A STRING of slips by a once sure-footed White House has dragged President Bush farther behind his Democratic rivals.

Mr Bush’s aides have struggled to limit the damage after the President disowned an optimistic prediction of 2.6million new jobs in the coming year that was made in his name less than a fortnight ago.

Officials were also forced on the defensive when the head of Mr Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) said that the export of American jobs, one of the key election issues, brought economic benefits to the country.

Mr Bush has also been accused by 60 leading scientists, including a dozen Nobel laureates, of twisting and ignoring scientific evidence to suit his agenda.

The impression of a defensive, edgy White House has coincided with Mr Bush’s worst run in the polls. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential front-runner, would beat Mr Bush by 12 points, 55 per cent to 43 per cent, in a hypothetical election fought today, according to Gallup.

Mr Bush’s re-election team said that it was unconcerned by the findings. The poll was taken at a time when the Democratic presidential race has hogged the headlines.

Mr Bush has also yet to dip into his $100million-plus war chest, and is planning an advertising blitz once his opponent has been chosen.

But some Republicans are critical of the White House’s failure to dominate the election-year domestic agenda.

The jobs prediction was made in the annual Economic Report of the President, which is sent to Congress and is signed by Mr Bush.

To achieve 2.6 million new jobs would require an average of 226,000 new jobs a month for the rest of the year. Some 366,000 jobs have been created in the past five months.

The figure of 2.6 million is politically loaded, as it would replace the 2.3 million jobs lost since Mr Bush entered the White House. Mr Bush is on course to become the first president since Herbert Hoover to oversee a net loss of jobs during a four-year term.

Mr Bush was also thrown on the defensive after Gregory Mankiw, head of the CEA, hailed the economic benefits of US firms shipping their jobs overseas. Both blunders have given Democrats open goals. A letter from Democratic Senators to Mr Bush yesterday said: “We urge you to provide meaningful jobs predictions that all Americans, including your own Cabinet, would find credible.”

Mr Bush’s poll figures remain steady in some areas. His approval rating is 51 per cent, comparatively healthy for a president seeking re-election.

But in other areas the trend is down. Some 55 per cent consider him honest and trustworthy compared with 70 per cent in mid-January.

Mr Kerry built on his momentum yesterday, winning the endorsement of the American trade unions’ powerful national umbrella body, the AFL-CIO.

Times Recommends

• 8,000 miles from Washington - Obama's grandmother
• Oliver Stone's W
• Zimbabwe chaos wipes out education