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Friday, Sept. 3, 2004

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  "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 a prime-time address not far from Ground Zero of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"And we will prevail."

"Four more years, four more years," the delegates yelled as Bush strode -- alone -- onto a podium in the middle of a packed convention hall. His introduction was a video that stirred memories of Sept. 11 -- and credited him with "the heart of a president."

Bush's speech marked the beginning of a two-month sprint to Election Day, and Kerry clearly couldn't wait. In a ferocious counterattack after a week of GOP convention-week criticism, he called the wartime commander in chief 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 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 Bush-Cheney campaign readied a new general election advertising campaign to build on elements in his convention speech. In the commercials, Bush vows to "spread ownership and opportunity," "make our economy more job friendly" and help lower health care costs.

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