BANGOR (AP) – Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards vowed unity in the war against terror during a campaign stop in Maine one day after television networks broadcast a videotaped message from Osama bin Laden.

“We as Americans – Democrats, Republicans, independents – we have a very clear message for Osama bin Laden: We are going to hunt him down and hold him accountable for what he did on Sept. 11,” Edwards said Saturday in Bangor.

The videotape featured bin Laden acknowledging for the first time that he ordered the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He said the United States must stop threatening the security of Muslims around the world.

Edwards was accompanied on the stage by his parents, Wallace and Bobbie Edwards.

A successful trial lawyer, Edwards was the first in his family to attend college, after growing up seeing his father studying math by television.

“The American dream has been replaced by just trying to get by,” Edwards said of rising gas prices, higher prescription-drug prices and millions of lost jobs during the Bush administration.

Democratic supporters of the Kerry-Edwards ticket in Maine said they are looking for relief from what they described as four years of mistakes from the Bush administration.

“Instead of his way or the highway, Kerry would work with people,” said Dennis Mitchell, of Bradley, who served as an Air Force airman during Vietnam. “I think they realize that every electoral vote counts.”

Maine is one of just two states that currently divide their electoral votes.

Across town, Maine’s Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins encouraged two dozen volunteers at the campaign headquarters for President Bush by saying that voters could send a message to bin Laden with a message Tuesday.

“I can’t think of a better rebuttal to Osama bin Laden than re-electing George Bush,” Collins said, adding that Maine may determine the outcome of the election.

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