Election mudslinging begins

By Clive Myrie BBC correspondent in Washington

Republicans are labelling Kerry rich, liberal and out of touch

The mudslinging has begun, but who knows just how much of it will stick with the election eight long months away?

George W Bush and John Kerry are now going one on one: the plain-speaking Texan against the silver-tongued senator from Massachusetts.

When John Kerry emerged as the favourite to win the Democratic nomination to run for the White House, you didn't need a degree in political science to work out how the Bush campaign would attack him.

Lo and behold, Senator Kerry is already being painted as a flip-flopping, rich, north-eastern liberal, out of touch with ordinary Americans.

The Republican National Committee on its website has posted a cartoon showing John Kerry in a boxing match with none other than John Kerry.

There are indeed two John Kerrys, it declares, detailing 30 different issues it says the Democratic nominee has flip-flopped on over the years - the war in Iraq, the Nafta trade pact, the Patriot Act and so on.

The implication is that his history hardly qualifies him to become US president in such troubled times.

Last week at a fund-raising event President Bush said Kerry had served in Washington for two decades, long enough to take both sides on every issue.

The comment drew whoops of laughter.

But for the senator under attack this is no laughing matter.

Paper trail

In fact senators running for the White House seldom finish up with smiles on their faces.

Kerry charges that Bush is out of ideas on the economy

You've got to go all the way back to John F Kennedy in 1960 to find a sitting senator who was elected president.

The problem is that as a senator or congressman you leave a paper trail behind you of votes on a variety of topics.

And often you can end up voting in a variety of ways on some issues because of the different ways bills can come up, for instance with amendments attached.

John Kerry says if JFK could overcome his Senate record, then why can't I?

But Kennedy was barely in the Senate, failing to turn up because of ill health, so he didn't have much of a record to haunt him.

So make no mistake, the Bush/Cheney campaign will pore over every single vote, on every single issue involving John Kerry's time in the Senate.

There just might be something in there it thinks could be useful.

Jobs

On the other side, how is the Kerry campaign attacking Bush?

Well the US jobs market is still in bad shape, and a potential Achilles heel for the president.

Both sides are now rushing around the country trying to raise money to fund their campaign machines

New figures suggest the outlook is grim and the Democrats have been keen to claim that this is the result of a White House out of ideas, stubbornly sticking to a tax-cutting economic policy that simply isn't working.

But another front in the war on Bush could be opening up.

John Kerry has revealed that a number of foreign leaders have told him they would love to see George W lose the election.

Who these leaders are, we don't know.

The Democratic nominee says there is a lot of energy out there to see Bush toppled.

Unusual revelation

Comments from foreign leaders to candidates about whom they would prefer are not unusual.

What is strange is that Senator Kerry publicised them.

In the time it's taken me to write this article George W Bush has raised $1.5 million at a fund raising event in Texas

Is he by implication saying to the American people, "Vote for me and we'll get more help from the international community, say in Iraq?

"Vote for me because I have the ears of the world, I alone can safeguard American interests overseas"?

John Kerry has delivered numerous campaign speeches where he has called President Bush's foreign policy the most ideological, inept and dangerous in the history of the country.

This will be a recurring theme for the Kerry camp in the months ahead.

Both sides are now rushing around the country trying to raise money to fund their campaign machines.

In the time it's taken me to write this article George W Bush has raised $1.5 million at a fund raising event in Texas.

His war chest has now swelled to a staggering $150million.

Kerry is the pauper of the two, with just a few million in the bank.

In fact his Presidential bid was in such bad financial shape just a few months ago that he took out a $6.4m mortgage on his Boston home to shore up the campaign.

Now that he is the nominee, the donations should begin to roll in - but they'll never reach the levels of Bush and Cheney.

If money talks it's another four years for George W - while John Kerry is hoping his will be a rags-to-riches story.