By Scott Stearns

President Bush is on a campaign bus tour in the Midwest state of Wisconsin. Democrats have their likely vice presidential candidate in the Midwest as well, with Senator John Edwards campaigning in Iowa and Illinois.

President Bush lost Wisconsin by less than 6,000 votes in 2000. He spent the day campaigning in areas where his vote margins were strong, hoping to motivate his electoral base to put him over the top in Wisconsin this November.

"Great events will turn on this election," Mr. Bush said. "The person who sits in the Oval Office will set the course of the war on terror and set the course for the direction of our economy. I am here to ask for the vote because I have a clear vision and a strategy to win the war on terror and to extend peace and freedom throughout the world."

The president again defended his decision to invade Iraq despite the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction, which was his biggest justification for ousting Saddam Hussein. Mr. Bush says the move has made America and the world safer from terrorist attack.

Public opinion polls show voters more or less equally divided between President Bush and his likely Democratic challenger John Kerry. Iraq remains a central issue in the election, with the latest Washington Post poll showing a record high 53 percent of Americans now saying the war was not worth fighting.

Democrats hope to take advantage of those misgivings about Iraq.

Campaigning in Iowa, Senator Edwards sought to draw distinctions between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair following the release of a British report on intelligence failures in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

"Tony Blair didn't run from the report. He didn't try to not acknowledge it," he said. "Instead, what Tony Blair said was, I take full responsibility for the mistakes."

Senator Edwards says the prime minister's response shows he understands that leadership means taking responsibility for what happens during your time in office.

"What we need in the White House is somebody who has the strength, courage, and leadership to take responsibility and be accountable not only for what is good but for what is bad. That's what John Kerry will be," senator Edwards said.

Senator Edwards says President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are trying to use the U.S. Constitution as a political tool by backing an amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The federal measure to outlaw gay marriage failed to pass the U.S. Senate Wednesday, but Republican leaders say they will continue to press the issue. President Bush says traditional marriage between a man and a woman is an important part of stable families.

He has sought to characterize Senator Edwards and Senator Kerry as out-of-touch with what he calls mainstream American values.

"Senator Kerry is rated as the most liberal member of the United States Senate, and he chose a fellow lawyer who is the fourth-most-liberal member of the United States Senate. Now in Massachusetts, that's what they call balancing the ticket," Mr. Bush said.

If voters give him four more years, Mr. Bush says the nation will be stronger and safer.

The president will be back in Washington Thursday for a meeting with the President of Mongolia. The Kerry-Edwards campaign has a rally scheduled in the important swing state of West Virginia.

Scott Stearns, VOA News,at the White House.

注释：
Wisconsin 威斯康星州
Iowa 爱荷华州
Illinois 伊利诺斯州
margins 优势
motivate 激发
Oval Office 美国总统办公室
strategy 策略
justification 认为有理，理由
oust 驱逐
more or less 或多或少
misgiving 疑虑
run-up 事件的预备阶段
accountable 有责任的
West Virginia 西弗吉尼亚