Bush sets campaign themes

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, wrapping the themes of his re-election campaign in his State of the Union address, asserted Tuesday night America is strengthening its economy and successfully combatting terrorism. \n"We have not come all this way -- through tragedy and trial and war -- only to falter, and leave our work unfinished," he said.\nIn a stay-the-course appeal to a joint session of Congress, Bush said the nation faced important challenges and choices.\nHe said it was tempting, but wrong, to think the danger of terrorist attacks had passed, even though it has been more than two years since America was attacked.\n"We have come through recession and terrorist attacks and corporate scandals and the uncertainties of war," the president told lawmakers at the opening of a campaign year. "And because you acted to stimulate our economy with tax relief, this economy is strong, and growing stronger."\nDemocrats quickly took issue, noting that 2.3 million jobs have been lost under Bush, deficits are soaring and casualties are climbing in Iraq.\nBush's speech was designed to cast him as the commander-in-chief, grappling with the nation's problems and above politics while Democratic rivals for his office race around the campaign trail trading charges.\nWith a $500 billion budget deficit limiting his options, Bush offered a handful of initiatives -- a pilot plan to encourage student drug testing in public schools and a job training and placement program for released prisoners.\nTouching on a politically sensitive issue, Bush said he would support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages if the courts struck down a law saying marriage should be between man and woman.\nThe president defended his decisions to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Of the top 55 officials of Saddam Hussein's regime, 45 have been captured or killed, Bush said.\n"We are dealing with these thugs in Iraq just as surely as we dealt with Saddam Hussein's evil regime," Bush said.