Kerry starts Florida visit by slamming Bush on TV

	[AP photo] Appearing on Meet the Press at the NBC studio in Miramar, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry characterized the Bush administration's foreign policy as "arrogant." Kerry revving up his money machine

MIAMI - John Kerry began his third trip to Florida in seven weeks on Sunday with an appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press, in which he criticized President Bush for "stunningly ineffective" foreign policy.

Kerry plans to campaign today in Palm Beach County. After a quick side trip for fundraising in Atlanta, he will hold a town hall-style meeting and fundraiser Tuesday morning in Tampa.

Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert joined Kerry on Sunday morning in Miami, pressing him on his proposals for handling Iraq.

During the hourlong interview, Kerry suggested the administration's "arrogant" foreign policy has limited international involvement in Iraq.

"It may well be that we need a new president, a breath of fresh air, to re-establish credibility with the rest of the world so that we can have a believable administration as to how we proceed," he said on Meet the Press.

The Bush campaign is running ads questioning Kerry's consistency because the Massachusetts senator voted to authorize force in Iraq, but later voted against $87-billion in additional funding for the war.

Kerry supported rolling back tax cuts to pay for the extra $87-billion and noted that Bush himself threatened to veto the measure if it included money to pay for health care for reservists and required Iraq to pay back some of the reconstruction money. Asked whether he would support another spending bill for Iraq, Kerry was noncommital.

That drew a swipe from Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Mark Racicot: "Instead of sending a message to the troops that we are behind them, when asked about his new support in the future, he said, "It depends upon the situation.' This conditional support for the troops that John Kerry voted to send to Iraq in the first place demonstrates a disturbing lack of judgment."

During the interview, Kerry did side with Bush in standing behind Israel after it assassinated the leader of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas. He also "completely" agreed with White House support of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to keep lands seized in the 1967 Middle East War.

Kerry also said he regretted his choice of words in a 1971 Meet the Press appearance, in which he called U.S. leaders "war criminals" for their prosecution of the Vietnam War and said he had committed "the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers" as a naval officer in Vietnam. Kerry called the statement "honest, but it was in anger. It was a little bit excessive."

Conservatives have hammered Kerry for his participation in the antiwar movement in the 1970s. Still, Kerry appeared startled Sunday when host Tim Russert aired the tape of his 1971 appearance.

Kerry said he regretted that some soldiers were angry with him over those comments, but added, "I'm not going to walk away from that. But I wish I had found a way to say it in a less abrasive way."

In a campaign stop at the University of Miami, Kerry urged students to get engaged with politics and promised to help ease rising tuition costs.

"The president who went to the same privileged university I did evidently doesn't think every American ought to have the same chance," said the Yale graduate, pointing to cuts in college grants and double-digit tuition increases across the country. "I believe no American should downsize their dreams."

Among his proposals: a tax credit for the first $4,000 paid annually in tuition; and a "national service" program letting young people earn the equivalent of four years' in-state college tuition in exchange for two years of community work, such as working with at-risk students. He has acknowledged, though, the latter plan may have to be scaled back depending on the deficit.

"I want you to join a new era of service to our nation," the four-term Massachusetts senator told a vast crowd at the University of Miami.

"There must be 3,000 people out there - and that is not a Katherine Harris count," he said at one point, referring to Florida's secretary of state during the recount of 2000.

On Meet the Press, Kerry said he was open to reviewing policies on Cuba, including easing travel restrictions. But he later downplayed the potential of lifting the embargo.

"Unless you're going to get a very dramatic change," he told a Miami TV station, "I have no intention of talking about the embargo."

- Information from the Washington Post and Associated Press was used in this report.

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