ELECTION 2004 Vice President candidate John Edwards. The Enquirer/STEVEN M. HERPPICH

• Edwards puts emphasis on plan to create jobs • Cheney says Bush election crucial to win terror war • Bush campaign raises $260 million, doubling previous contribution record • Kentucky poll finds Bunning well in lead • CBS apologizes for Bush military report ENQUIRER EDITORIALS • Kerry/Edwards offer plans for healing Iraq • Q&A: Edwards discusses war on terrorism, economic change • Election 2004 page

"Today we face an enemy every bit as intent on destroying us as the Axis powers of World War II," Cheney told about 3,000 people at a high school gymnasium in a Columbus suburb. "This is not an enemy we can reason with, negotiate with or appease. This is, put it simply, an enemy we must destroy.

"And with President George W. Bush as our commander in chief, that's exactly what we will do," he said.

As Cheney spoke at Grove City High School, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards rolled up his shirt sleeves and attended a block party in one of Cincinnati's blue-collar neighborhoods.

Edwards said he fully supported Democrat John Kerry's statement, in a speech Monday in New York, that Bush rushed to war in Iraq without enough allied support, a postwar plan or proper equipment for U.S. troops.

He said Bush responded "with more lies about John Kerry."

The vice president defended the invasion of Iraq and criticized Bush's Democratic rival.

"Senator Kerry also said today that President Bush misled America by calling Iraq an imminent threat.' The president said no such thing," he said. "Our argument was that Saddam Hussein posed a "gathering threat" that in a post 9/11 world we could not wait until a threat was imminent."

Cheney also said the United States could not have succeeded in the fight against terrorism without help from other countries.

"But as President Bush has said, there is a difference between leading a coalition of many nations and submitting to the objections of a few," he said. "We will never seek a permission slip to defend the United States."

Ohio is one of the most contested states in the presidential campaign, with the candidates and their surrogates making frequent visits. Cheney and Edwards were to campaign in the state Tuesday, with the vice president attending a rally in Wauseon in northwest Ohio, and his Democratic counterpart speaking about jobs in Cleveland.

Earlier Monday, Cheney campaigned in Cornwall, Pa., and assailed Kerry as a vacillator on Iraq and warned against electing the Democrat on Nov. 2.

"The danger here is without a very firm commitment on the part of the president of the United States to put in place a vision to make a decision and live with that decision ... what you get out there on the other end is confusion, weakness, uncertainty and indecision," Cheney told about 200 people at town-hall meeting.

He spoke as Kerry delivered his speech in New York, accusing Bush of "stubborn incompetence," dishonesty and colossal failures of judgment in waging war in Iraq.

The vice president said Kerry was offering his "ninth position with respect to the war in Iraq."

Edwards, appearing in his Republican-leaning home state of North Carolina, criticized Bush's health care policies and, echoing Kerry, faulted the commander in chief for his execution of the Iraq war.

"Iraq's a mess. And Iraq is a mess because of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. It is that simple," Edwards told supporters at the Raleigh Convention Center.

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On the Net:

Bush-Cheney campaign: http://www.georgewbush.com

Kerry-Edwards campaign: http://www.johnkerry.com