WASHINGTON - After months of criticizing rival John Kerry in campaign ads, the Bush-Cheney campaign is shifting gears with some $14 million in commercials that praise the Republican for "moving America forward" amid economic and terrorism challenges.
"What gives us optimism and hope? Freedom, faith, families and sacrifice," says one commercial unveiled Tuesday. Photos of firefighters, children, workers and soldiers fill the screen.
The ad, plus another unveiled last week, are similar to the first wave of commercials Bush ran briefly in the spring, heralding his "steady leadership" in changing times. Bush quickly abandoned that approach, choosing instead to air spots during the next five months that tried to define Kerry as weak-on-defense and inconsistent in his Senate votes.
Bush's two new ads do not mention Kerry but instead seek to make the case that the United States should keep the incumbent in office as the nation recovers from wartime and economic woes.
"In today's changing world the answers aren't easy," says the ad rolled out Friday. "We need a sense of purpose, a vision for the future, the conviction to do what's right."
The new ad also includes a brief image of the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers, a scene from earlier ads that drew criticisms from some relatives of victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
....Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton questioned the ad's claim. "We've got sky-high health insurance costs, record-high deficits, record job losses, record-high gas prices and no plan to win the peace in Iraq. And the president thinks he's 'moving America forward?' No wonder this White House has lost credibility," Clanton said.
The commercials began airing Tuesday in local media markets in 19 battleground states for at least two weeks and on national cable networks for the month, a period that would include the highly watched Olympic Games. They also will air on local cable channels in specific media markets in at least two states -- New Mexico and Nevada.
That strategy -- a first for either presidential campaign this year -- allows Bush to target voters based on where they live and what programs they watch. Thus, the Bush campaign can reach out to voters in Reno, Nev., who watch the sports cable channel ESPN, a typically young male audience.
....The Democratic National Committee's independent expenditure office is spending $6 million in 20 competitive states and on national cable networks to broadcast an ad in which Kerry argues that he can lead a nation at war.
And, on Tuesday, the Media Fund, a liberal interest group, rolled out five TV ads in five swing states -- Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Mexico.
....The commercials, three of which previously were run by affiliates of another liberal group MoveOn.org, assail Bush on the economy and the Iraq war.
Of the two new commercials, one says: "George Bush is financing the war with huge deficits, and our children will be stuck with the bill." Another accuses Bush of having "no plan" to curb health care costs.