Bush takes his case for war to the heartlands

President Bush carried his battle against Saddam Hussein into the domestic political arena yesterday, telling rallies in the heartland states of Kentucky and Indiana that history had "called us into action" to topple the Iraqi dictator.

His trip began a domestic process of convincing public opinion – a similar exercise is taking place on the international front – starting with Tony Blair's visit to Camp David tomorrow and continuing by phone as Mr Bush discusses the crisis with the leaders of Russia, France, China and Canada.

"I look forward to a dialogue. I'm a patient man. I've got tools, we've got tools at our disposal," he said in a speech in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was raising funds for a Republican running for Congress.

He stressed that he would remind the international community "history has called us into action". The world could not permit "the world's worst leaders to blackmail, threaten and hold freedom-loving nations hostage with the world's worst weapons".

Inexorably, Iraq is starting to dominate the agenda for November's mid-term elections, when control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives hangs on a knife-edge. Both main parties are uncertain of how the debate will play out. Mr Bush's public forays this week have succeeded in wresting back some of the initiative that had been slipping away because many former Republican foreign policy chiefs had spoken out against a go-it-alone US offensive to topple President Saddam.

Mr Bush's next crucial building block will be his address to the UN General Assembly next Thursday, in an atmosphere that will be particularly sombre after the commemoration 24 hours earlier of the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America.

What Mr Bush says from the podium will feed directly into the domestic debate – above all, the extent to which he binds future American actions into a policy that has broad international backing in the Security Council and beyond. Not only does "the road to Baghdad pass through New York," as one diplomat says, it passes through Capitol Hill.

If this were a normal year, the Democrats, with a two-seat majority in the Senate and needing to gain just six seats to recapture the House of Representatives, would expect domestic issues such as rising unemployment, corporate scandals and healthcare costs to play into their hands. But now they must include Iraq in their calculations.

As the likelihood of war has grown – and with it the chance of American military casualties – enthusiasm for war has started to ebb. But although Mr Bush's approval ratings have been sliding into the low 60s, and 58 per cent of Americans, according to a CNN poll yesterday, believe Mr Bush has not yet made the case for a pre-emptive attack on Iraq, public opinion invariably rallies around a President once a war is under way, at least in its initial stages. Thus Democrats have to couch their criticism of Mr Bush's strategy with care.

Though few believe the White House is contemplating the "October Surprise" of immediate military action, Democrat strategists suspect Mr Bush's tough stance on Iraq, deflecting attention from the stalled campaign against al-Qa'ida, is motivated at least in part by politics.

What now seems certain is that the White House will present its dossier on President Saddam's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons build-up – evidence that will play a crucial part in solidifying support.

Thus armed, Mr Bush is expected to seek some form of congressional resolution on Iraq before the mid-October recess ahead of elections. The vote will mean that the views of every individual member of Congress seeking re-election will be on the record as they fight to hold their seats.

But some Democrats are trying for a delay. "It's more important to do it right than to do it quickly," Tom Daschle, the Senate majority leader, said. A vote before the pre-election adjournment was "a possibility, not a probability", he added.