Nothing But Politics

[Rick Faurot]

Kerry Says Bush Has Failed Middle Class
Wed Oct 27, 2004 12:50 PM ET

By Tim Ahmann
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry said on Wednesday President Bush had failed America's middle class as he renewed his focus on the economy less than a week before voters go to the polls.

For the third day in a row, the Massachusetts senator also assailed Bush for failing to take responsibility for the disappearance of 380 tons of explosives from a military installation in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion.

"We're seeing this White House dodging and bobbing and weaving ... just as they've done each step of the way in our involvement in Iraq," Kerry said. "Vice President (Dick) Cheney, who is becoming the Chief Minister of Disinformation, echoed that it's not the administration's fault."

Speaking to supporters in Sioux City, Iowa, he devoted most of his time to the economic conditions faced by the middle class, which he said had deteriorated during Bush's term.

"He's given more to those with the most at the expense of the middle class and those that are struggling to get ahead," Kerry said at a rally in this Midwest battleground state.

"We need a fresh start," he said. "Middle-class families can't afford four more years of a Bush economy."

Kerry and Bush are deadlocked in their race for the White House one week before the election and the battle in Iowa, a state Democrat Al Gore narrowly won four years ago, is as close as anywhere.

Kerry decried the loss of 1.6 million private sector jobs over the last four years and charged the president's policies had benefited drug companies and left working Americans struggling to pay their health-care bills.