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Attacking the messenger

It's a great debate tactic, when you can't counter the facts, go
after the messenger. Oh sure, the facts prove you completely
wrong, but they come from a source you don't like, so you can
ignore them. Sounds a lot like Bush's science policy to me.

---Check Kerry's record for yourself and you'll find that the Bush
ads are completely and totally true---

Really? Let's check that out. Can you provide any evidence that
this article is factually incorrect?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3222
-2004May30.html

From Bush, Unprecedented Negativity
Scholars Say Campaign Is Making History With Often-Misleading
Attacks

By Dana Milbank and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 31, 2004; Page A01



It was a typical week in the life of the Bush reelection machine.


Last Monday in Little Rock, Vice President Cheney said
Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry "has questioned
whether the war on terror is really a war at all" and said the
senator from Massachusetts "promised to repeal most of the
Bush tax cuts within his first 100 days in office."


On Tuesday, President Bush's campaign began airing an ad
saying Kerry would scrap wiretaps that are needed to hunt
terrorists.


The same day, the Bush campaign charged in a memo sent to
reporters and through surrogates that Kerry wants to raise the
gasoline tax by 50 cents.


On Wednesday and Thursday, as Kerry campaigned in Seattle, he
was greeted by another Bush ad alleging that Kerry now opposes
education changes that he supported in 2001.


The charges were all tough, serious -- and wrong, or at least
highly misleading. Kerry did not question the war on terrorism,
has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more
than $200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent
gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the
education changes, albeit with modifications.


Scholars and political strategists say the ferocious Bush assault
on Kerry this spring has been extraordinary, both for the volume
of attacks and for the liberties the president and his campaign
have taken with the facts. Though stretching the truth is hardly
new in a political campaign, they say the volume of negative
charges is unprecedented -- both in speeches and in
advertising.


Three-quarters of the ads aired by Bush's campaign have been
attacks on Kerry. Bush so far has aired 49,050 negative ads in
the top 100 markets, or 75 percent of his advertising. Kerry has
run 13,336 negative ads -- or 27 percent of his total. The
figures were compiled by The Washington Post using data from
the Campaign Media Analysis Group of the top 100 U.S. markets.
Both campaigns said the figures are accurate.


The assault on Kerry is multi-tiered: It involves television ads,
news releases, Web sites and e-mail, and statements by Bush
spokesmen and surrogates -- all coordinated to drive home the
message that Kerry has equivocated and "flip-flopped" on Iraq,
support for the military, taxes, education and other matters.


"There is more attack now on the Bush side against Kerry than
you've historically had in the general-election period against
either candidate," said University of Pennsylvania professor
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, an authority on political communication.
"This is a very high level of attack, particularly for an
incumbent."


Brown University professor Darrell West, author of a book on
political advertising, said Bush's level of negative advertising is
already higher than the levels reached in the 2000, 1996 and
1992 campaigns. And because campaigns typically become more
negative as the election nears, "I'm anticipating it's going to be
the most negative campaign ever," eclipsing 1988, West said. "If
you compare the early stage of campaigns, virtually none of the
early ads were negative, even in '88."


In terms of the magnitude of the distortions, those who study
political discourse say Bush's are no worse than those that have
been done since, as Stanford University professor Shanto Iyengar
put it, "the beginning of time."


Kerry, too, has made his own misleading statements and
exaggerations. For example, he said in a speech last week about
Iraq: "They have gone it alone when they should have assembled
a whole team." That is not true. There are about 25,000 allied
troops from several nations, particularly Britain, in Iraq. Likewise,
Kerry said several times last week that Bush has spent $80
million on negative and misleading ads -- a significant
overstatement. Kerry also suggested several times last week that
Bush opposed increasing spending on several homeland defense
programs; in fact, Bush has proposed big increases in homeland
security but opposed some Democratic attempts to increase
spending even more in some areas. Kerry's rhetoric at rallies is
also often much harsher and more personal than Bush's.


But Bush has outdone Kerry in the number of untruths, in part
because Bush has leveled so many specific charges (and Kerry
has such a lengthy voting record), but also because Kerry has
learned from the troubles caused by Al Gore's misstatements in
2000. "The balance of misleading claims tips to Bush," Jamieson
said, "in part because the Kerry team has been more careful."
Attacks Get Early Start



The attacks have started unusually early -- even considering the
accelerated primary calendar -- in part because Bush was
responding to a slew of attacks on his record during the
Democratic primaries, in which the rivals criticized him more
than one another. And because the Bush campaign has spent an
unprecedented sum on advertising at this early stage of the
campaign, "the average voter is getting a much more negative
impression," said Ken Goldstein, who tracks political advertising
at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.


From the president and Cheney down to media aides stationed
in every battleground state and volunteers who dress up like
Flipper the flip-flopping dolphin at rallies, the Bush campaign
relentlessly portrays Kerry as elitist, untrustworthy, liberal and a
flip-flopper on major issues. This campaign is persistent and
methodical, and it often revs up on Monday mornings with the
strategically timed release of ads or damaging attacks on Kerry,
including questioning medical and service records in Vietnam
and his involvement in the peace movement afterward. Often,
they knock Kerry off message and force him to deflect personal
questions.


Sometimes the charges ring true. Last week, Kerry told NBC: "I'm
for the Patriot Act, but I'm not for the Patriot Act the way they
abuse the Constitution." That brought to mind Kerry's much-
mocked contention in March on Iraq spending: "I actually did
vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."


But often they distort Kerry's record and words to undermine the
candidate or reinforce negative perceptions of him.


One constant theme of the Bush campaign is that Kerry is
"playing politics" with Iraq, terrorism and national security.
Earlier this month, Bush-Cheney Chairman Marc Racicot told
reporters in a conference call that Kerry suggested in a speech
that 150,000 U.S. troops are "universally responsible" for the
misdeeds of a few soldiers at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison -- a
statement the candidate never made. In that one call, Racicot
made at least three variations of this claim and the campaign cut
off a reporter who challenged him on it.


In early March, Bush charged that Kerry had proposed a $1.5
billion cut in the intelligence budget that would "gut the
intelligence services." Kerry did propose such a cut in 1995, but
it amounted to about 1 percent of the overall intelligence budget
and was smaller than the $3.8 billion cut the Republican-led
Congress approved for the same program Kerry was targeting.


The campaign ads, which are most scrutinized, have produced a
torrent of misstatements. On March 11, the Bush team released
a spot saying that in his first 100 days in office Kerry would
"raise taxes by at least $900 billion." Kerry has said no such
thing; the number was developed by the Bush campaign's
calculations of Kerry's proposals.


On March 30, the Bush team released an ad noting that Kerry
"supported a 50-cent-a-gallon gas tax" and saying, "If Kerry's
tax increase were law, the average family would pay $657 more
a year." But Kerry opposes an increase in the gasoline tax. The
ad is based on a 10-year-old newspaper quotation of Kerry but
implies that the proposal is current.


Other Bush claims, though misleading, are rooted in facts. For
example, Cheney's claim in almost every speech that Kerry "has
voted some 350 times for higher taxes" includes any vote in
which Kerry voted to leave taxes unchanged or supported a
smaller tax cut than some favored.
Stretching the Truth



Incumbent presidents often prefer to run on their records in
office, juxtaposing upbeat messages with negative shots at their
opponents, as Bill Clinton did in 1996.


Scott Reed, who ran Robert J. Dole's presidential campaign that
year, said the Bush campaign has little choice but to deliver a
constant stream of such negative charges. With low poll
numbers and a volatile situation in Iraq, Bush has more hope of
tarnishing Kerry's image than promoting his own.


"The Bush campaign is faced with the hard, true fact that they
have to keep their boot on his neck and define him on their
terms," Reed said. That might risk alienating some moderate
voters or depressing turnout, "but they don't have a choice," he
said.


The strategy was in full operation last week, beginning Monday
in Arkansas. "Senator Kerry," Cheney said, "has questioned
whether the war on terror is really a war at all. He said, quote, 'I
don't want to use that terminology.' In his view, opposing
terrorism is far less of a military operation and more of a law
enforcement operation."


But Kerry did not say what Cheney attributes to him. The quote
Cheney used came from a March interview with the New York
Times, in which Kerry used the phrase "war on terror." When he
said "I don't want to use that terminology," he was discussing
the "economic transformation" of the Middle East -- not the war
on terrorism.


On Tuesday, the Bush campaign held a conference call to discuss
its new ad, which charged that Kerry was "pressured by fellow
liberals" to oppose wiretaps, subpoena powers and surveillance
in the USA Patriot Act. "Kerry would now repeal the Patriot Act's
use of these tools against terrorists," the ad said.


Kerry has proposed modifying those provisions by mandating
tougher judicial controls over wiretaps and subpoenas, but not
repealing them. In the conference call, Bush campaign manager
Ken Mehlman was prodded to offer evidence that Kerry was
pressured by liberals or that Kerry opposed wiretaps. He offered
no direct evidence, saying only that Kerry objected to the Patriot
Act after liberals did, and that "a common-sense reading
indicates he intends to repeal those important tools."


Meanwhile, Kerry was greeted in Oregon and Washington state
with television ads paid for by the Bush campaign that
underscore what ad analysts call the negativity and misleading
nature of many of the Bush TV spots. One titled "Doublespeak"
pulls quotes from several major newspapers to argue that Kerry
has waffled on major issues and has often said one thing and
done another. The quotes, however, are often from editorials,
sometimes from opinion pages hostile toward Kerry, such as
that of the Wall Street Journal.


On Tuesday and Wednesday, as Kerry talked about rising
gasoline prices, the Bush campaign recycled its charge that Kerry
supports raising the gasoline tax by 50 cents per gallon. This
was done in a memo to reporters and through Bush surrogates
such as Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.). The Bush-Cheney Web
site also features a "Kerry Gas Tax Calculator," allowing users to
learn "How much more would he cost you?"


In Thursday's Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tracey Schmitt, regional
spokeswoman for Bush-Cheney '04, echoed the point: "John
Kerry helped block the bill in the Senate and is now inserting
himself into the debate in a blatant display of political
opportunism. Senator Kerry supported higher gas taxes at least
11 times, including a 50-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax," Schmitt
said.


On Thursday, after Kerry delivered a major foreign policy
address, the Bush campaign dispatched Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)
to make this statement to the Green Bay Press-Gazette in his
home state: "John Kerry has a history of making proposals and
casting votes that would decrease America's safety." Kerry was
campaigning in Green Bay on Thursday and Friday.


It is true Kerry has voted numerous times to eliminate weapons
systems and opposed the 1991 Iraq war. But Cheney voted
against many of those same weapons systems, and Kerry has
voted for several defense increases, especially in recent years.


At Bush campaign headquarters on Thursday, Mehlman held a
conference call with Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and George Allen (R-
Va.) to level similar charges. "For John Kerry, the war in Iraq and
the overall war on terror are a political game of Twister,"
Mehlman said.


Mehlman also drew reporters' attention to a new feature on the
Bush Web site, allowing visitors to "Track Kerry's Shifting
Positions on Iraq." That feature joined a Web log that points out
negative coverage of Kerry, a feature called "John Kerry: The Raw
Deal," "The Kerry Line," "Kerry Flip Flop of the Day," and
"Journeys with John," a Kerry itinerary allowing people to see why
"John Kerry is wrong for your state."


On Wednesday, a Bush memo charged that Kerry "led the fight
against creating the Department of Homeland Security." While
Kerry did vote against the Bush version multiple times, it is not
true that he led the fight, but rather was one of several
Democrats who held out for different labor agreements as part
of its creation. Left unsaid is that, in the final vote, Kerry
supported the department -- which Bush initially opposed.


Staff writer Howard Kurtz contributed to this report.





? 2004 The Washington Post Company

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 07/07/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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