Bush called a national sales tax "an interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously" when he was asked about it during a campaign forum in Florida last month. After criticism from Kerry, Bush aides said that was not what he planned.
"This is politics," Bush said on CNN's "Larry King Live." "People put words in your mouth."
The administration official said Bush would instruct the panel that proposals should be revenue-neutral -- that they would bring in the same amount of money as the current system.
At the Labor Day milestone and with 58 days left in the campaign, Bush officials savored a pair of newsmagazine polls showing a double-digit lead for the president. Matthew Dowd, the Bush-Cheney campaign's chief strategist, said on "Fox News Sunday" that there has "never been a challenger that has come back after being down double digits after the convention, after their incumbent's convention."
"I do think there's been a fundamental shift," Dowd said. "It's going to be hard. If they're going to have to defy history in order to win, is it possible? Yes. But I think it's much more difficult now."
Tad Devine, a senior adviser for Kerry-Edwards, acknowledged on the same broadcast that the senator's message could not get through the way the campaign wanted it to in August, because of the attention to the ads by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who questioned Kerry's military heroism. But he said Kerry is "going to win the election because he's right on the issues, and he has a very powerful message."
Vice President Cheney took Sunday off and was at home in Washington.
Staff writer Spencer S. Hsu in Washington contributed to this report.
