Negative Campaigning
Over the course of this election, Vice President Cheney said Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry "has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all” and said the senator from Massachusetts “promised to repeal most of the Bush tax cuts within his first 100 days in office.” President Bush's campaign began airing an ad saying Kerry would scrap wiretaps that are needed to hunt terrorists. Bush campaign also charged in a memo sent to reporters and through surrogates that Kerry wants to raise the gasoline tax by 50 cents. Later Kerry was greeted by another Bush ad alleging that Kerry now opposes education changes that he supported in 2001. The charges were all tough, serious -- and wrong, or at least highly misleading. Kerry did not question the war on terrorism, has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more than $200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the education changes, albeit with modifications.(1)
History remembers Bush as no stranger
using negative ads to destroy his
competitor’s credibility. This administration
uses such attacks largely to excuse themselves from answering the real questions
that need to be resolved. Dana
Milbank, a Washington Post columnist, explains, “instead
of offering his own agenda, Bush has poured tens of millions dollars into
television ads attacking Kerry, a strategy they believe was successful in
casting Kerry as a flip-flopper.”(2) Patricia Wilson, a Reuters reporter,
comments “the better-financed Bush campaign's $80
million advertising effort to portray him as an irresolute Northeastern liberal
who flip-flops on important issues like the Iraq War.”(3)
Three-quarters of the ads aired by Bush's campaign have been attacks on Kerry. Bush so far has aired 49,050 negative ads in the top 100 markets, or 75 percent of his advertising. Kerry has run 13,336 negative ads -- or 27 percent of his total.(4) “The balance of misleading claims tips to Bush, in part because the Kerry team has been more careful."(5)
Bush’s strategy requires Americans
to be gullible constituents. It is time
to start asking the harder questions of accomplishments and plans for the next
four years. We as citizens of the