The "heavy lift" of the most negative campaigning will be done by surrogates like Vice President Dick Cheney (White House photo)
"A rule of Washington is that presidents should not descend too early into the swamp of a political campaign," writes Elizabeth Bumiller in The New York Times:
President Bush, for one, thinks that is nonsense . . .
Republicans say that Mr. Bush has jumped into the negative waters early because of the lessons he learned from his father, who hung back and failed in 1992, and because of his competitive personality . . .
"He said since they were blasting him for two months, they had to use 'comparative ads' ". . . said Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York . . . "And he smiled when he said that. He said that would get the debate started."
We're normally no fan of euphemism, but "comparative ads" have it all over "negative ads" when it comes to simply pointing out what Kerry himself has said or done.
Nonetheless, [a] White House official said, the "heavy lift" of the most negative campaigning would be done by surrogates like Vice President Dick Cheney, who strongly attacked Mr. Kerry on Wednedsay in a speech at the Reagan library in California. Mr. Cheney said that if it had been up to Mr. Kerry, Saddam Hussein would be in power in Iraq and in control of Kuwait. "It is not an impressive record for someone who aspires to become commander in chief in this time of testing for our country," Mr. Cheney said.
The president has so far been insistent, the official said, that the barbs he aims at Mr. Kerry are softened with humor. For example, after Mr. Bush decided he would directly attack Mr. Kerry the day after Mr. Kerry swept 9 of 10 states on Super Tuesday, he instructed his speechwriters to come up with a good line but "be funny about it," the White House official said.
The line — Mr. Kerry has "been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue" — got whoops from Republican donors in Los Angeles on March 3.
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