Kerry's response ads should be out in the next 24 hours. But the question is whether Bush's attack ads will work.
Some things are clear:
1. According to Gallup, close to 83% of voters say they will not change their mind.
2. Kerry is the anti-Dukakis. His platform (think tax package) is not fully formed, but his response room is open for business. Thanks for teaching us, James Carville.
3. By not 'flip-flopping' on calling GOoPer attack dogs crooks and liars, the 'weak, flip-flopper' turns out to be anything but. Ads vs real-life... hmmm.
4. The Rasmussen tracking poll, more sensitive to daily fluctuations, isn't fluctuating.
Kerry has been at 46% every day since Super Tuesday. Bush has been at 45% or 46% for the last eight days.
Will the Madrid bombing be blamed on al Queda, heightening American fears? Will scandals, new and old, and job losses and dropping markets overpower the ads? Will Kerry's fighting back both verbally and with his counter-ads work? Does MoveOn make a difference?
What do you think?
New Bush Ad Assails Kerry on Taxes, War
"John Kerry -- wrong on taxes, wrong on defense," says the ad, which begins airing today in 18 battleground states.
Kerry campaign officials, vowing to let no attack go unanswered, immediately began cutting a response ad for airing today. The commercial will deny any such proposed tax plan and remind viewers that Kerry wants to cut taxes for the middle class, the aides said.
"Once again George Bush is misleading America," the tentative script says, adding: "Doesn't America deserve more from its president than misleading negative ads?"
These opening salvos in what promises to be a long and vituperative air war came as senior Republican lawmakers launched an assault, coordinated with the Bush campaign, on Kerry's tax proposals as well as his overheard comment Wednesday that Republicans are a "crooked . . . lying group."
The senator from Massachusetts rejected their demands for an apology for the remark, firing back instead against what he called "a Republican attack squad that specializes in trying to destroy people."
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The new ads will replace two of three existing Bush spots, but not the one containing footage of the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks and firefighters carrying flag-draped remains from Ground Zero, which has drawn criticism from Democrats and some victims' families.
The radio version of the Bush ad touts "the largest tax-relief package in history to grow the economy and create jobs," which has not been mentioned in any television spots, and says Kerry's spending would wind up "costing jobs and reversing our economic recovery."
Aggressive exchanges on the airwaves can drive up both candidates' negative ratings, as Howard Dean and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) learned in Iowa, when their ad war contributed to both of them finishing behind Kerry and Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.). But Bush strategist Matthew Dowd dismissed suggestions that the campaign has gone too negative too early, saying that Kerry "started the negative ads in September."