerry's question-and-answer forum with 200 invited guests in Anoka, the hometown of radio personality Garrison Keillor, a man asked the Massachusetts senator whether it was true he "waffles."
He dismissed the charge as part of the "standard Republican playbook" for campaigns, saying the GOP used it against President Clinton and Al Gore, the 2000 Democratic presidential contender.
"They just say it. And if you spend enough money and say it enough, people like you are going to ask the question," Kerry said.
Citing a frequent "flip-flop" alleged by Republicans, Kerry said he voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993, but objected to what he said was the Bush administration's failure to enforce labor provisions in it.
"It's not waffling to say that something that you voted for ... ought to be done properly," he said.
The forum's theme was healthcare, and Kerry criticized Bush's record on that subject.
