In Town Hall Setting, Bush and Kerry Spar on Jobs and Iraq

For 90 heated minutes as they paced across a platform in a ''town hall'' forum at Washington University in St. Louis, Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry offered sharply different responses in heated language to virtually every question that came before them: from health care to taxes, from Iran to Iraq, to who should be on the Supreme Court and what kind of limits should be placed on stem cell research. One of the few things they agreed on was that they would not support the reimposition of a military draft.

With rules that permitted them to roam the hall as they answered questions from 140 undecided voters, Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush repeatedly bounded out of their chairs, sometimes talking over the host, Charles Gibson of ABC News, as they struggled to get the upper hand in a session that at times verged on a free-form debate. The audience remained hushed at the show before it.

Again and again, Mr. Bush sought to portray his opponent as an out-of-step liberal who would raise taxes on the middle class in order to pay for what he asserted was $2.2 trillion in big government programs -- a figure Mr. Kerry disputed -- and whose record of inconsistent statements would make him an inviting target for the nation's enemies.

Throughout the night, Mr. Bush seemed eager to dispel the perception from last week that he was unengaged -- particularly when Mr. Kerry assailed his decision to take the nation to war in Iraq. At one point Mr. Bush practically talked over Mr. Gibson after Mr. Kerry asserted that the president had gone to war without the support of much of the world.

''I've got to answer this,'' Mr. Bush said, adding, ''You tell Tony Blair we're going alone.''

''We've got 30 countries there,'' he said. ''It denigrates an alliance to say we're going alone, to discount their sacrifices. ''

Mr. Kerry responded tartly: ''Mr. President, countries are leaving the coalition, not joining. Eight countries have left it.''

The two men repeatedly clashed over health care, a central issue for Mr. Kerry, who has proposed a major expansion of health coverage through subsidies to employers and enrolling more children and low-income adults in the public programs. Mr. Bush asserted that the program would inevitably lead to higher taxes, asking, scornfully: ''He says he's going to have a novel health care plan. You know what it is? The federal government's going to run it. It is the largest increase in federal government health care ever.''

Mr. Kerry, whose plan does not involve a federal takeover of health care, replied: ''Labels don't mean anything. What means something is, do you have a plan?''

They also debated, in response to a question, over what kind of justices they would appoint to the Supreme Court, where two or more vacancies are considered likely in the next term. Mr. Bush initially shot back, ''I'm not telling,'' then said his justices would be those who would ''not allow their personal opinion to get in the way of the law'' and ''strictly interpret the constitution of the United States.''

The men also clashed over legislation that would permit the importation of lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada. Mr. Bush said his main concern was ensuring the safety of those drugs and said, ''Now, it may very well be here in December you hear me say I think there's a safe way to do it.''

Mr. Kerry reminded the audience that Mr. Bush had made a similar promise when he was running four years ago, and he proceeded to assail Mr. Bush for the Medicare drug benefit passed by Congress last year.

''He put $139 billion of windfall profit into the pockets of the drug companies right out of your pockets,'' he said. ''That's the difference between us. The president sides with the power companies, the oil companies, the drug companies; and I'm fighting to let you get those drugs from Canada and I'm fighting to let Medicare survive. I'm fighting for the middle class. That is the difference.''

Mr. Bush was asked to name three mistakes that he had made, and how he had addressed them. Mr. Bush, who had been unable to name a single mistake when asked a similar question at a news conference in March, said he had made some bad appointments, but that he did not want to name them because he did not want to embarrass anyone.

But, he said, on two of the dominant elements of his record -- tax cuts and Iraq -- he had no regrets.

* Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting from St. Louis for this article.

•	In Town Hall Setting, Bush and Kerry Spar on Jobs and Iraq New York Times, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004 Byline: Robin Toner and Adam Nagourney