President George W. Bush says the November 7 congressional elections will turn on two issues: "Who best to protect the American people, and who best to keep taxes low."

Perhaps unhappily for Bush, however, polls suggest voters don't believe it's either George Bush or his party right now.

At a news conference that began with a lengthy statement on Iraq, Bush sought last week to turn attention to other issues, principally the economy, when asked about the war's elections impact.

So did other Republicans.

"The challenge is to get Americans to focus on pocketbook issues, and not on the Iraq and terror issue," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who is considering a 2008 presidential run, said in an interview with the Concord Monitor newspaper in New Hampshire.

That was something of a political turnabout. Traditionally, national security has been the Republicans' strongest card in elections, and Democrats have sought to emphasise economic issues.

Polls show now that the Republicans have lost their edge over Iraq.

Now, it is Democrats who are spotlighting the war in speeches and television ads and Republicans who want to talk instead about the economy.

The war has changed the political landscape with just under two weeks to go to elections that will determine who controls Congress.

Polls suggest a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives is a distinct possibility, with takeover of the Senate possible but less likely.

Republicans and Democrats alike are pressing the administration for radical changes in approach to Iraq as sectarian violence rises and confidence wanes in the Iraqi government's ability to deal with it.

"I think what the Republicans are doing is trying to turn attention from an area in which they have an extraordinary amount of trouble to an area where they just have a great deal of trouble," said pollster Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.

With Republicans increasingly breaking with Bush on Iraq, over the past few days Bush has dropped his "stay the course" rhetoric to emphasise flexibility, suggesting that tactics keep changing, even if not the overall goal of keeping US forces there until "the job is done."

Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster and strategist, said Bush provided some political cover to Republican candidates who want to advocate change in Iraq while reminding them that it's beneficial to talk up the economy.

The economy has been healthy lately — gas prices are down, unemployment is at its lowest level in more than five years, inflation remains relatively tame and the stock market is rising — and there is no reason why Republicans should not emphasise this, Goeas said.

"Most of the Senate races that have moved in recent weeks have moved on the tax issue. Our strategy on improving and strengthening the economy has been the Bush tax cuts. That was our economic plan, and it worked," Goeas said.

That may be so.

"But if people want to think about Iraq, there's nothing the president or Bill Frist can do to make them think about the economy," said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University.

Furthermore, said Baker, "It's been long noted that presidents' parties suffer when the economy is bad, but they get no credit when the economy is good." — Associated Press