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

To: LindyBill who wrote (34038)	3/12/2004 11:02:07 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793738

The "Chicago Tribune" reports that Zogby of the Arab Institute is unhappy with the ads. "Boo, hoo hoo!" President's latest ads take hard shots at rival By Jeff Zeleny Washington Bureau March 12, 2004 WASHINGTON -- Hoping to paint John Kerry as a tax-raising Democrat who is soft on terrorism, President Bush is launching the first attack ad of the general election campaign in 18 battleground states on Friday. In its second television advertising blitz of the month, Bush accuses the Massachusetts senator of wanting to raise taxes by $900 billion. Kerry, who has advocated rolling back the president's tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, said the amount cited in the ad was "completely made up." The latest volley between Bush and Kerry, eight months before the November election, underscored the unusually early intensity of the White House campaign. The commercials, placed in cities where Bush campaign strategists believe the race will be the tightest, are designed to define Kerry before he can do so himself. "John Kerry: Wrong on taxes. Wrong on defense," an announcer says in one 30-second spot. In a second ad Bush warns voters against displacing him from the Oval Office, ticking through the stark choices between his team and a prospective Kerry administration. "We can go forward with confidence, resolve and hope," the president says. "Or we can turn back to the dangerous illusion that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat." The flurry of ads comes one day after Kerry called his GOP critics "the most crooked . . . lying group I've ever seen." Fresh from a series of Democratic primary battles, Kerry is unable to compete with the money Bush has at his disposal. The Bush campaign, stung by sagging approval ratings, hopes to gain ground while Kerry struggles to raise the money needed to run a national race. "The public wants to know what the president wants to do in a second term," said Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist of the Bush-Cheney campaign. "Right now, there's a window of opportunity where the public is paying very close attention, and they expect to hear both sides." One week after the Bush campaign was criticized for using images from the World Trade Center attacks in its ad campaign, one of the new ads drew controversy for using a dark-skinned young man as a backdrop to discuss the threat of terrorism. An Arab-American leader called on the Bush campaign to change the spot. "It undercuts the very thing the president committed himself to after 9/11," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. "It tries to create an identity between terrorists and that face. It can only be called a negative stereotype, it can only be called regrettable." The Bush campaign, which has reached out to Arab-American voters in battleground states such as Michigan and Ohio, denied the ad was insensitive or racist. The ads are scheduled to air in both states. But an Institute poll to be released Friday shows that Bush's approval ratings have fallen to nearly 20 percent among Arab-American voters. The Bush campaign said it merely was responding to months of negative attacks by Kerry and other Democrats. That sustained criticism contributed to the president's lowest ratings since he took office. While Kerry dismissed the charge that he intended to raise taxes by $900 billion, he has yet to explain how he intends to pay for his health-care plan, which some experts say could cost $900billion over 10 years. A Kerry aide said the senator would unveil his entire economic plan in the coming weeks. Until then, though, the Bush campaign intends to portray Kerry as a candidate intent on raising taxes if he wins election. The toughest ad, titled "100 Days," suggests that Kerry would pay for new government spending by raising taxes. The advertisement says Kerry would seek to "weaken the Patriot Act used to arrest terrorists and protect America." Also, the ad charges, "Kerry would have delayed defending America until the United Nations approved," a message meant to highlight Kerry's emphasis on seeking the UN approval before invading Iraq. With nearly $100million remaining in its war chest, the Bush campaign suggested Thursday that the latest round of ads was merely the beginning. "Sen. Kerry's been in the Senate for 19 years," said Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman. "And there's a lot of votes that we'll be talking about."