WASHINGTON -- As President Bush steps up his re-election bid, key Republican officials and strategists are expressing concern about his campaign, saying the White House took too long to engage in the race and lacks a clear strategy for addressing voters' economic worries.

	ANALYSIS

While most Republicans remain confident that Bush will win a second term, there is a growing sense within the party that the battle with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry is likely to be closer and harder fought that many thought just a few weeks ago.

"People are anxious," said David Carney, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire and White House political director for Bush's father. "There's a lot of fretting going on out there."

Much of the hand-wringing stems from recent polls that showed Bush trailing Kerry nationwide. Most Republicans see that as the inevitable result of steady pounding from Democrats who have been campaigning -- and bashing the president -- for more than a year.

But not everyone blames Bush's problems solely on his political foes. "No jobs are being created. They did not find weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, said Eddie Mahe, a veteran GOP strategist. "That provided the constant stream of attacks a level of credibility and legitimacy they otherwise might not have."

But Ken Mehlman, the manager of Bush's re-election effort, said the presidential campaign is now shifting "from a diatribe to a dialogue."

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"I am confident we have built the organization, husbanded the resources and know what we need to talk about now that we are publicly engaged," Mehlman said. He predicted that come November "the results will be good results."

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio -- whose state is increasingly seen by both camps as one of the keys to the election's outcome -- conceded that "the Bush administration has had a couple of tough months." But he added: "We are at the bottom of the trough. The campaign itself is just starting to get under way."

Still, the nervousness is a notable shift from earlier Republican bravado, as is the criticism of a White House political team that, until recently, has been widely regarded as perhaps the best in the business.

"We've seen a lot of mistakes and, frankly, some degree of incompetence out of an operation that, up to now, was closing ranks and executing very well," said a Republican strategist who sometimes advises the White House. Like some others interviewed, he did want to be identified publicly criticizing the White House.

But even some inside the campaign acknowledge that Bush's re-election team has been less than sure-footed, both in responding to Kerry's daily attacks and the anxiety in states where job losses remain a critical issue.

"I worry about Ohio," said one outside campaign adviser, who also requested anonymity. "We've got a real vulnerability on the jobs issue if we can't get that discussion going in a different direction."

Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, who represents Columbus and its northeastern suburbs, agreed. "The president himself is going to have to take the offensive and be aggressive in talking about what he's done," he said.

Just a few months ago, Bush seemed in a commanding position to win re-election. Saddam Hussein was in custody. Statistics out of Washington suggested an economy primed for strong job growth. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean seemed poised to win the Democratic nomination, setting up a November contest many Republicans relished.

But the post-Saddam euphoria wore off quickly. Job creation has been anemic. And Dean's campaign collapsed virtually overnight, clearing a path for Kerry to emerge as the presumptive Democratic nominee more quickly and in better political shape than many expected.

"That's the thing nobody guessed," said Kenneth M. Duberstein, a White House aide to former President Ronald Reagan. Republicans "expected more civil war."

But many also say the White House compounded its political problems through a series of missteps. Bush's State of the Union address in mid-January, an opportunity to frame the election-year debate, was a disappointment to many Republicans, one of whom dubbed it "a laundry list" with no thematic core.

The president, this GOP strategist added, is "at his strongest when he's focused on three, four things to the exclusion of all others. ... They've gotten away from that. He's all over the map now, sending a lot of confused messages to the voters"

Meantime, the Kerry campaign has gleefully taken credit for throwing the administration on the defensive twice this week alone. On Monday, Kerry lambasted Bush for declining to meet for more than an hour with the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A day later, a White House spokesman said Bush would answer all of the panel's questions.

On Wednesday, the administration postponed appointing a Nebraska manufacturing executive as the country's new manufacturing czar after the Kerry campaign alerted reporters that the nominee had set up a factory in China. Administration officials said the reconsideration of the appointment was not related to the Kerry campaign's move. The executive, Tony Raimundo, yesterday removed himself from consideration for the job.

Some headaches have come from inside the administration.

The White House was embarrassed when Education Secretary Rod Paige called the National Education Association a "terrorist organization." And administration officials cringed after Bush's top economic adviser, Gregory Mankiw, extolled the virtues of shipping jobs overseas.

The Mankiw statement resonated in several Midwestern states that have suffered some of the worst job losses over the past three years -- and promise to be key battlegrounds in the November race. Rep. Joanne Emerson, R-Mo., said the comment made the Bush administration "appear out of touch" -- the same perception that undermined his father's 1992 re-election campaign.