ELECTION 2004 Republican Geoff Davis, Democrat Nick Clooney and Independent Michael Slider. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

• Clashes get tense in debate • New-voter signups soaring • Democrats winning race to sign up new voters • Increase in ripped-off signs gauges raw election emotion • Southgate headed to special vote on school tax • Gas tax stirs Senate campaign • 34th District race: Hot, cool as Brinkman, Miller contrast • Cocaine for voter registration fraud alleged • Park 'giveaway' roils levy • Early voting opens in Florida, and a few problems are reported • Blackwell proposes allowing ballots to be cast at wrong place • Bush, Kerry step up rhetoric on Iraq war • And down the stretch they come... • Borgman cartoon • Kentucky candidates guide • Election 2004 section

On a day of strikingly personal campaign rhetoric, Bush said his Democratic challenger stands for "protest and defeatism" in Iraq. He added that Kerry would lead the nation toward "a major defeat in the war on terror."

The four-term Massachusetts senator accused the president of "arrogant boasting" to hide bitter truths about a war waged on his command. He cited a published report saying the top general in Iraq had warned Pentagon officials last winter about a shortage of supplies.

If anything, Democratic running mate John Edwards was harsher. Bush is trying to "con the American people into believing that he is the only one who can fight and win the war on terrorism," said the North Carolina senator.

Kerry spent his day in Florida, urging supporters to vote early at each stop. Bush had appearances in the state Monday night and today, part of an effort to motivate his backers to cast early ballots as well.

Bush put the powers of incumbency on display during the day, signing legislation at the White House to finance the Department of Homeland Security before flying off for a speech on terrorism in New Jersey.

Along the way, he accused his rival of "shameless scare tactics." In an Associated Press interview aboard Air Force One, Bush said Kerry is "trying to scare our seniors" with false charges of a secret Republican plan to privatize Social Security.

He also faulted Kerry for telling younger Americans there will be a return to the military draft - an option Bush has repeatedly and emphatically ruled out.

The president's speech in Marlton, N.J., was an indictment of Kerry's position on the war in Iraq, delivered in a state that felt firsthand the loss of life at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1988.

"The senator from Massachusetts has now flip-flopped his way to a dangerous position ... a strategy of retreat," Bush said. "He has talked about artificial timetables to pull our troops out of Iraq. He has sent the signal that America's overriding goal in Iraq would be to leave, even if the job is not done."

ON THE ROAD

More Ohio visits If the presidential campaign in Ohio were decided solely by candidate visits, the Democrats will have scored five unanswered runs today. John F. Kerry will rally Democrats at Fifth Third Field in Dayton tonight, his fifth day in Ohio since Republican George W. Bush visited Columbus, Mansfield and Cuyahoga Falls Oct. 2. Doors open at 5 p.m. When the latest White House travel schedule released Monday didn't include Ohio, press secretary Scott McClellan said he "forgot to mention" that Bush will campaign in Canton Friday, focusing on health care and medical malpractice reform. That still means Bush will have been out of Ohio for 20 days - the longest stretch by either candidate since the campaign began in earnest this summer. But Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Price Hill Chili today, the last leg of an Ohio bus tour that will also stop in Carroll and Xenia. He's been to Ohio three times this month. Cheney's invitation-only visit is at 4:35 p.m. Glenway Avenue between Cleves Warsaw Pike and Relleum Avenue will be closed 3 to 6:30 p.m. In other campaign developments: • The University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research will release its latest Ohio poll, with numbers for the presidential and senatorial races, this morning. Other recent polls show everything from a 2-point Bush lead to a 4-point Kerry advantage - all within margins of error. • Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie will be in Columbus to launch a statewide effort to combat what he alleges is "widespread voter fraud" by Democratic groups. • Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards arrives at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport tonight. He's scheduled to campaign in Canton, New Philadelphia and Steubenville on Wednesday. --Greg Korte

He added that while "America does the hard work of fighting terror and spreading freedom, he has chosen the easy path of protest and defeatism."

Kerry aide Michael McCurry called Bush's speech "arguably his strongest negative attack to date," and said the Democratic senator was "going to be rebutting that very aggressively" in the next two or three days.

Kerry rebutted by citing Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former top general of U.S. forces in Iraq. Referring to a report in the Washington Post, Kerry said that the day after Sanchez warned Pentagon superiors about supply problems, "George Bush went out and told the American people our troops were properly equipped."

"Despite the president's arrogant boasting that he has done everything right in Iraq and that he's made no mistakes, the truth is beginning to catch up with him," Kerry said.

Bush and Kerry both buttressed their campaigns with fresh commercials on the issue of the war.

"John Kerry and his liberal allies ... are they a risk we can afford to take?" asks Bush's ad.

Kerry's spot shows images of violence in an attempt to undercut Bush's claims of effective wartime leadership. "In Iraq, American troops are attacked 87 times a day," it says. "At home, the Bush administration has acquired just 530 doses of licensed anthrax vaccine for America's civilian population."

A shortage of flu vaccine also became grist for the campaign during the day.

"The administration was warned about the shortage of flu vaccines three years ago, and they didn't act," Kerry said during a speech that was a broad condemnation of Bush's health care policies. "We'll crack down on the price-gouging that's putting vaccines out of reach for people who need them today."

Vice President Dick Cheney, campaigning in West Virginia, blamed the threat of lawsuits and limited company profits for the shortage.

The Republican also argued that the presidential ticket of Kerry and Edwards - two lawyers - would thwart medical liability reform.

"I'm sorry that this is becoming a political issue. This is a health issue," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control, in an interview on CNN.

British regulators recently shut down shipments from Chiron Corp., cutting the U.S. supply of flu shots almost in half.