President Bush, who campaigned gently for much of the spring by leaning on the prestige of his office, has dramatically sharpened his rhetoric against Sen. John Kerry since the presumptive Democratic nominee chose his running mate a week ago.
Mr. Bush took his first swipe at Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards at a campaign rally in York, Pa., last Friday — only hours after a sober speech on the war on terrorism.
Saying he looks forward to “a spirited debate,” Mr. Bush noted that a nonpartisan magazine rated Mr. Kerry, of Massachusetts, the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate, and Mr. Edwards ranked fourth.
“Back in Massachusetts, that’s what they call balancing the ticket,” Mr. Bush cracked, which along with his derision of Mr. Edwards as a trial lawyer and Mr. Kerry as a “proud liberal” delighted his partisan supporters.
And where Mr. Bush once merely lampooned Mr. Kerry for his famous quote that he “voted for the $87 billion [to support U.S. troops in Iraq] before I voted against it,” the president has taken a more serious tack.
“Earlier this week, [Mr. Kerry] said he is proud that he and his running mate voted against the funding of our troops,” Mr. Bush said in Wisconsin, the second time in two days he used that line.
Democrats are accusing the president of taking the political discourse to a new low.
“At a time the country is focused on winning the war on terrorism, President Bush is running the risk of further dividing the country on minor differences with the Democrats,” said Democratic political consultant Donna Brazile.
Mr. Bush should be taking the high road, Miss Brazile said, and calling off his partisan allies as well, for the good of a country at war.
“It’s sad and unusual for an incumbent president, with a vice president and Cabinet as well as the leaders on Capitol Hill, to use so much of his political capital to score cheap political points,” she said.
There is little sign the president will not jump at every chance to further define for voters a Democratic candidate whose record and character is still largely unknown to the general public.
When in Michigan this week, another closely contested state, the president has also harped on a star-studded Democratic fund-raiser attended by Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards last week that featured such stars as Whoopi Goldberg using vulgar and scatological language.
The event played right into the Bush campaign’s hands, which had planned to paint the president as more in touch with the values of most ordinary Americans. His speech in York was being rewritten only hours before it was delivered, said a campaign aide, to paint Mr. Kerry as a pal of liberal Hollywood.
“The other day, my opponent said, when he was with some entertainers from Hollywood that they were the heart and soul of America,” Mr. Bush said, to rousing boos. “I believe the heart and soul of America is found in places right here, in Marquette, Michigan … . These values and institutions are fundamental to our lives. They deserve the respect of our government.”
Aides close to the Bush campaign say that despite the president’s reputation for campaign comity, he greatly enjoys a good political fight.
Many Republicans nervously waited for Mr. Bush to prove it after months of negative attacks stretching back to the Democratic primaries. Mr. Bush preferred to show the people that he was doing his job at an important time in history, leaving it to Vice President Dick Cheney to respond to the Democrats’ attacks.
Now that each two-man ticket has been set, those days are over.
“Bush is proving that he’s not just presidential, but that he can go toe-to-toe with anybody,” said Republican political consultant John Fluerity, who gives the Bush-Cheney campaign team high marks for quick and nimble action.
“Bush is trying to step up and show folks what he and Cheney have to offer, as opposed to the other team,” Mr. Fluerity said.
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