MoveOn Spending $1.9M on Anti-Bush Ads
LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Talk about a slew of early issue advertising.
An online liberal group is spending a hefty $1.9 million on a two-week television commercial blitz to blast President Bush's Iraq policies in five states that will be battlegrounds in next year's presidential race.
MoveOn.org will begin broadcasting the 30-second ad Thursday in major media markets in Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio and West Virginia. The TV industry estimates that average viewers will see the ad about 10 times over the course of its run.
Typically, interest groups air such high volumes of issue ads in the months leading up to an election. MoveOn is starting its ad campaign much earlier to engage people now, its founder said.
"There's learning that has to be done early," said Wes Boyd, founder of MoveOn, which has 1.7 million members. "There's momentum that has to be built. That's not something you do by hoarding funds in a war chest and dropping it on advertising in October."
In the ad, an announcer suggests that Bush misled the country and describes ways the $87 billion Bush wanted for Iraq and Afghanistan could be spent domestically.
"We could have built 10,000 new schools. Or hired almost 2 million new teachers. We could have rebuilt our electric grid. We could have insured more of our children," the announcer says. Images of children, teachers and a woman reading by a flickering light illustrate the point. "If there's money for Iraq, why isn't there money for America?" the announcer asks.
The ad aired briefly in New York and Washington in October as Congress debated the supplemental spending bill.
Analysts who monitor political advertisements expect MoveOn.org to spend more than most issue groups on ads during the presidential campaign.
The Washington-based group, formed in the late 1990s to oppose the impeachment of President Clinton, has more than $6 million in its ad fund so far to air commercials in battleground states about Bush's policies.
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New York Rep. Michael McNulty endorsed Dick Gephardt Wednesday in the Democratic presidential race, bringing the number of endorsements by members of Congress for the Missouri representative to 33.
Members of Congress are automatically invited to the Democratic National Convention as delegates.
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How are the Democratic presidential candidates distorting President Bush's record? Let Ed Gillespie count the ways.
The Republican National Committee chairman traveled around New Hampshire Wednesday to counter the criticism Democrats have heaped on Bush as they compete for their party's nomination.
"President Bush is right, the Democrats are wrong, and we're going to prove it next November," Gillespie said in remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday night.
As he did a day earlier in Vermont, Gillespie paid particular attention to front-runner Howard Dean, saying the former governor's claim to be a fiscal conservative is at odds with his tenure in office.
He also came down hard on the other candidates.
"Wesley Clark is wrong about calling for raising taxes on the top 2 percent, (Dick) Gephardt is wrong in saying the president's tax policies are a miserable failure, John Kerry was wrong when he said there was no such thing as partial birth (abortion)," Gillespie said Wednesday afternoon in Concord, N.H.. "(Dean) shouldn't feel like the Lone Ranger when I'm highlighting where he's inaccurate."
He also faulted Joe Lieberman for voting against the ban on the abortion procedure and criticized John Edwards for missing the vote.
Democrats were quick to respond.
"If the president and the Republican Party want to make this election about national security, then I say bring it on," Kerry said in a statement. "No matter what spin the GOP chair tries to put on it, the fact is that George Bush's go-it-alone foreign policy has isolated and endangered the United States."
New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan called Gillespie's tactics "neo-McCarthyism."
"If you utter any statement critical of George Bush, Ed Gillespie calls it political hate speech," she said.
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