President George W. Bush criticized Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards in his home state by questioning whether Edwards had sufficient experience to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

A day after Edwards was picked by Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry as his running mate, Bush raised the experience issue when asked how Edwards stacked up against his own vice president, Dick Cheney.

“Dick Cheney can be president,” Bush said briskly. Bush was publicly voicing what Republican strategists have said should be an issue in the campaign, whether Edwards has the experience to step into the country’s highest office if necessary. Cheney, 63, is a seasoned Washington insider with an impressive resume as a former defense secretary and member of Congress, while Edwards, 51, is a freshman senator from North Carolina. They are to debate October 5 in Cleveland.

Kerry, with Edwards in Dayton, Ohio, responded to Bush by trying to feed the impression held by some Democrats that Cheney was the power behind the throne. “He was right that Dick Cheney was ready to take over on day one – and he did and he has been ever since,” Kerry said, while insisting Edwards has more experience and better judgment than Bush.

The Republican president is bracing for a Kerry bounce in the polls following his choice of Edwards and the Democratic nominating convention at the end of this month. But Bush made clear he intended to win North Carolina despite Edwards’ presence on the ticket and do well again in the South, which provided a solid front for him in his 2000 campaign against Al Gore.

He said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, did not share the same values as Southerners. “I’m going to carry the South because the people understand that we share values,” Bush said. “I’ll do well in the South this time, because the senator from Massachusetts doesn’t share their values, and that’s the difference in the campaign.”The Kerry campaign said North Carolina had become a battleground state for Bush instead of an easy victory because of job losses in the textile industry.

Bush was on a day trip to North Carolina and a key battleground state, Michigan, to raise money for the Republican Party and to criticize Senate Democrats for blocking some of his nominees to become federal judges.

At the Raleigh home of Peggy and Cliff Benson, Bush headlined a private event for 520 people that raised $2.35 million for the party. Later in the day in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in the Detroit suburbs, he attended an event that raised $2.5 million for the party.

Bush met with three of his blocked judicial nominees at the Raleigh-Durham airport and met six more in Michigan.

Democrats, although in the Senate minority, have engaged in blocking tactics to prevent up-or-down votes on a number of Bush’s nominees, whom they consider too conservative. The deadlock was unlikely to be broken during an election year, but Republicans consider the issue a good one to talk about to the conservative base. “A minority of senators are blocking my nominees and creating a judicial emergency,” Bush said. “Their nominations are being held up. It’s not right and it’s not fair. ... These judges deserve better treatment.”

Edwards’ spokesman, Michael Briggs, said the senator would not back down on the nominees. “We’ve tried to work with the White House to try to find some mainstream candidates. Unfortunately that process has not been successful,” Briggs said.

<B>Steve Holland</B>