Nation & World News
Bush, Kerry hit below belt
early in race to White House
The early use of attack ads
may be a result of private
groups’ increased spending
By Mark Silva
The Orlando Sentinel (KRT)
American voters face the most
bruising and costly campaign for the
White House ever, with a brutal
eight-month contest between Presi
dent Bush and Democrat John Kerry
already bristling with character as
saults and hard-hitting television ad
vertising.
With a battery of dueling TV ads
now hitting voters in Florida and
other critical battlegrounds — and
with attacks certain to escalate —
both sides risk alienating cynical
voters just as the campaigns begin.
It's possible that "the public is go
ing to get burned out over this," said
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of
the Annenberg Center for Public
Policy at the University of Pennsyl
vania. Yet, she said, the issues that
Bush and Kerry are battling about —
„ terrorism, taxes, jobs and health care
— are critical enough to keep voters
engaged.
"We're seeing a new model of
campaigning," Jamieson said. "The
assumption has always been that
you don't engage seriously at the
general-election level until at least
summer. You are now down to the
specific case against each side at a
very early time."
The expectation of a close, hard
fought election in November is driv
ing this extraordinarily early ex
change, fueled by a trio of dynamics
producing a perfect political storm:
• The unusually early naming of a
Democratic nominee who is chal
lenging, even surpassing, the incum
bent in opinion polling.
• Candidates unconstrained in
what they can spend in record-set
ting spring and summer campaigns.
• A profusion of outside interest
groups fueling ad wars that are unre
strained in spending and free to use
venomous rhetoric that the candi
dates themselves dare not utter.
Bush, ridiculing his rival as a waffler,
on Friday rolled out an attack TV ad
targeting Kerry as a tax-and-spender
who is weak on terrorism.
Kerry, deriding the president as
"reckless" on the world stage, has re
sponded with his own ads but also
is drawing reinforcement from allies
— such as the anti-Bush groups
MoveOn.org and The Media Fund
— that are spending millions of dol
lars on attack ads against the presi
dent.
And this is only the start.
"If we take President Bush's lead,
it's going to ratchet up pretty quick
ly," said Harold Ickes, former aide to
: President Clinton and founder of
The Media Fund. Bush "has ratch
eted it up pretty fast, given that this
is an eight-month election ... We
will conduct ourselves accordingly."
The president, gauging the severi
ty of the contest, has come out of the
Rose Garden. He is already cam
paigning hard, spending time each
week in states he most hopes to win.
And, Bush is airing TV ads warning
of Kerry's "plan to pay for new gov
ernment spending" and "raise taxes
by at least $900 billion."
Kerry proposes to rescind the tax
cuts that Bush won for people with
incomes over $200,000 a year. With
the money, he aims to provide insur
ance for most Americans lacking
health care. His campaign calls
Bush's ads "weapons of deception,"
although an Emory University
analysis projected that Kerry's health
plan could cost $895 billion during
10 years.
On the stump, Bush accuses Kerry,
a fourth-term senator from Massachu
setts, of spending so much time in
Washington that "he's taken both
sides on just about every issue.... My
opponent clearly has strong beliefs —
they just don't last very long."
Kerry accuses Bush of spearhead
ing a reckless foreign policy and
heartless domestic agenda. "Mr.
President," Kerry declared in Florida
last week, "bad, rushed decisions
kill. ... Not giving American citizens
health care kills, too."
This is high-octane talk for March.
"It's a danger for both of them to
go so negative, because it really turns
off voters," said Merle Black, profes
sor of politics and government at
Emory University. "There is some
thing to the dignity of the office
here, especially for Kerry — he needs
to ratchet it down a little bit, because
we are talking about the presidency."
Yet Bush and Kerry are raising the
most important issue in a presiden
tial election.
"It goes straight to character,"
Jamieson said. "If you can under
mine trustworthiness, you can un
dermine a candidacy. In the ex
change, Bush says, 'I'm steady, and
he's indecisive.' Kerry comes back
and says, There is a difference be
tween indecision and stubbornness
— your decisiveness is dangerous.'"
This is also financially costly cross
fire. But Bush, who has raised more
than $145 million for his campaign,
already has surpassed a record that
he set in 2000. And Kerry, imploring
Democrats to unite after an excep
tionally swift primary campaign,
hopes to raise $80 million.
Plus, Bush and Kerry are not alone
in shoveling money into attack ads.
Thanks to reforms of campaign fi
nancing, which strictly limit the
"soft money" that donors contribute
to political parties or to candidates,
unregulated independent groups are
flourishing and spending millions
of dollars in ads this year.
Outside groups are freer to attack
— such as one free-wheeler that
slammed Democrat Howard Dean
in Iowa's caucuses this winter:
"Dean should take his tax-hiking,
government-spending, latte-drink
ing, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving,
New York Times-reading ... Holly
wood-loving, left-wing freak show
back to Vermont, where it belongs."
It was a Republican-leaning group
that aired the most notorious cam
paign ads of modern times, an at
tack on the 1988 Democratic nomi
nee, Michael Dukakis of
Massachusetts. That ad featured
Willie Horton, a convicted murder
er who left a Massachusetts prison
on a weekend furlough in 1987 and
kidnapped a couple, raping the
woman.
"Weekend prison passes —
Dukakis on crime," concluded one
ad sponsored by Americans for
Bush, backed by the National Secu
rity Political Action Committee.
The ads helped President Bush's
father, George H.W. Bush, over
whelmingly defeat Dukakis.
This president, like his father, will
benefit from the support of inde
pendent committees attacking the
Democrat. Citizens United, headed
by a former Republican congression
al aide, has aired a MasterCard ad
parody picturing Kerry alongside
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy: "Another
rich, liberal elitist from Massachu
setts who claims he's a man of the
people. Priceless."
But this time, Democrats have
amassed an army of their own.
Jim Jordan, Kerry's first campaign
manager before an overhaul last fall,
has opened a consulting firm repre
senting three of the Democratic
committees: The Media Fund, ACT
and America Votes. Their national
spokeswoman, Sarah Leonard, came
from Dean's campaign.
The parties have organized their
own computerized "opposition-re
search" shops spouting fountains of
fodder for media covering the cam
paigns every day. Forty people do
such research for the RNC effort.
The day Kerry met with Dean last
week to start assembling a coalition
of their supporters, the RNC Re
search Department was ready with
"Dean's Greatest Hits" — a list of
critical words Dean had for Kerry
during their primary campaign.
"We're going to keep pounding,
let me tell you," Kerry s<iicl last week,
in unguarded remarks captured by
microphone at a rally in Chicago.
"We're just beginning to fight here."
(c) 2004, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
STOREWIDE
Food with real Mexican taste!
We have vegetarian too!
We have
AUTHENTIC
Tacos al Pastor
(marinated pork
with pineapple
that's semi-spicy
& sweet)
open Mon-Fri 11
Sat
4-9
018557
is the
last issue
of winter
term.
See you in
the spring!
Do you have your video
e-mail account yet?
0i¥ IT NOW!
Your boyfriend,
girlfriend,
parents and
friends will
love seeing
you talk to
them - through
E4NIAIL!
Cuffing edge
technology!
Take a look at
http://store.vmdirect.com/jstoecker
Then call John at 343-8384 to sign up.
—==-=--.- This is hot stufft
o
'NIVKKSrrV OJ OXKUON
ClIh’GUteAh FOBiatl
Now Hiring For 2004-05
n Heritage Music Coordinator
^ National Music Coordinator
Regional Music Coordinator
Queer Film Festival Coordinator
Performing Arts Coordinator
Permanent Art and Buzz Curator
\r
/N,
S3
L
Pick up apps. EMU Suite 2 or online
http://culturalforum.uoregon.edu 346-4373
H FOR BOOKS.
March 10 - 20
UO Bookstore Main
Regular Store Hours
March 15 -19
EMU Lobby
Monday - Friday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Duck Shop at Autzen
Monday - Thursday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Friday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
BOOKSTORE