clearly a campaign for commander in chief -Security issues return to top

[papau]

, "While President Bush's strategists once thought the debate over who would be a better commander in chief would guarantee his re-election, that no longer seems so certain."

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040722/6386334s.htm

It's clearly a campaign for commander in chief Security issues return to top of voters' concerns
By Susan Page USA TODAY

GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- In the first presidential election since the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans are paying attention again to a commander in chief's salute.

After a decade when the importance of national-security credentials ebbed in presidential campaigns, the issue of America's defense is challenging the economy as the most important concern on voters' minds. While President Bush's strategists once thought the debate over who would be a better commander in chief would guarantee his re-election, that no longer seems so certain.

''You weren't worried about war or terrorism so much before,'' says Debbie Larsen, 50, a first-grade teacher and Bush supporter from Fort Worth visiting this Civil War town with her husband and 19-year-old daughter. Now, she says, those issues are overshadowing such concerns as education and health care that were at the center of recent campaigns.

<snip>But for the first time in a generation, Democrats are trying to turn the Republicans' advantage on national-security issues to their own. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry prevailed in the crowded primaries in large part because he offered a stronger résumé on the issue than his chief rivals. The party platform includes more muscular language on national security than any in decades.

At the Democratic National Convention next week, Kerry will be introduced by fellow Vietnam veteran Max Cleland, embraced by the crewmen with whom he served there and endorsed by retired generals. Tuesday, as the platform is debated, Kerry will be campaigning in Norfolk, Va., before a backdrop of battleships.<snip>