And the TV ads have begun.
Dubya has, as we expected, rolled out commercials that feature September 11 imagery and claim that the country is stronger and safer since he’s been president.
Um… strangely, I don’t remember ever feeling less safe, either from terrorism or from my own government.
“President Bush has provided the kind of steady leadership that the American people are looking for,” Mehlman said. “He has made this country more secure at home and abroad, and his pro-growth policies are helping to create jobs and strengthen the economic recovery. These ads share the president’s optimism about America’s direction.”
A statement issued by the Kerry campaign today blasts Bush’s ad campaign as “revisionist history,” and attacks his record on jobs, federal spending and domestic issues: “He said he would create 3.9 million jobs, but 3 million more people have lost their jobs. He said he would make health care more affordable, but 2.8 million more have lost their health insurance. He said he would cut the federal debt by $1 trillion, but his policies have added $1 trillion more, leaving the federal debt at over $7 trillion. Most astonishing, George Bush’s ad features a shot of the wreckage of that tragic September day almost 3 years ago, and the firefighters who so bravely worked to save lives.”
I swear, every time a smarmy Republican tries to weasel his way around something, I want to rip his larynx out with a small aluminum spatula:
In an interview on Tuesday, Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie downplayed the Bush campaign’s money advantage, suggesting that independent expenditures by pro-Democratic groups and individuals would more than even the playing field.
“Well there’s not really a money advantage when you look at the outside groups, and the fact is that these organizations like the AFL-CIO, Moveon.org, Americans Coming Together — the George Soros funded organization — they’ve said they’ll spend between $560-$620 million to defeat the President this year,” Gillespie said. “And I’m not sure that’s legal, but that’s what they said. And if that’s the case, then those who seek to defeat the president in 2004 will outspend those of us who seek to reelect him.”
Democrats scoff at that notion, noting that the Bush campaign, the RNC and various independent groups outspent Al Gore, the DNC and assorted Democratic-leaning groups by an estimated $178 million in 2000.
“The president is going to set all kinds of fundraising records,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Tony Welch. “And somehow [Gillespie] manages to say with a straight face that they’re going to be at a disadvantage. Nobody believes that.”
