With a friendly crowd in Canonsburg lobbing softball questions yesterday, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry could have ignored a pocket of hecklers that tried to disrupt his campaign.

Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., speaks to supporters yesterday in Canonsburg. Click photo for larger image. More on Campaign 2004: Bush, Kerry spar over Iraq and jobs Bush in Johnstown for Thursday rally

Instead, Kerry pulled the detractors into his Labor Day speech, part of the "front-porch discussions" he's been holding across the country. He told them their shouts and taunts couldn't cover up facts -- namely, that America has had a net loss of 1.6 million jobs under President Bush.

Gasoline prices are up 31 percent since Bush took office, and college tuition has grown more expensive by the year, he said.

At the same time, he said, wages are down by $1,500 for "the average family."

One heckler then shouted, "Yeah, Kerry, you're really average."

Kerry pounced on the comment, replying: "No, I'm privileged, and my tax burden went down. I don't think that's right."

Kerry said Bush, also a man of money and privilege, has worked hard to lessen tax payments for the wealthiest Americans. Otherwise, Kerry said, Bush has presided over an economy that is in disarray.

Income for all Americans fell 9.2 percent in 2001 and 2002, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

In addition, Bush has rung up record budget deficits, and he will be the first president since Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression to have lost more jobs than he created, Kerry said.

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette From left, Karen Fortney, Beth Soucie and Traci Fortney hold up signs supporting President George Bush during a visit by Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry to Canonsburg yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

"Franklin Roosevelt, Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon all created jobs during their presidencies, even though they had wars to contend with," Kerry said.

The jobs developed under Bush's administration are nothing to shout about, Kerry went on.

He seized on a just-released Bureau of Labor Statistics report that said new jobs in growing industries pay $8,848 a year less than jobs that were lost, either because of shrinking industries or exportation of work to foreign soil.

"If you think that's moving in the right direction, go vote for the other guy," Kerry said to the hecklers.

He added that those who find failure in Bush's resume should vote Democratic in November.

Kerry said his plans for invigorating the economy include spending controls to balance the budget, tax credits for creation of manufacturing jobs and a tuition tax credit to help more people send their children to college.

Kerry's Canonsburg appearance, at the home of Dale and Jody Rhome, was intended to answer questions from average people.

He received few questions from the 95 people packed into the front yard. Most onlookers simply praised Kerry or lamented the country's direction under Bush.

Kerry also said Bush had lost most of the momentum in America's fight against crime.

He said that, as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, he supported funding in 1994 to put an additional 100,000 police officers on the streets.

But Bush, Kerry said, preferred tax cuts for wealthy people to sustained funding for police operations that made America safer.

Kerry said the Bush administration allowed pharmaceutical companies to improperly obtain new patents on old prescription drugs. Kerry said this tactic prevents certain medications from being sold as generic drugs, keeping prices higher than they should be.

Patricia Romano of Canonsburg told Kerry that she has had 11 throat surgeries and must pay so much for prescription drugs that she had to get a part-time job at age 70.

Hecklers drowned out Romano at one point. That prompted Kerry to say, "While the Bush people were rudely shouting, we had a 70-year-old woman trying to speak" about runaway costs of prescription drugs.

Kerry pledged to have the Justice Department enforce existing patent laws to prevent drug companies from unfairly capitalizing on sick people.

When asked about his timetable for ending U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Kerry said he believes that he can do it in his first term.

Kerry departed Canonsburg to cheers after an hour of talk. Not everybody in town, though, was converted.

Beth Soucie, who stood in a yard filled with Bush signs, said she will stick with the Republican incumbent.

Soucie said she could not support Kerry because he voted against funding that would have outfitted U.S. soldiers in Iraq with body armor. One of those who lacked the equipment, she said, was her son, former Army Sgt. Jared Soucie, who was a military policeman.

Bush's campaign has used the body armor issue in television ads, claiming that Kerry is "wrong on defense."

Jonathan Soltz, coordinator of Pennsylvania Veterans for Kerry, said the senator wanted to pay for soldiers' body armor by rolling back some of Bush's tax cuts. But Bush would not yield on that point, Soltz said.

Kerry's campaign also said Bush, as commander in chief, was at fault for sending U.S. soldiers to Iraq while knowing that the military did not have enough body armor to equip all of its troops.