Bush lead in polls raises Kerry's debate stakes
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Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry trailed behind US President George W. Bush in the latest polls, raising the stakes for their first debate two days before that face-to-face confrontation.
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President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry hit the books this week for the first of three crucial debates that could decide the most heated White House race in recent history.
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George W. Bush took a double-digit lead in what had been a neck-and-neck presidential election contest, prompting Democratic challenger John Kerry to refocus his campaign on bread-and-butter economic issues, where the Republican incumbent president is considered vulnerable.
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The latest opinion polls in the United States show that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry faces a tough battle in trying to take the White House from its current occupant, President George Bush.
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DEMOCRAT challenger John Kerry, buoyed by a strong performance in his first debate with George W. Bush, has won a surge of support that puts him slightly ahead in the race to the White House, according to the latest Newsweek poll.
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President George W. Bush leads Democratic challenger John Kerry by 5 percentage points, according to a national poll conducted for ABC News and the Washington Post.
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President Bush opened a four-point  lead on Democratic Sen. John Kerry the day after the final  debate between the White House rivals, according to a  Reuters/Zogby poll released on Friday.
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ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI - Sen. John Kerry edged slightly ahead of President George Bush in Friday&#39;s presidential debate, polls suggested, but analysts dismissed the lead as too small to matter.
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President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry meet on Wednesday in a final debate that could give one of the White House rivals a critical boost heading into the last three weeks of the race.
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Because John Kerry is the challenger and lags President Bush in most national polls, he seems to have the most to gain from a strong performance in the upcoming fall debates.
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President Bush has gained ground over Democratic nominee John Kerry in Florida, a key battleground state, extending his lead to nine points in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of likely voters released on Wednesday.
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President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry dig in for the crucial one-on-one televised debate, with the Democratic challenger aiming to turn the tables on Bush's lead in recent in opinion polls.
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Because Sen. John Kerry is the challenger and lags President Bush in most national polls, he seems to have the most to gain from a strong performance in the upcoming fall debates. Some Democrats see the face-offs as the last chance for a Kerry breakout. But presidential debates present pitfalls as well as opportunities.
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The race is crystallizing around sharp contrasts as post debate polls show a boost for Kerry.
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President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry scouted votes in key battleground states but were already looking ahead to their crucial televised debates starting in a week.
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The US presidential candidates were set to go head to head in a bruising, high-stakes televised debate, with Republican incumbent George W. Bush aiming to lock in his lead in the race and Democratic challenger John Kerry banking on a comeback.
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President Bush is now in a statistical dead heat with Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry for the Nov. 2 election, in a tightening of the race after the first debate last week, a poll on Monday showed.