By David Espo
and Donna Cassata
The Associated Press

President Bush waves to the crowd after he accepted his party's presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Madison Square Garden. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

NEW YORK - President Bush faulted Democratic rival John Kerry's record on the Iraq war and tax cuts Thursday night and vowed victory over terrorism and a brighter future for Americans buffeted by a changing economy.

"Nothing will hold us back," he said in a Republican National Convention acceptance speech that launched his fall re-election campaign.

"We are staying on the offensive - striking terrorists abroad - so we do not have to face them here at home," Bush said in remarks prepared for a prime-time address in a convention hall close to Ground Zero of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"And we will prevail."

Bush's speech marked the beginning of a two-month sprint to Election Day, and Kerry couldn't wait to start.

CONVENTION COVERAGE

• Bush: 'Pursue your dreams' • Ohio, brace for politicians • Swing voters like speech • Pataki praises 'guts' • Efforts to bring in women • Notes from New York • President Bush's remarks • Video of speech • Convention blog watch • Convention photo gallery • Election special section

In a ferocious counterattack after a week of GOP convention-week criticism, the Massachusetts senator called the wartime president and Vice President Dick Cheney unfit to lead the nation.

"I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who have refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq," he said in remarks prepared for a midnight campaign appearance in Springfield, Ohio.

Kerry won five military medals in the Vietnam War; Bush was stateside in the National Guard; and Cheney's five draft-era deferments kept him out of the service.

The president underscored his differences with Kerry on issues of war, tax cuts, values and more, but in terms far less incendiary that those used by Cheney or Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., Wednesday.

Bush said Kerry and Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards both voted against $87 billion in aid for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq: "When asked to explain his vote, the senator (Kerry) said, 'I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.' Then he said he was 'proud of that vote.'"

The president said Kerry has proposed "more than $2 trillion in new federal spending so far, and that's a lot, even for a senator from Massachusetts."

Bush added: "To pay for that spending, he is running on a platform of increasing taxes - and that's the kind of a promise a politician usually keeps." Kerry's economic plan calls for rolling back the Bush-era tax cuts on the top 2 percent of wage-earners.

Bush stepped to a custom-made, theater-in-the-round style podium at Madison Square Garden.

In a speech before a hall filled with delegates and a nationwide television audience in the millions, Bush offered Reagan-style optimism in a time of national testing.

Referring to the remnants of the World Trade Center site, he said, "here buildings fell, and here a nation rose. ... And all of this has confirmed one belief beyond doubt: Having come this far, our tested and confident nation can achieve anything."

Bush pledged to seek a second-term effort to reform and simplify the tax code, part of a broader effort to appeal to millions of Americans anxious over economic security: "Government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives."

In a return to the rhetoric of compassionate conservatism that marked his 2000 election campaign, the Republican pledged to transform the tax code, health coverage, pension system and more "so that all citizens are equipped, prepared - and thus truly free - to make your own choices and pursue your own dreams."

He also said he would double the number of individuals eligible for the government's main job-training program and create American opportunity zones that offer tax and other incentives to new businesses.

Bush mentioned cultural issues where he and Kerry differ - a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage among them, and legislation that the senator opposed and Democratic President Clinton signed to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

"If you gave a speech, as my opponent did, calling the Reagan presidency eight years of 'moral darkness,' then you may be a lot of things, but the candidate of conservative values is not one of them," Bush said.

The convention podium and stage underwent an overnight transformation. Nothing was left to chance by Republican image-makers - from the dark blue ink-jet carpet adorned with an enormous presidential seal to the backdrop framed by twin pictures of the Statue of Liberty.

Bush's speech was aimed at persuading voters that despite doubts they might harbor, he - not the four-term Massachusetts senator - was the man with the right plan to win the war on terror and show the way to greater economic security.

"We have fought the terrorists across the earth - not for pride, not for power, but because the lives of our citizens are at stake," said the commander in chief, whose decision to invade Iraq has been a drag in public opinion polls.

"Generations will know if we kept our faith and kept our word. Generations will know if we seized this moment and used it to build a future of safety and peace. The freedom of many and the future security of our nation now depend on us."