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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (17639)	11/25/2003 1:06:22 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793864

The fight will be in Bush's schoolyard. Candidates Plan Responses to G.O.P. Commercial on Terrorism By JIM RUTENBERG New York Times DES MOINES, Nov. 23 — The campaigns of Senator John Kerry and Howard Dean said on Sunday that they would begin showing television commercials in Iowa heavily criticizing a new Republican Party advertisement that portrays the Democratic presidential candidates as undermining President Bush while he fights terrorism. The plans for the two Democratic spots were evidence that the Republican advertisement served at least one of its intended purposes. It drew the Democrats into a debate on national security, which Republican Party officials believe to be the president's strong suit. But the Democratic response to the advertisement, which began running here on Sunday, also shows the risks of that strategy. Much of the Democratic reaction has pointed to problems in Iraq, where attacks on American troops are seen as an increasing liability for the president, and the new advertisements hit that theme hard. In Mr. Kerry's advertisement, to appear on stations in Iowa on Monday, excerpts of the Republican spot are shown on the screen as an announcer says: "George Bush's ad says he's being attacked for attacking the terrorists. No, Mr. President, America's united against terror." The announcer continues, "The problem is you declared `mission accomplished' when you had no plan to win the peace," as the screen flashes to the "Mission Accomplished" banner posted on the carrier Abraham Lincoln when the president stood on its flight deck and declared the end of major combat in Iraq. The announcer also criticizes the administration for its handling of reconstruction contracting, saying that it "handed out billions in contracts to contributors like Halliburton." The administration has said its contracting process in Iraq has been proper and above board. The spot ends with Mr. Kerry speaking to the camera, calling for the United States to get more allied help in Iraq and then saying, "We shouldn't be cutting education and closing firehouses in America while we're opening them in Iraq." Dr. Dean's commercial also features an excerpt from the Republican advertisement, in which the president warns of the perils that unconventional weapons pose to the nation. An announcer then says of Mr. Bush, "He misled the nation about weapons of mass destruction, and we went to war when we shouldn't have. Howard Dean is committed to fighting terrorism and protecting our national security." Dean campaign officials had asked supporters on Friday to donate $360,000 by Tuesday to pay for the advertisement. Officials with the president's campaign had no comment, and officials with the Republican National Committee did not respond to a request for comment. nytimes.com