Inside Politics

9/11 ads

The buzz on the campaign trail yesterday was a new ad from the Progress for America Voter Fund, a Republican interest group, showing President Bush stopping to hug Ashley Faulkner, a teen from Mason, Ohio, whose mother died in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

A photo of Mr. Bush gripping her close to his heart, taken by Ashley’s father, caused a minor splash when it surfaced after the president’s visit to Lebanon, Ohio, on May 4. Now the Progress for America Voter Fund has built a $15 million campaign around it, airing television commercials in nine states and sending mail to more than 2 million homes.

“He’s the most powerful man in the world, and all he wants to do is make sure I’m safe, that I’m OK,” Ashley says.

Republicans think the ad is devastating, with one gushing: “The election is over, and Bush just won.”

But Mike McCurry, campaign adviser to Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, said the ad suggests a fault that Bush supporters are trying to correct. He said that after Mr. Bush had attacked the Massachusetts senator so vociferously in the three debates and in the days since, Republicans are trying “to erase some of the negative impressions he’s left through negative campaigning.”

The Kerry campaign is running its own ad featuring Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband was killed in the attacks and who tells voters: “I want to look in my daughter’s eyes and know that she is safe, and that is why I am voting for John Kerry.”

For the record

Retired Gen. Tommy Franks said yesterday that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry was distorting history with the often-repeated assertion that the United States allowed Osama bin Laden to escape.

“On more than one occasion, Sen. Kerry has referred to the fight at Tora Bora in Afghanistan during late 2001 as a missed opportunity for America,” Gen. Franks said in an op-ed piece in the New York Times.

“He claims that our forces had Osama bin Laden cornered and allowed him to escape. How did it happen? According to Mr. Kerry, we ’outsourced’ the job to Afghan warlords. As commander of the allied forces in the Middle East, I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora, and I can tell you that the senator’s understanding of events doesn’t square with reality.”

Gen. Franks said that, contrary to what Mr. Kerry has said, “We don’t know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001. Some intelligence sources said he was; others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time; still others suggested he was in Kashmir.”

Although the U.S. military did rely heavily on Afghans because they knew the region and its tunnels and caves, special forces from the United States and other countries were “providing tactical leadership and calling in air strikes,” Gen. Franks said, while as many as 100,000 Pakistani troops sealed the border and rounded up the enemy.

Bush’s strategy

“With only two weeks to go, President Bush and his campaign demonstrated once again that they are playing chess while Kerry is playing checkers,” Dick Morris writes in the New York Post.

“In a feat of strategy worthy of the greatest admiration, they realized that the entire race would change complexion once the third debate kindled a focus on domestic disagreements in what had been, until then, a foreign-policy contest,” Mr. Morris said.

“Knowing that Kerry — or any Democrat — has an advantage in a contest over domestic policy, they prepared for a parry during and after the third debate, which has given their candidate the lead once again.”

“By declaring in the third debate that Kerry inhabits the far left bank of our politics, well away from the mainstream, Bush hit pay dirt.

“Knowing that Kerry would seek to win the domestic issues by promising the moon, Bush, in great jujitsu style, used the Democrat’s strength against him, coming around his right flank, adding up the cost of the promises and underscoring his adversary’s liberalism. …

“The beauty of the Bush attack is that it is fueled as much by Kerry’s proposals as by the Republican jabs. With every new speech, Kerry shows his liberalism and makes promises that dig him an ever deeper hole. Should he try to tack to the right to rebut the accusation, he will run into the old charge of flip-flopper and rekindle doubts about his ability to stick to a position.”

Kerry’s performance

“John Kerry wasn’t nominated because of his sparkling personality. He wasn’t nominated because of his selfless commitment to causes larger than himself. He was nominated because he’s a fighter,” New York Times columnist David Brooks writes.

“At the end of every campaign, he comes out brawling. This was the guy who could take on Bush,” Mr. Brooks said.

“So nobody could imagine how incompetent, crude and over-the-top Kerry has been in this final phase of the campaign. At this point, smart candidates are launching attacks that play up the doubts voters already have about their opponents. Incredibly, Kerry is launching attacks that play up doubts voters have about him. Over the past few days, he has underscored the feeling that he will say or do anything to further his career.

“In so doing, he has managed to squelch any momentum he may have had coming out of the first two debates. Some polls have him stagnant against Bush. More polls show Bush recovering from the debate season and now pulling slightly ahead. The blunt truth is that Kerry is losing the final phase of this campaign.”

Arnold and Maria

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says his speech backing President Bush at the Republican convention in August resulted in a cold shoulder from his wife, Maria Shriver, a member of the famously Democratic Kennedy family.

Former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, a Democrat, had asked how Mrs. Shriver, whose uncle was President John F. Kennedy, had reacted to the governor’s praised but partisan convention speech, Reuters news agency reports.

“Well, there was no sex for 14 days,” Mr. Schwarzenegger told Mr. Panetta in an on-stage conversation in front of 1,000 people at the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, in Monterey, Calif.

“Everything comes with side effects,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Then and now

“When Bill Clinton ran for re-election in 1996, unemployment was 5.2 percent, inflation 3 percent, and economic growth 2.2 percent. Economic conditions are similar today: unemployment is 5.4 percent, inflation 2.7 percent, and economists’ consensus forecast for economic growth this quarter is 3.7 percent,” the Media Research Center reports.

“Yet a new study by the MRC’s Free Market Project found that while the national media mainly cheered the Clinton economy (85 percent positive), reporters have mostly jeered the Bush economy (77 percent negative).”

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.