Kerry, Bush go full speed into final lap
Their campaign blitzes go into battleground states
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 Gallup's Frank Newport on results of a CNN/USA Today/Gallup snap poll.
 CNN's Carlos Watson grades the candidates' performances.
 Debate between Bush and Kerry (Part 1)
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TEMPE, Arizona (CNN) -- President Bush and Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry kicked off multistate campaign blitzes Thursday after hammering each other on domestic issues in their third presidential debate.
National surveys show the candidates running neck-and-neck, intensifying the importance of the campaign's home stretch.
Bush and Kerry clashed Wednesday night on issues ranging from the economy to jobs, taxes and same-sex marriage.
Both men campaigned Thursday in Nevada, with Kerry speaking in Las Vegas at an American Association of Retired Persons event and Bush attending a rally with GOP governors in Las Vegas and another rally in Reno.
Bush then traveled to Oregon, while Kerry flew to Iowa for a evening rally with running mate Sen. John Edwards.
Bush was asked to speak to the AARP but had three prior engagements, according to The Associated Press.
First lady Laura Bush spoke to the group instead.
Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney campaigned in Florida and Indiana.
Much of the attention Thursday focused on Cheney and wife Lynne, who said they were angered by Kerry's reference to their lesbian daughter during Wednesday night's debate.
Lynne Cheney accused Kerry of a "cheap and tawdry political trick." (Full story)
Cordial yet spirited debate
Like the previous two presidential debates, the tone Wednesday was cordial yet spirited, as Bush accused Kerry of doing little but listing complaints and Kerry accused the president of failing to act on matters such as health care and jobs. (Special Report: America Votes 2004, the debates)
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released shortly after the debate indicated that more who watched it gave Kerry the edge. Among the poll's 511 respondents, 53 percent said Kerry did better, and 39 percent said Bush did. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.
The poll represents the views of those who watched the face-off only, not all Americans. Also, opinions of the debate may change within the coming days. The respondents were 36 percent Republicans, 36 percent Democrats and 28 percent independents -- the highest percentage of Democrats of any of the post-debate polls. (CNN Poll: Early survey gives Kerry the edge)
In an interview with CNN, senior Bush adviser Karl Rove dismissed the poll as "an unreliable barometer."
"I would remind you that in 1984, after the Mondale -- second Mondale-Reagan debate -- where Reagan clearly won, the instant polls showed that Mondale was the winner," Rove said.
Rove said Bush delivered "a commanding performance."
"From the first question to the last, the president was in charge of the debate, and he showed his vision and values, and also was able to draw in an appropriate way the distinction between Senator Kerry's rhetoric and Senator Kerry's record," he said. (CNN Access: Karl Rove)
Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said it was a "very bad night for President Bush."
"I think the president had a pretty rough time tonight because he can't acknowledge that any of the problems that the country has, from immigration to equal pay ... he was not able to ... acknowledge the problem, admit a mistake, or say where he wants to lead the country," Cahill said.
Senior Kerry adviser Bob Shrum told CNN that Bush was 0 for 3 in the debates. (CNN Access: Bob Shrum)
Bush's stance
For Bush, the debate at Arizona State University was an opportunity to tout his first-term achievements on taxes, education and prescription drug coverage for seniors, as well as outlining proposals for a second term, including private Social Security accounts for younger workers, health savings accounts and medical malpractice reform. (Audio Slide Show: The third debate)
But he also passed up few chances to paint Kerry as a free-spending, high-taxing liberal who wanted to expand the role of government in the lives of individual Americans, as when Kerry criticized him for not spending enough money on education.
"Only a liberal senator from Massachusetts would say that a 49 percent increase in funding is not enough," said Bush, who described Kerry as being so far "on the far left bank" of American politics that Sen. Ted Kennedy, his Massachusetts seatmate, was more conservative. (Transcript: Bush, Kerry debate domestic policies)
Kerry's position
For Kerry, it was a chance to criticize the president over the loss of jobs during his term, rising deficits and tax cuts that Kerry charges were too generous to the rich, as well as outlining his plans for reforming a health care system that's "not working for the American family." (Key points)
"He's the only president in 72 years to have lost jobs -- 1.6 million jobs lost. He's the only president to have incomes of families go down," Kerry said. "The only president to see exports go down; the only president to see the lowest level of business investment in our country as it is today.
"I'm going to reverse that. I'm going to change that. We're going to restore the fiscal discipline we had in the 1990s."
After Kerry said he had a plan to expand health care, Bush said, "I want to remind people listening tonight that a plan is not a litany of complaints, and a plan is not to lay out programs that you can't pay for."
Kerry disputed that characterization.
"Every plan that I have laid out -- my health care plan, my plan for education, my plan for kids to be able to get better college loans -- I've shown exactly how I'm going to pay for those," Kerry said.
The senator also tried to rebuff Bush's challenge on the issue of fiscal responsibility with a zinger of his own.
"Being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order in this country," Kerry said, alluding simultaneously to the Bush administration's budget deficits and the Mob boss on the HBO series "The Sopranos."
Points of contention
The two men also tussled over Kerry's health care plan. The senator has proposed allowing Americans without health coverage to enroll in the same system used by senators and congressmen, as well as moving Medicaid coverage for children from the states to the federal government, allowing people to buy into Medicare at age 55 and giving small business a tax credit to provide employees with health care coverage.
Bush pounced on the cost, noting that the government spends $7,700 per family to cover senators and congressmen.
"If every family in America signed up, as the senator suggested, it would cost us $5 trillion over 10 years," Bush said. "It's an empty promise."
However, Kerry insisted that his plan would reduce health care costs through better preventative treatment and would retain competition because the congressional plan still offers a choice of private insurers.
"It gives you the choice. I don't force you to do anything. It's not a government plan. The government doesn't require you to do anything. You choose your doctor. You choose your plan," he said.
Kerry and Bush also disagreed on the president's proposal to allow younger workers to invest some of their Social Security taxes in private investment accounts that they would control, which Kerry called an "invitation to disaster" that would leave a $2 trillion hole in Social Security and force massive benefit cuts.
Bush pledged that there would be no cuts in benefits for seniors today, "but for our children and our grandchildren, we need to have a different strategy."
The president said any effort to change Social Security would "have to consider the costs," without outlining how he would pay for it. However, Bush also said that "the cost of doing nothing, the cost of saying the current system is OK, far exceeds the costs of trying to make sure we save the system for our children."
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
