Bush Attack On Foe Not Relentless

Sometimes Campaign Accentuates the Positive

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, July 20 -- President Bush had an announcement for the crowd of cheering supporters here Tuesday afternoon: He was going positive.

"Oh, I know, you're probably here thinking I'm going to spend most of the time attacking my opponent," Bush told the perspiring partisans in a sweltering gymnasium. "I've got too much good to talk about."

As it happens, Bush's journey on the high road was short. At a campaign rally near St. Louis four hours later, he returned to a familiar series of barbs directed at Democratic opponent John F. Kerry, deriding him as a "sky-is-falling" liberal who has taken "both sides of just about every issue."

Bush's brief, unilateral ceasefire illustrates the effort his campaign is making to calibrate the mix between positive and negative, a mix the president will further adjust as he delivers a new version of his stump speech Wednesday night at a GOP fundraising gala in Washington. Though incumbents traditionally campaign on their achievements with minimal mention of their opponents, polls indicate that a campaign raising doubts about his Democratic challenger may be Bush's best route to reelection.

Whether they love or hate him, Americans hold firm views about Bush. Kerry, however, remains vaguely defined. That means Bush has more opportunity to tarnish Kerry's image than to polish his own. And the public, while professing a distaste for negative campaigning, is invariably more influenced by it. Such tactics may be particularly effective this year, when the turnout of each side's partisans could prove decisive.

"You cannot run 'Morning in America,' " said Kerry strategist Tad Devine, referring to President Ronald Reagan's upbeat reelection message. "There's only one road for them, and it ain't the high road."

Nonsense, says Matthew Dowd, the Bush campaign chief strategist. "Most of his speech is positive and optimistic," he said. "And when contrasting with Kerry, he does it in a very straightforward, light and often funny way."

Both have a point. Bush, aiming to discredit Kerry without appearing unpresidential or gloomy, has been alternating between an optimistic message and a caustic assessment of Kerry. His advertisements have been overwhelmingly negative. But his speeches, though occasionally angry and defensive, more often have an upbeat and folksy delivery.

Measured in words, a typical Bush stump speech, after the standard opening thank you's, is about 45 percent on war and security, 25 percent on the economy and taxes, 10 percent on domestic issues and 20 percent criticism of Kerry. Throughout, Bush returns to an optimistic theme of security and prosperity. He promises a "safer, stronger and better" America, and says the "best days lie ahead."

Yet Bush's ads have been remarkably critical. An ad released last Thursday accused Kerry of opposing parental notification for teenage abortions. The previous week, Bush's ad said Kerry opposed a "law that protects pregnant women from violence." The week before, the campaign coupled an ad featuring Sen. John McCain's praise of Bush with a spot criticizing Kerry's terrorism policy, saying "he doesn't know the enemy."

Kerry is no stranger to negative campaigning. While Kerry's ads have been more positive than Bush's, he and various Democratic groups have labored so diligently to turn the election into a referendum on Bush's leadership that Kerry is often criticized for failing to define himself and his alternatives to Bush's policies on issues such as Iraq.

Such tactics are more common for a challenger, but Bush was able to exploit Kerry's theme in an ad last month titled "Pessimism." Bush pronounced, "I'm optimistic about America," while an announcer said Kerry is "talking about the Great Depression."

Kerry aides acknowledged that the "pessimism" charge was an effective one for Bush, because it turned Kerry's criticism of the president into evidence of a dour outlook for the country. The addition of the relentlessly sunny John Edwards to Kerry's ticket, however, has complicated the Bush charge. "Whether their message is delivered with a frown or with a grin, it's the same old pessimism," Bush said Tuesday.

During the day in Iowa and Missouri, Bush delivered his positive and negative themes. In the morning, he did not mention Kerry once as he outlined successes abroad and at home.

"We're marching to peace," he told the flag-waving crowd. And the economy, "is growing at nearly the fastest rate in 20 years," he said.

Still, Bush could not resist a couple of barbs, reminding the crowd that he is not a lawyer -- "that's the other team" -- and saying there were "no excuses" for Kerry's vote against Bush's Iraq funding proposal.

Then, in Missouri, Bush held little back in his portrayal of Kerry. He criticized the Democrat's positions on a range of issues, adding: "If you disagree with the senator on any issue, you may just have caught him on the wrong day." Bush said Kerry, the "most liberal member of the United States Senate," would bring higher taxes, more lawsuits, economic isolationism and other undesirable things.