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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.