WASHINGTON — President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry both face intensifying challenges to their credibility on Iraq as they approach Thursday's potentially pivotal debate on foreign policy.
Bush and his allies are barraging Kerry with accusations that his escalating criticism of the administration's strategy in Iraq contradicts his earlier support for confronting Saddam Hussein's regime. "How can John Kerry protect us, when he doesn't even know where he stands?" the Bush campaign charges in a new ad.
Kerry and his allies are accusing Bush of forfeiting his credibility by presenting a "fantasyland" picture of Iraq. "It is Alice through the looking glass, it is spin," said Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Alamo), who returned from a trip to Iraq last week.
The parallel offensives have created an unusual situation in which both candidates appear on the defensive over the same issue as they prepare for their first debate.
Bush's approval rating on Iraq and support for his decision to invade improved through the summer. But they are slipping again amid the rising violence there. And in a Time magazine poll released Friday, 55% of voters said they believed the "situation is worse than Bush has reported."
But Kerry's situation may be even more precarious. Several new polls have found that a majority of Americans do not believe he has offered a clear plan for improving conditions in Iraq. And the share of voters who see Kerry as a strong leader or as Bush's equal as a potential commander in chief has dropped sharply since July's Democratic National Convention.
"You end up with both of them having Iraq problems," said Lee Miringoff, director of the nonpartisan Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. "Kerry's problems are the legendary 'flip-flops' and the demands on him for clarity. And Bush's problems are what we are seeing on the news every night."
So far, the doubts about Kerry are trumping the doubts about Bush. Despite the growing anxiety about events in Iraq, Bush holds a solid lead over Kerry in almost all recent surveys when voters are asked which candidate they trust to handle the conflict from here on.
"The conventional wisdom says that if things are going bad in Iraq then it is bad for George W. Bush," said Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director. "But that's not revealing itself in the data. I think that's because ... when things are tough, people are still relying upon the president in those tough times."
