GOP tries to turn voters' focus to U.S. economy
Party seeks to use unemployment to offset Iraq news

(11-04) 04:00 PST Washington -- Republicans seized on a drop in the unemployment rate to assert Friday that tax cuts were invigorating the economy, highlighting just four days before the election an issue that party strategists are counting on to offset bad news about the war in Iraq.

President Bush mocked Democrats for predicting that the administration's tax-and-spend policies would wreck the economy, hours after the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate had fallen to 4.4 percent in October -- down from 4.6 percent in September and the lowest rate since May 2001, when it was 4.3 percent.

"If the Democrats' election predictions are as good as their economic predictions, we're going to have a good day on November the 7th," Bush said, drawing a long cheer from a crowd in Joplin, Mo., where he campaigned for Sen. Jim Talent, who is in a close race.

As Bush was attempting to shift the election debate to the positive domestic news, however, Vice President Dick Cheney was addressing head-on what polls showed was the Republicans' greatest political liability: the administration's determination to follow through on the war regardless of public opinion or election outcomes.

"Full speed ahead," Cheney said in an interview with ABC News that was taped for broadcast Sunday.

"It may not be popular with the public," he continued. "It doesn't matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think is right. And that's exactly what we're doing. We're not running for office."

Most Republicans on the campaign trail did their best to focus on the day's economic news.

"This is what we have been campaigning on," said Peter Roskam, a Republican state senator in a close race for a Republican-held House seat in the Chicago suburbs. "Democrats want to nationalize elections and make it all about international affairs and whatnot, but when it comes down to making the tax cuts permanent, this is a district that gets it."

All year, Republicans have been frustrated by their inability to get more credit for what the statistics suggest is a healthier economy, especially when gasoline prices have come down from their peaks.

"The media seems focused on Iraq, Iraq, Iraq," said Roskam's spokesman, Jason Roe. Roskam is running against Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and former Army helicopter pilot, who lost both legs in Iraq.

On Friday, the National Republican Congressional Committee placed $1.1 million in television advertisements against Duckworth, beginning a weekend barrage. The advertising purchase was the largest that the House campaign committee made Friday, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Republicans said they relished the chance to get back to debating tax cuts and the economy. Brian Nick, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said, "For us to be successful on Tuesday, there obviously needs to be other issues than Democrats hitting us with 'staying the course.' "

Democrats have countered by saying that although unemployment has declined, it remains slightly higher than it was when Bush took office. They say many families are working harder to keep up their quality of life, even as the wealthy benefit from the administration's tax policies. And they point to the budget deficit as evidence that the White House's approach is unsustainable.