KERRY RANKS NO. 1 IN NASTY AD ATTACKS
March 27, 2004 -- John Kerry - more than any other Democrat - attacked President Bush in TV ads during the presidential primary season, a new nonpartisan study found.
The survey of television advertising found that 78 percent of Kerry's primary commercials - and all of his general-election ads so far - were critical of Bush.
That was more than Democratic rivals such as John Edwards, who went negative in only 17 percent of his ads, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While Kerry's criticism was almost exclusively directed at Bush, other Democrats, such as Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt, used their ads to attack their party rivals.
On the other hand, Bush's ads have been largely positive, according to the study. He attacked Kerry, his likely opponent, only 27 percent of the time.
"John Kerry has spent millions of campaign dollars attacking this president," said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for the Bush campaign. "It's clear John Kerry doesn't have an agenda for America. All he has is anger."
Overall, the study said, the seven leading Democratic candidates spent $32.5 million during the primaries on ads that appeared in states expected to be battlegrounds in the November election.
Bush was criticized in nearly half of all ads.
nypost.com |
