Air Wars: Bush Goes Negative

President Bush has stepped up the air war with John Kerry with his first negative TV commercial. The ad asserts Mr. Bush's Democratic rival would raise taxes by at least $900 billion and is soft on defense.

In response, the Kerry campaign immediately went to work on an ad that will accuse Mr. Bush of distorting Kerry's record.

"John Kerry: Wrong on taxes. Wrong on defense," says an announcer in a new 30-second Bush ad.

Kerry's campaign called the $900 billion figure "completely made up," and accused Bush of running away from his own record.

A second Bush ad that does not name Kerry tells voters they face choices on the economy, health care and the war on terrorism. "We can go forward with confidence, resolve and hope. Or we can turn back to the dangerous illusions that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat," Mr. Bush says in the second ad.

The Bush ads will begin airing in 18 states Friday along with radio ads that make the same high-taxes, soft-on-terrorism argument against Kerry.

They are the second wave of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that is designed, through focus groups and polls, to shift voters' attention from Mr. Bush's political weaknesses to strengths — from talk of joblessness in an ailing economy to a debate over Democratic tax hikes; and on terrorism, from violence-torn Iraq to reminders of his leadership on Sept. 11, 2001.

In response, Kerry's advisers said they began working on an ad titled, "Misleading America," to accuse Mr. Bush of distorting the Democrat's record. But they would not say how much money Kerry would spend to broadcast the ad nor the number of states it would run in, raising doubts about whether the ad would be a formidable response to Mr. Bush's blitz.

Meeting with congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill, Kerry dismissed the ads, saying they fail to focus on health care, jobs, education, the environment and a safe America. "They can't talk about those things because George Bush doesn't have a record to run on, he has a record to run away from, and that's what they're trying to do," Kerry said.

The ads are certain to spark debate over negative campaign tactics, as well as Kerry's record on taxes and terrorism.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, urged Mr. Bush to withdraw one of the new ads because it illustrates the section on terrorism with a picture of an olive-skinned man with bushy eyebrows.

"If they wanted to put Osama bin Laden up there that's fine, but using just a face stereotypes," Zogby said.

The Democratic campaign condemned Mr. Bush's "attack ad" and negative politics just a day after Kerry called Republican critics "the most crooked ... lying group I've ever seen."

That comment, captured without Kerry's knowledge by a live microphone, prompted Bush adviser Marc Racicot to call on Kerry to apologize "for this negative attack."

During the Democratic primary, Kerry ran at least a dozen ads criticizing Bush or his policies.

The drumbeat of attacks from Kerry and other Democrats helped reduce Mr. Bush's poll ratings to their lowest levels of his presidency.

The president is now in a rush to recover, as well as to define Kerry for voters. The next several weeks gives the president a chance to go on the offensive while the nominee-in-waiting is low on money and enlisting the help of former rivals.