Bush campaign touts job gains

President Bush, on the second day of a five-day campaign blitz through 10 states, touted Friday's government report on job gains as evidence his Republican Party's economic policies are working.

The president said the U.S. Labor Department's report showing that the jobless rate fell to 4.4 percent in October from 4.6 percent the previous month shows his tax cuts are spurring economic growth.

"That is the lowest rate in five and a half years," Bush said to Republican faithful at a rally in Springfield, Missouri, where he was campaigning for Sen. James Talent, a White House ally in a race that polls show is a dead heat.

Bush also defended his policies in Iraq, which polls show is the top concern among voters. He accused Democrats of being weak and lacking a plan for victory. "They will leave before the job is done," Bush said.

White House strategists are trying to energize the Republican base in the final days before the Nov. 7 congressional elections. The president is appearing only in "red states" — those he won in 2004 — and is staying away from states where an appearance might disrupt or hurt his party's candidate.

Democrats need to capture six seats to seize control of the Senate and 15 to take the House.

Bush was campaigning in southwest Missouri and northwest Iowa for candidates who are in close races that may depend on turnout. White House strategists say this is friendly territory and a Bush appearance will boost the Republican vote.

Partisans eagerly stretch across rope lines to grab the president's hands. Bush, without a tie, at times plunges into the crowd to shake hands or hold babies aloft, almost like a replay of his 2004 presidential campaign.

"This is a mobilization effort" to get out the vote, said John Petrocik, professor of political science at the University of Missouri at Columbia. "It looks a lot like what Republicans did in 2002 and 2004 to maximize the turnout of Republicans and Bush supporters."

Talent and Democratic opponent Claire McCaskill were tied at 49 percent apiece in an Oct. 31 CNN poll.

Talent, 50, a former state representative, is seeking a second term in the Senate. McCaskill, 53, has been state auditor since 1999 and lost a race for governor in 2004. Talent has raised $21.5 million compared with McCaskill's $7.3 million.

An unpopular war and Talent's slim, 50 percent victory in a special election in 2002 makes him vulnerable. In addition, state ballot issues concerning the minimum wage and stem cell research may boost the number of voters who would favor McCaskill.