They really have no way to follow up on it. The Democratic Candidates have had free swings at Bush for the last six months. And they have said some awful things. Now watch them squeal when this ad hits.
washingtonpost.com
Bush Ad Criticizes Democrats On Defense
Doctrine of Preemption Is Touted as Effective
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 22, 2003; Page A03
Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie said yesterday that a central tenet of President Bush's reelection campaign will contrast his doctrine of preemptive strikes on terrorists with what Gillespie called Democrats' willingness to wait for the aftermath of an attack on the United States.
The strategy is designed to portray Democrats as weak on defense and to suggest that President Bill Clinton could have been tougher on terrorism, GOP officials said. Democrats called it an attack on their patriotism and noted past pledges by Bush not to politicize the war on terrorism.
The party unveiled the theme in Bush's first ad of the campaign, which is to begin running in Iowa tomorrow. Over funereal music, the ad opens with a clip from Bush's State of the Union address in January in which he raised the specter of a chemical or biological attack on U.S. soil. Then, the screen fades to stark lettering: "Some are now attacking the President for attacking the terrorists," the type says. "Some call for us to retreat, putting our national security in the hands of others." The word "terrorists" turns red.
Then viewers are urged to call Congress and "tell them to support the President's policy of preemptive self-defense." Bush has developed his preemption doctrine, a policy of attacking potential enemies before they can hit the United States, since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The ad's menacing tone contrasts with the warm, biographical spots that typically kick off a campaign. Bush's strategists have become concerned that the war on terrorism, which they consider his greatest political strength, could become a liability if the casualties and chaos continue in Iraq. "The president is more vulnerable on the issue of the war, and that is a source of concern," a presidential adviser said. "We're under assault, and we need to do something."
In a reminder of how much the political terrain has changed since Bush's aides planned his campaign with the war on terrorism as their trump card, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said he welcomed a fight with Bush for the high ground on national security. Reprising Bush's "Bring 'em on" taunt in July to militants attacking U.S. troops in Iraq, Kerry said in New Hampshire, "I have three words for him he'll understand: Bring it on."
The GOP plans to spend $100,00 to air the 30-second ad, which was first reported by the New York Times, for three days surrounding a Democratic debate in Iowa on Monday. The Republican Party is likely to run an ad in conjunction with the next Democratic debate, in New Hampshire on Dec. 9, officials said. The Bush-Cheney campaign is likely to begin its ads early next year.
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean used the ad as an inspiration for one of his novel fundraising appeals. Campaign manager Joe Trippi e-mailed more than 500,000 supporters to urge them to send $360,000 by Tuesday at midnight -- "$5,000 for every hour they are going to lie to the American people."
Gillespie said the ad, called "Reality," is designed to expose a difference of opinion between the parties on "whether or not a policy of preemptive self-defense approach is the best approach to protecting our national security."
"The president and Republicans believe that it's the appropriate approach, and Democrats do not," Gillespie said by telephone from Davenport, Iowa.
Without naming Clinton, Gillespie used an Oct. 28 memo to GOP activists to charge that Clinton's administration could have pursued terrorists more aggressively. "The bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, Khobar Towers, our embassies in East Africa, and the USS Cole were treated as criminal matters instead of the terrorist acts they were," Gillespie wrote. "After September 11, President Bush made clear that we will no longer simply respond to terrorist acts, but will confront gathering threats before they become certain tragedies."
Retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark retorted that the GOP "stole the election in 2000 and wants to steal patriotism from us, and we're not going to let them do it." He said the ad was off-base for suggesting that Democrats were attacking Bush for going after terrorists. "I'm attacking the president because he's not attacking terrorists," Clark said on a conference call from Spartanburg, S.C. "If you look at what's happening around the world today, including these recent blasts in Turkey, it's an indicator that the strategy of attacking Iraq had very little to do with the problem of terrorism."
Gillespie denied that he was impugning anyone's patriotism. "The rules of politics are not that they get to attack us for six months and we're not allowed to respond," he said.
Democrats circulated quotations from White House pledges not to politicize the war, including Bush's statement at a news conference in March 2002 that one of the two lessons he learned from the Vietnam War was that "politics ought to stay out of fighting a war."
"There was too much politics during the Vietnam War," Bush said then. "There was too much concern in the White House about political standing."
The Democratic National Committee plans to air its own ad in conjunction with the Iowa debate, with strategist and television actor James Carville appealing to supporters to call a toll-free number to donate "if you've had enough of George W. Bush."
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