Even his allies are wary. And today, James Zogby, brother of the pollster and head of an Arab-American policy institute denounced the new ads for spotlighting an 'Arab-looking' fellow re Kerry being weak on defense.
Even some of Mr. Bush's supporters say that he risks alienating voters by seeming heavy-handed. Conservative activist Bill Kristol, who was chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, likens the Republicans' decision to hold their 2004 convention in New York to the president's landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier in May when he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. "Most of these moves, they're too clever by half," he says.
Politicizing 9/11? Democrats have denounced the Bush campaign's use of 9/11 imagery in its latest ads.
Harlem Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel is harsher. "They're walking on such thin ice," he says. "I'm telling you, it's going to backfire, sure as hell."
The choice last year to hold the party convention in New York -- the first time the Republican Party has ever picked the Big Apple -- demonstrates the risks and rewards of the 9/11 strategy.
Mr. Mehlman insists New York wasn't chosen as a Sept. 11 backdrop. "It's a great place to have a convention," he says. Yet he is coy about how Republicans may incorporate Sept. 11 into their convention. He says he can't "guarantee" that Republicans will steer clear of Ground Zero, but he pledges the convention will be tasteful in whatever it does. "We'll handle any question of 9/11 in a respectful way," he says.
The convention, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 4, just days before the third anniversary of the attacks, will give Republicans a televised opportunity to reinforce impressions that the president rose to the challenge they posed. But to capitalize on that opportunity, Bush image-meisters must be subtle. "There is a tissue-thin line that separates braggadocio from appropriate sentimentality," says Eric Dezenhall, a former Reagan White House public-relations man who runs a Washington communications firm. "The key will be to dance along that line tastefully. If he succeeds, big payoff. If he fails, backlash."
John Zogby, a nonpartisan pollster based in New York, says the Bush camp's sense of the national mood may be faulty. When Republicans chose New York 14 months ago, Mr. Bush was riding high in the polls and turning up pressure for war with Iraq. Going to New York seemed a can't-miss selection. But since then, Mr. Bush's national-security choices, especially the decision to invade Iraq, have become increasingly controversial. Seizing upon the images and memories of Sept. 11 could further energize the opposition.
"The country is so polarized that everything is perceived through political lenses," he says. "How do you have a memorial service at the Republican National Convention without it turning into a partisan and ugly moment? I don't think they can."
The controversy over Mr. Bush's initial set of television ads, which featured scenes of the debris from the collapsed World Trade Center and images of firefighters, gives a sense of how risky the 9/11 strategy may be. Some relatives of individuals who died in the Twin Towers endorsed the Bush ads, but others complained Sept. 11 was being used for political gain. In the give-and-take this week, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie criticized an antiwar group that includes some family members. An RNC spokeswoman says Mr. Gillespie was not criticizing the surviving families. "It is about the organization," she said, noting the group's association with MoveOn.org, an advocacy group critical of Mr. Bush.
Still, the spat dramatized the emotion at the heart of the issue. With so much at stake, the Bush camp is turning to former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, for support. He contends the Bush campaign "has to deal with" the Sept. 11 attacks, and argues that the Bush ads and the campaign's action so far have been appropriate. But he acknowledges the sensitivity of the issue. "There's no question there is a line that you shouldn't cross," Mr. Giuliani says. But as to where the line is, he says, "I'm not sure anybody knows exactly."
