Post by GSC Admin on Mar 13, 2004 21:16:01 GMT -5
www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/03/13/bush_campaign_seeks_to_liken_kerry_gore
Bush campaign seeks to liken Kerry, Gore
By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, 3/13/2004
WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry has been steeling himself for Republican charges that he is a "Massachusetts liberal," but senior Bush strategists say they won't treat the presumptive Democratic nominee like another Michael S. Dukakis. Instead, they plan to paint him as Al Gore -- a waffling Washington insider too aloof to connect with average Americans.
The first time Bush mentioned Kerry by name in a public address, he said nary a word about his rival's ideology or home state, instead telling the crowd that "Senator Kerry has been in Washington so long that he's taken both sides on just about every issue."
The first Bush ad about Kerry, produced on the Internet, was entitled "Unprincipled" and attacked the Massachusetts senator for railing against special interests while accepting donations from them. And a search of the Bush campaign website turns up no references to a "Massachusetts liberal" at all, yet its top headlines yesterday included a statement by Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, accusing Kerry of "flip-flops on Israel."
Earlier attempts by some Republicans to hit Kerry with the "he's a liberal" tag were "mostly window dressing," a senior GOP strategist working for the Bush campaign said. "The Bush folks think his real vulnerability is being a Washington insider, and a hypocrite, and bought and paid for by the special interests."
In fact, a Bush campaign official said the staff is under explicit orders to "show, not tell" that Kerry is a liberal, avoiding the label altogether as much as possible.
From the start, Kerry has pledged to fight back as Dukakis did not, highlighted his personal toughness through his Vietnam service, and touted his experience as a prosecutor to show he is not easily pigeonholed as a liberal. When Republicans circulated a survey indicating that Kerry was the "most liberal senator" in town, Kerry supporters responded aggressively, deconstructing the methodology to argue he was not.
Countering the first negative ads Bush aired against him, Kerry accused Bush yesterday of "misleading America" by alleging in his television spots that the senator would raise taxes and weaken national defense in his first 100 days as president.
"Doesn't America deserve more from its president than misleading, negative ads?" the Kerry spot asks. The ads will run in 16 of the 18 states where the Bush ad is running, and will be less costly, as the Kerry campaign rushes to match Bush's multimillion-dollar fund-raising machine.
The content of the Kerry ad suggests he is following through on his pledge to fight back against Bush and what he has described as the "Republican attack machine." Several Republicans said they hoped Kerry would continue proving he is not Dukakis rather than addressing qualities that his opponents say are more like Gore's, including what they called a proclivity for long-winded discourses.
"From our perspective," one Republican adviser said, "we think, `Great, let him spend his time over there. He's talked to Dukakis; he's talked to [adviser John] Sasso. They all told him the same thing: `John, they'll paint you as a liberal from Massachusetts. Don't let them get away with it.' It's ingrained in his brain. It's a problem a lot of politicians make. They fight the last campaign." As a result, the adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, "Kerry is making it easy for us."
Kerry advisers ridiculed that notion, pointing out that if Bush deploys the same strategy he used against Gore, he will be the one fighting the last war.
"That's the instinct of every campaign, to run their last victorious defense," Kerry adviser Michael Meehan said. "John Kerry is not Al Gore, and John Kerry is not Michael Dukakis."
If anything, Meehan said, the shifting tactics indicate the Bush campaign is in disarray.
"When we came out of Feb. 3, they tried the `Massachusetts liberal' argument, along with a bunch of other stuff, and their polling did not improve," Meehan said. "Then they had to put Bush out there to say something about Kerry by name. Then they launched a bunch of positive ads, and they tried that for a week, and then changed to negative ads this week. They're searching for a strategy."
At the same time, Bush surrogates and independent Republican groups continue to use the "liberal" label, and say Dukakis comparisons work especially well in Southern states, where "liberal" is almost the equivalent of a dirty word. And Bush advisers still may decide to compare Kerry to Dukakis -- or Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is arguably the most famous liberal icon -- as the campaign moves forward.
But Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform and a close White House ally, insisted that comparisons with Gore are far more salient than the Dukakis approach -- cutting to the core of Kerry's character rather than criticizing his beliefs.
"If you say, `Gore's a liberal,' moderates and undecideds say, `I know that,' " Norquist said. "But if you then say `Gore fibs,' or `Kerry will say anything to get elected, marry anybody to get elected, he's the overambitious kid you hated in high school and was class president,' that has an effect."
Norquist added, "If Kerry will say anything, do anything, flip-flop, then when he gets in a corner down the road and changes his position, you'll say he doesn't mean it. He can't say anything to endear him to you if you've been convinced he'll say anything."
The first time Bush criticized Kerry by name, he made that very point: "Senator Kerry voted for the Patriot Act, for NAFTA, for the No Child Left Behind Act, and for the use of force in Iraq. Now he opposes the Patriot Act, NAFTA, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the liberation of Iraq. My opponent clearly has strong beliefs -- they just don't last very long."
Anne E. Kornblut can be reached at akornblut@globe.com.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
Bush campaign seeks to liken Kerry, Gore
By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, 3/13/2004
WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry has been steeling himself for Republican charges that he is a "Massachusetts liberal," but senior Bush strategists say they won't treat the presumptive Democratic nominee like another Michael S. Dukakis. Instead, they plan to paint him as Al Gore -- a waffling Washington insider too aloof to connect with average Americans.
The first time Bush mentioned Kerry by name in a public address, he said nary a word about his rival's ideology or home state, instead telling the crowd that "Senator Kerry has been in Washington so long that he's taken both sides on just about every issue."
The first Bush ad about Kerry, produced on the Internet, was entitled "Unprincipled" and attacked the Massachusetts senator for railing against special interests while accepting donations from them. And a search of the Bush campaign website turns up no references to a "Massachusetts liberal" at all, yet its top headlines yesterday included a statement by Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, accusing Kerry of "flip-flops on Israel."
Earlier attempts by some Republicans to hit Kerry with the "he's a liberal" tag were "mostly window dressing," a senior GOP strategist working for the Bush campaign said. "The Bush folks think his real vulnerability is being a Washington insider, and a hypocrite, and bought and paid for by the special interests."
In fact, a Bush campaign official said the staff is under explicit orders to "show, not tell" that Kerry is a liberal, avoiding the label altogether as much as possible.
From the start, Kerry has pledged to fight back as Dukakis did not, highlighted his personal toughness through his Vietnam service, and touted his experience as a prosecutor to show he is not easily pigeonholed as a liberal. When Republicans circulated a survey indicating that Kerry was the "most liberal senator" in town, Kerry supporters responded aggressively, deconstructing the methodology to argue he was not.
Countering the first negative ads Bush aired against him, Kerry accused Bush yesterday of "misleading America" by alleging in his television spots that the senator would raise taxes and weaken national defense in his first 100 days as president.
"Doesn't America deserve more from its president than misleading, negative ads?" the Kerry spot asks. The ads will run in 16 of the 18 states where the Bush ad is running, and will be less costly, as the Kerry campaign rushes to match Bush's multimillion-dollar fund-raising machine.
The content of the Kerry ad suggests he is following through on his pledge to fight back against Bush and what he has described as the "Republican attack machine." Several Republicans said they hoped Kerry would continue proving he is not Dukakis rather than addressing qualities that his opponents say are more like Gore's, including what they called a proclivity for long-winded discourses.
"From our perspective," one Republican adviser said, "we think, `Great, let him spend his time over there. He's talked to Dukakis; he's talked to [adviser John] Sasso. They all told him the same thing: `John, they'll paint you as a liberal from Massachusetts. Don't let them get away with it.' It's ingrained in his brain. It's a problem a lot of politicians make. They fight the last campaign." As a result, the adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, "Kerry is making it easy for us."
Kerry advisers ridiculed that notion, pointing out that if Bush deploys the same strategy he used against Gore, he will be the one fighting the last war.
"That's the instinct of every campaign, to run their last victorious defense," Kerry adviser Michael Meehan said. "John Kerry is not Al Gore, and John Kerry is not Michael Dukakis."
If anything, Meehan said, the shifting tactics indicate the Bush campaign is in disarray.
"When we came out of Feb. 3, they tried the `Massachusetts liberal' argument, along with a bunch of other stuff, and their polling did not improve," Meehan said. "Then they had to put Bush out there to say something about Kerry by name. Then they launched a bunch of positive ads, and they tried that for a week, and then changed to negative ads this week. They're searching for a strategy."
At the same time, Bush surrogates and independent Republican groups continue to use the "liberal" label, and say Dukakis comparisons work especially well in Southern states, where "liberal" is almost the equivalent of a dirty word. And Bush advisers still may decide to compare Kerry to Dukakis -- or Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is arguably the most famous liberal icon -- as the campaign moves forward.
But Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform and a close White House ally, insisted that comparisons with Gore are far more salient than the Dukakis approach -- cutting to the core of Kerry's character rather than criticizing his beliefs.
"If you say, `Gore's a liberal,' moderates and undecideds say, `I know that,' " Norquist said. "But if you then say `Gore fibs,' or `Kerry will say anything to get elected, marry anybody to get elected, he's the overambitious kid you hated in high school and was class president,' that has an effect."
Norquist added, "If Kerry will say anything, do anything, flip-flop, then when he gets in a corner down the road and changes his position, you'll say he doesn't mean it. He can't say anything to endear him to you if you've been convinced he'll say anything."
The first time Bush criticized Kerry by name, he made that very point: "Senator Kerry voted for the Patriot Act, for NAFTA, for the No Child Left Behind Act, and for the use of force in Iraq. Now he opposes the Patriot Act, NAFTA, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the liberation of Iraq. My opponent clearly has strong beliefs -- they just don't last very long."
Anne E. Kornblut can be reached at akornblut@globe.com.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
