Demos voice eagerness to battle Bush

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — In their final debate before the New Hampshire primary, the Democratic presidential candidates declared on Thursday that they could withstand election-year attacks from President Bush on social values and tax cuts, as they sought to allay concerns among Democrats about the party's hopes of winning back the White House this fall.

Looking weary and subdued after three weeks of nonstop campaigning, the seven Democrats insisted in a two-hour televised debate that they could easily defend themselves against the kind of attacks on social, military and economic issues that Republicans have used effectively against Democrats in presidential elections for 20 years.

"That's a fight I look forward to," Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said when asked if he feared that the White House would label him a

tax-and-spend Democrat because he and his rivals want to repeal at least some of Bush's tax cuts.

"That's a fight we will win," he said.

Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, said he had no fear of challenging Bush on social issues. Dean noted his own opposition to some forms of gun control and his advocacy of balanced budgets as governor.

"I'd challenge this president on values any day," Dean said.

And Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina reminded the audience that he had beaten as tough a Republican opponent as the one in this White House.

"Remember, I didn't get to the Senate by accident," Edwards said. "I actually defeated an incumbent Republican senator who was part of the Jesse Helms political machine in North Carolina."

The debate was relentlessly civil, a striking development given the fact that the candidates are five days away from the most competitive Democratic primary here since 1992. But the high stakes reinforced the candidates' efforts to be cautious.

Again and again they bypassed opportunities to attack one another, leading one moderator to brand the session a "happy debate." And there were far fewer of the so-called rapid-response e-mail messages and leaflets that the campaigns have routinely fired off during debates to try to discredit opponents.

The tone at the debate, held on the grounds of St. Anselm College outside Manchester, was testimony to the extent to which Edwards' showing in Iowa, after running a campaign in which he presented himself as the most positive candidate, had set parameters for the intense contest in New Hampshire.