Kerry launches attack on Bush

WAUSAU, Wis. - A confident John Kerry launched a full-throttle attack on President Bush's economic policies, mostly ignoring his Democratic rivals on the eve of the Wisconsin primary. Howard Dean's campaign shed another top manager and John Edwards vowed to press on no matter how he fares Tuesday.

Kerry, who has a commanding lead in the race to oppose Bush this fall, chided the president for taking time out Sunday to attend the Daytona 500, saying the country was bleeding jobs while he posed for a "photo opportunity." Bush had donned a racing jacket to officially open NASCAR's most prestigious event in front of some 180,000 fans.

"We don't need a president who just says, 'Gentlemen start your engines,"' Kerry said. "We need a president who says, 'America, let's start our economy and put people back to work."'

His broadside against Bush came as the president argued anew against any rollback in the tax cuts that Congress has passed at his behest, and on a day in which Dean divulged the departure of national campaign chairman Steve Grossman.

For his part Edwards declared "there are differences" with his Democratic rivals and said he was confident his campaign was gaining momentum. He said he would remain in the race well into March and the Super Tuesday round of electoral faceoffs.

Dean told reporters: "Let me remind you all that I have more delegates than everybody else in this race except John Kerry. So I think the campaign obituaries that some of you are writing are a little bit misplaced."

Kerry's latest criticism of Bush came during a town hall meeting at Northcentral Technical College, where he toured the school's machine tool lab and posed for press pictures with students who engraved an 40-pound aluminum plaque with "Wisconsin Backs Kerry in 2004."