Kerry Ad Says Bush Lost Debate and Then Lied
By NEDRA PICKLER
WASHINGTON (AP) — John Kerry on Saturday looked to frame the next presidential debate in a specriticizing President Bush’s economic record, but also tried to get in a final word about their last face-off by declaring himself the winner and Bush a liar. “George Bush lost the debate,” an announcer says in a television ad Kerry’s campaign unveiled Saturday. “Now he’s lying about it.”
The Democratic presidential candidate’s accusation came two days after his first debate with Bush, when he told moderator Jim Lehrer that he avoids saying that the president is lying to the American people.
“I’ve never, ever used the harshest word, as you did just then,” Kerry said. “And I try not to, but I’ll nevertheless tell you that I think he has not been candid with the American people.”
In the first poll taken since the Thursday night debate, Kerry was running even with Bush after having trailed him in the same survey last month. The Newsweek poll showed Kerry had the support of 47 percent and Bush 45 percent, with independent candidate Ralph Nader at 2 percent.
Kerry spokesman David Wade said the Massachusetts senator’s new ad will run at least in all the places where Bush airs his own new ad called “Global Test.” The Bush ad is scheduled to go on the air Monday on national cable networks and in select local media markets,
That ad refers to Kerry’s comment in the debate that a pre-emptive strike must pass “the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you’re doing what you’re doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.”
The Bush ad called it the “Kerry doctrine,” and asked: “So we must seek permission from foreign governments before protecting America?”
Kerry also said in the debate Thursday that he would not cede the United States’ right to a pre-emptive strike and that he will “hunt and kill the terrorists wherever they are.” Those comments are what the Kerry ad focused on.
The ad also referred to a story appearing in Sunday’s New York Times that the Bush administration sometimes overstated intelligence assessments of nuclear weapons programs in Iraq in the lead-up to the war. “Bush rushed to war,” the Kerry ad says. “We’re paying the price. It’s time for a fresh start.”
Kerry’s campaign insisted that its new ad would run. However, at least three such response ads it produced over the past two weeks never made it to the airwaves and were used solely to generate news coverage.
Kerry campaigned in Florida Saturday for a second day since Thursday’s debate on foreign policy. While Bush held huge rallies in the Midwest battleground of Ohio, Kerry gave a 45-minute speech in Orlando outlining his economic agenda.
Kerry aides said the speech, along with another on energy he planned to give in the coming days, are designed to set up the issues for the final two upcoming debates – a town-hall style match Friday and another focused on domestic policy the following week.
Kerry argued that Bush cares most about the wealthy and well-connected, while portraying himself as the patron of working families who are struggling to achieve the American dream.
“I’ve got your back,” Kerry said.
“For the last four years, George Bush has turned his back on you and the families with almost every choice that he’s made,” Kerry said. “For those people who are struggling, four more years of Bush choices is four more years that I don’t think people can really afford.”
Bush led 49-43 in the Newsweek poll in early September and was up by 11 points in the poll following the GOP convention. The Newsweek poll of 1,013 registered voters was taken from late Thursday to early Saturday and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Kerry’s economic case against the president built on the criticisms that he lodged against Bush’s leadership in Iraq. He said Bush “is a man who can’t see a problem and can’t fix a problem.”
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said the economy is recovering under Bush, and he contended that Kerry’s policies will end the progress.
“John Kerry’s policies will derail the economic recovery and mean that every American sends more money in taxes to the federal government,” Schmidt said.
After a day of campaigning in Orlando, Kerry flew back to Washington and appeared briefly at a $6 million fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee’s presidential campaign fund.
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