Bush Steals 'Reform' Fire

The CBS News Political Unit is tracking the campaign commercials of the presidential hopefuls. Jane Ruvelson analyzes the latest effort from Republican George W. Bush.

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The Ad: The Bush campaign has launched two versions of a new ad called Comprehensive in South Carolina, Washington, North Dakota, Virginia and Michigan. The spot criticizes McCain for saying he'd refrain from negative campaigning but then "attacking" Bush on television a few days later.

Audio: Announcer: "It's disappointing. Friday, John McCain promised to stop running a negative campaign. Then Sunday, he attacked Governor Bush on national television with false charges on campaign finance. Governor Bush supports comprehensive reform that would outlaw foreign, corporate and union money to political parties. Senator McCain? Five times, he voted to use your taxes to pay for political campaigns. That's not real reform. Governor Bush will devote the surplus to priorities: a strong military, education, social security and tax cuts."

Visual: Through much of the ad, text of the audio is set against a blue and white screen. It presents the "negative charges" McCain made on last weekend's Face the Nation ("Bush thinks it should remain legal, I guess, for a Chinese army-owned corporation to give unlimited amounts of money to an American political campaign.") and citation of five of McCain's congressional votes. When George Bush is described, he is pictured giving speeches and interacting with voters. When McCain's votes on public financing are mentioned, we see a picture of the U.S. Capitol.

Fact Check: Accurate - sort of. McCain has consistently said he opposes public financing of campaigns, but he has voted in favor of measures containing public financing language as part of comprehensive campaign-finance packages. He explains that he "will not let the perfect be the enemy of the good." During a debate of one campaign-finance reform bill, McCain said, "While I would have preferred that the legislation avoid any public financing, I believe the compromise that was struck is a reasonable approach to this issue."

The Strategy: With relatively few substantive differences between the candidates, character is emerging as a defining factor. Comprehensive portrays McCain as a hypocrite for (what Bush views as) a reversal of his pledge to return to positive campaigning. It also attempts to steal the mantle of "reformer" from McCain by highlighting Bush's recent contribution to the finance reform debate while disaffirming McCain's reform efforts. Bush also tries to tar McCain as a "tax and spender," willing to use tax dollars to fund campaigns, while Bush would focus on his priorities, which include conservative favorites like military spending and tax relief.