They picked up on Kerry's whining about being smeared.
Bush advisers began to focus on Kerry as an adversary in the past month and see him as an extremely vulnerable opponent who, in their view, is overly defensive about criticism of his record and prone to mistakes they hope to exploit
Bush Begins to Step Out as Candidate
President Will Preview Campaign Themes and Frame the Choice for Voters
By Mike Allen and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 23, 2004; Page A06
After months of hanging back from full personal engagement in the campaign tumult, President Bush plans to step out as a candidate tonight and begin trying to frame the choice voters will face in November, his aides said yesterday.
Bush, who has been slipping in polls and challenged by questions about his case for war in Iraq, his National Guard service and his record on jobs, will preview his campaign themes during a speech to a $1,000-a-person fundraising reception of the Republican Governors Association. The aides said his remarks will focus on his efforts to move the country toward four goals: greater security, prosperity, compassion and freedom.
The White House had hoped to keep Bush above the political fray as long as possible, but officials conceded they can no longer afford that. Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman said in an interview that the speech at the Washington Convention Center will open "a new period of engagement for the president and a tactical shift -- an increase of activity for the campaign."
"He will take on his critics and their backward-looking, failed ideas that would derail our economic recovery and weaken our ability to fight and win the war on terror," Mehlman said. "The president is going to talk about the choice."
The aides said Bush will not name Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, but that the campaign is assuming Kerry will soon vanquish Sen. John Edwards (N.C.). The latest campaign briefing materials concentrate on Kerry's record and do not mention any other Democrat.
Bush advisers began to focus on Kerry as an adversary in the past month and see him as an extremely vulnerable opponent who, in their view, is overly defensive about criticism of his record and prone to mistakes they hope to exploit. The Bush team leaped when Kerry sent a letter to the president late Saturday challenging him to a debate on the Vietnam era. Bush advisers see the letter as a tactical mistake that gives the president's surrogates an opportunity to draw attention to Kerry's voting record on defense and national security, which they believe voters will reject.
Because Kerry vaulted to the front of the Democratic field when former Vermont governor Howard Dean's campaign went into a tailspin, Bush advisers believe he has avoided scrutiny of his record and his campaign plans, both of which they say are open to a challenge that they have concluded they must initiate to force a public debate.
The Bush team decided to move to engage with Kerry before the Democratic race has been fully settled, in part to force scrutiny of Kerry's record and shift the debate from Democratic attacks on the president to an examination of the front-runner. Bush officials believe that the more they challenge Kerry, the more openings he is likely to give them.
The Bush plan calls for engagement with Kerry after the president lays out the big themes of his reelection campaign and the campaign airs a series of positive ads beginning March 4. Soon afterward, the challenge to Kerry will begin in earnest.
As one campaign official said yesterday, "We're all anxious to get started."
Mehlman said Bush's campaign will launch its paid advertising two days after the March 2 Super Tuesday primaries with spots designed to refurbish the presidential image. Bush has been sliding in polls -- both in his overall approval, which recently hit the lowest level of his presidency in some surveys, and in the attributes that had been the bedrock of his support, including trustworthiness.
The timetable laid out yesterday accelerates what officials had been planning. Some leading Republicans have been concerned that Democrats had been inflicting damage after weeks of attacking Bush during their primaries.
Republican officials said Bush's team had been under heavy pressure from the party's lawmakers and governors to fight back. But these officials said the main reason for moving up their schedule was that the Democratic field cleared more quickly than they had anticipated.
Some White House officials had sought to delay the engagement phase of the campaign for as long as possible because it will make negotiations with Democrats on Capitol Hill more difficult and will highlight the political context of Bush's national security decisions and international relations.
Democrats expressed surprise that Bush and his campaign had decided to begin having the president engage directly before the Democrats have settled on their nominee. Debra DeShong, communications director at the Democratic National Committee, called the decision by Bush to join the campaign directly a "sign of the desperation that is permeating inside the walls of the White House."
"They see the poll numbers dropping, and they know they have to do something to give their supporters hope," DeShong said.
Republican officials have been told that Bush's campaign slogan will be "steady leadership in times of change." Campaign briefing materials say that the central message will be that Bush "has an optimistic vision and agenda that will move America forward toward greater prosperity, greater security, greater freedom and greater compassion."
The summary of the campaign's main themes added: "Steady leadership requires making principled decisions based on what is important to the American people -- not advocating policies that would derail our economic recovery and weaken our ability to win the war on terror."
Although the ads will start on a positive note, Mehlman said other officials will begin taking on the Democrats. "You will increasingly see members of Congress, Republicans governors, Republican National Committee members, and Bush-Cheney surrogates and supporters out with messages of the day," Mehlman said.
In coming weeks, the campaign plans to announce a variety of support groups to build grass-roots enthusiasm, including a veterans' coalition and a farm-agriculture coalition.
Stephanie Cutter, a Kerry spokeswoman, said Bush will have a hard time arguing that he has been successful on the issues that are most important to Americans. "He can't campaign on jobs, he can't campaign on health care, he can't campaign on national security," she said. "Those are bread-and-butter issues."
Bush's campaign will begin buying ad time today, starting with spots on national cable and broadcast stations in targeted markets.
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