WP: Two Trouble Spots for Bush: Iraq and the Philly Suburbs [View All]

[kskiska]

By David S. Broder

EXTON, Pa. -- The growing voter focus on Iraq and the continued weakness of President Bush in Philadelphia suburbs such as this one are tilting the key battleground of Pennsylvania toward Democratic challenger John F. Kerry.

Bush has made 39 trips to Pennsylvania as president in an effort to swing its 21 electoral votes, which Al Gore won by five percentage points in 2000, into the Republican column -- a feat that his strategists say would almost guarantee a second term. But he has run up against a seemingly immovable barrier in voters such as Marshall Liss.

The bearded martial arts instructor has decided that the reasons the administration has given for going to war with Iraq are "ridiculous," and because of that, he regards Bush as "a complete failure." He is no enthusiast for Kerry, saying that "I thought he was clueless until I saw the debate," but he has decided to "give Kerry a chance to straighten out this mess."

It is voters like Liss who are responsible for the small lead Kerry enjoyed in three independent Pennsylvania polls released this week. The most highly regarded of the trio, Franklin and Marshall College's Keystone Poll, put the Massachusetts senator ahead 49 percent to 43 percent, reversing a statistically insignificant lead Bush had a month earlier.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18733-2004Oct8.html