Archive: Ari Fleischer

Veteran CBS News White House Correspondent Bill Plante brings a top political expert into the Smoke-Filled Room each week to answer your questions. His guest this week is Bush campaign Spokesman and Senior Communications adviser, Ari Fleischer.

Plante: Several readers have written in with questions concerning the “rats” ad. Describing themselves as “proud Republicans” they are nonetheless concerned that this negative ad reflects poorly on the Bush campaign. What are your thoughts on this? Has the ad, and the ensuing controversy, helped or hurt the campaign?

Fleischer: Well, it was an unwelcome distraction. What’s unfortunate is, that this is one of those occasions where there’s no “there” there. There was never any intention to produce an ad, where one out of 900 frames had a word that was insignificant, and was not put there by design. I think this is a classic case of a mountain being made out of nothing.

Plante: But I have to assume it doesn’t help?

Fleischer: I’ve addressed that. It’s an unwelcome distraction.

Plante: Both George W. and Al Gore have plans to help out the “average working American”. What income level is considered average? A family of four making $100,000 would be considered wealthy in parts of the Midwest, but would have a hard time making ends meet in Manhattan or the Silicon Valley. How would a Bush administration handle the disparity?

Fleischer: That’s a great question. That’s why the Governor’s plans don’t divide the American people. The Vice-President’s plans do target Americans to determine who is worthy and not worthy of receiving government help, whether it’s through the tax code or other policies. The Governor believes that all Americans deserve tax relief and that no one should pay more than one third of their income to the government in taxes. The Vice-President’s plans pick and choose who the right Americans are to receive tax relief. As a result, he denies relief to more than 50 million Americans.

Plante: Thomas Wuestenfeld writes, “After having a commanding lead in the polls, the Bush campaign appears to be foundering. What will you be doing to counteract this?”

Fleischer: The good news about having a big lead in the polls is that it felt good. The bad news is, we predicted it wouldn’t last forever. We always said this race would be a dead even race by Labor Day, and that’s what we planned on, and that’s where we are. We’re going to be in a very close race now, through November. But ultimately the Governor is going to win. His policies on saving social security by letting younger workers own a piece of their payroll tax, his policies on improving education, rebuilding the military and cutting txes are more in sync with the American people than Vice-President Gore’s policies, which will blow the surplus on bigger spending, complicate the tax code and fail to close the achievement gap or improve education.

Plante: Do you agree that the Governor has changed the campaign strategy to one that relied more on his personality to one that relies more now on issues?

Fliescher: No, I don’t. The Governor from the beginning has run a very issue oriented campaign. His first speech upon entering the race for nomination was in June 1998 in Indianapolis where he promoted faith based giving. He gave a series of speeches on education throughout the fall. He talked about military preparedness and taxes. The Governor has been on the cutting edge of talking about policy.

Plante: Al Gore’s choice of Joe Lieberman appears to have revitalized his campaign in a way that Bush’s choice of Dick Cheney has not. Do you think a vice-presidential candidate makes much of a difference in a presidential race? Why or why not?

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Plante: Why won’t Gov. Bush appear on the David Letterman show? Tom Tong is curious.

Fleischer: Who said he wouldn’t? It’s under review right now.

Plante: Do you think he might?

Fleisher: It’s always a possibility. It’s a funny option.

Plante: Did you see the Vice-President’s appearance there?

Fleishdcer:I did. I enjoyed it. He was very comical. I liked the joke about 24-6. It sounds like an improvement in my hours if could get it.

Plante: ”The Democrats appear to have co-opted one of the Republicans strongest platforms – i.e. “family values”, as seen in the recent look at Hollywood and violence directed at children,” notes Hamad Ali Al-Thani. He wants to know, “How are the Republicans going to “take back” this issue?”

Fleischer: We can’t take it back because it still is ours. I think that the attempt by Al Gore to say he is in a position to make Hollywood clean up its act is one more reason why people don’t think they can count on Al Gore to follow through on what he says he’s going to do or to keep his word on important issues. At the same time the Vice-President was criticizing Hollywood for going around marketing rules so they could provide their wares to children who should not be seeing some movies, the co-host of his fundraiser in New York City was a man, Harvey Weinstein, who set up a special subsidiary at Miramax Films so he could market a NC-17 movie to children without a rating on it. I think Al Gore’s attempt to talk about Hollywood issues will remind American people that Al Gore can’t be counted on to follow through on the things he does and says.

Plante: ”Where do you think you get the fairest and most intelligent coverage –television, newspapers, or the internet?” asks Jack Cotto.

Fleischer: Fairest and most intelligent? Sometimes the two don’t go together. It varies and it fluctuates. You get a healthy amount from each different forms. The internet is challenging – it’s so wide open. There’s all kinds of avenues for zaniness on the internet, as well as wonderful avenues that bring people more information right at their fingertips. Television and newspapers aren’t what they used to be in terms of viewership and readership, but they still dominate. There’s also a difference by age. More young people get their news from the net; more elderly people get their news from newspapers.

Plante: So you’re just hoping for good coverage from all?

Fleischer: That’s right. As someone who makes his living dealing with the press, I don’t find it a fruitful endeavor to question whether the press coverage is either fair or intelligent, I simply deal with it on a regular, ongoing basis and make the best of it.

Plante: Play the hand you’re dealt?

Fleischer: That’s exactly right.