Battle For Big Apple Turns Sour

Wall Street was bright and chilly around noontime. A brass combo played with all its might, and the music wafted all over the financial district. And on the Federal Hall steps, behind the heroic-size statue of George Washington, stood an enthusiastic band of John McCain supporters. They carried signs like "McCain's Bushwhackers," "Yuppies for McCain" (who knew we still had yuppies?) and "Chicks Dig McCain." An older man waved a black POW-MIA flag, and a double row of American flags framed the scene.

McCain was late, but he arrived to rapturous cheers and tiptoe excitement. His wife beamed next to him, as did his two most prominent supporters in New York, Rep. Peter King and Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari - so prominent that if you don't live in New York, you probably haven't heard of them.

McCain spoke briefly to the New York crowd. His speech was fairly typical, though it included warnings that his opponents are "trying to fool you again - they're alleging things that are not true." He also promised, "We're going to take New York," and the latest polls suggest he could; they show him neck and neck with Governor George W. Bush.

McCain's was a picture-perfect event, and a good one. But miles away, Bush staged one almost as perfect, though utterly different.

He attended a "leadership forum" on breast cancer in Stony Brook, Long Island, where the State University of New York has a Health Sciences Center. Joining him were his two most prominent New York supporters, Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whom you probably have heard of.

This was the kind of policy-wonk event that would make a Clinton or Gore proud. Doctors and breast cancer survivors spoke, as Bush earnestly asked questions, saying he was there to learn. He discussed cancer mapping and health care access for the poor. He got through the whole event without ever mentioning McCain's name. He didn't have to.

That's because his campaign is running a radio ad featuring a Long Island breast cancer survivor named Geri Barish, who says McCain voted against funding for breast cancer research because he deemed it "garden variety pork." And she adds: "Next Tuesday, John McCain won't have my vote. We deserve a candidate with a record on women's issues we can trust."

McCain says the ad is "misleading" because he's often voted for breast cancer research, but nixed a couple of projects because they hadn't been properly reviewed or authorized in the budget-making process. And he says Bush and his allies are trying "to hijack the campaign in New York."

It's the allies he has to worry about. It was Pataki, not Bush, who announced Thursday that McCain's voting record was "anti-New York." It was Pataki who led the effort to keep McCain off the ballot - an effort that failed.

And it's a new group called Republicans for Clean Air - headed by a Texas entreprener who has repeatedly given money to Bush - that's railing against McCain's environmental record and exalting Bush's, although neither candidate scores well with environmental watchdog groups. Bush says he has no knowledge of the ad.

"It's to Bush's benefit to keep above the fray" says Steven Brams, a professor of politics at New York University. He's been able to use his surrogates to do his hatchet work. And McCain is handicapped in fighting back because he has promised to run a positive campaign. More importantly, says Brams, "he has fewer people to speak for him."

But they're doing their best. Both King and Molinari denounced Bush as the Wall Street event drew to a close. King said the new ads were "despicable, beyond anything I've seen." (In New York? Please.) And he called on Bush to "do the right thing, and apologize for these false and scurrilous ads."

Indignation is good, but it's not as good as a calm-voiced, serious-minded, "I care" type of event like Stony Brook. There's no call to doubt the governor's concern about breast cancer, but Friday offered him a chance to do well while doing good. Friday was a well-crafted campaign moment - so well-crafted that Bush could say, without a smirk, "I'm glad to take a little time off the campaign trail to talk policy."