NYT:Kerry Opens New Bush Attack Focusing on Iraq & Economy

[DeepModem Mom]

Kerry Opens New Bush Attack, Focusing on Iraq and Economy
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JIM RUTENBERG

Published: April 22, 2004


WASHINGTON, April 21 — Senator John Kerry on Wednesday began what aides said would be an increasingly visible and combative challenge to President Bush, starting with a bus trip through the distressed Midwest and a television advertisement attacking Mr. Bush's Iraq record.

The moves, intended to define Mr. Kerry's candidacy, amount to a re-emergence of sorts by a candidate who largely yielded the spotlight to Mr. Bush after effectively winning the Democratic nomination in early March....

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Mr. Kerry's aides repeatedly described Mr. Bush's spending (over a two-month period on television ads "intended to undercut him while he remained largely unknown to most of the country") as a waste, contending that voters were not paying attention to the race this long before Election Day.

But two newspaper polls this week found that Mr. Bush had succeeded in raising doubts about Mr. Kerry's credibility and ideology. That finding, coming after three weeks of unwelcome news for Mr. Bush from Iraq and a commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, unsettled many Democrats. Republicans said on Wednesday that Mr. Bush's overwhelming advantage over Mr. Kerry on the issues of terrorism and foreign affairs overrode any concerns voters might have had about the news that has besieged the White House in recent weeks....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/politics/campaign/22CAMP.html