Campaigns poised to launch offensives

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The Bush-Cheney campaign, which yesterday announced its first round of re-election ads, plans to spend the next eight months targeting Sen. John Kerry as a Massachusetts liberal who is weak on defense and national security.

After months of silence while a large field of Democratic rivals criticized President Bush, operatives for the Bush-Cheney re-election team are ready to mount a counteroffensive.

The ads will begin with a recitation of Mr. Bush's achievements and quickly move to a point-by-point comparison with Mr. Kerry, targeting his 20-year Senate record.

Mr. Bush himself enunciated one central message for Republicans in the 2004 campaign in a Los Angeles speech last night -- national security.

He took exception to Mr. Kerry's claim that the war on terrorism is "far less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering, law-enforcement operation," saying this was how the Clinton administration handled the first World Trade Center bombing, in 1993.

"The matter was handled in the courts and thought by some to be settled, but the terrorists were still training in Afghanistan, plotting in other nations and drawing up more ambitious plans," Mr. Bush said. "After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers."

Vice President Dick Cheney was sounding a similar note Tuesday even as Mr. Kerry was effectively clinching the Democratic presidential nomination in the primaries and caucuses.

Mr. Kerry "clearly has, over the years, adopted a series of positions that indicate a desire to cut the defense budget, to cut the intelligence budget, to eliminate many major weapons programs, to vote against, for example, the first Gulf war resolution back in 1991, and his inconsistency with respect to Iraq," Mr. Cheney told Fox News Channel.

The Bush-Cheney campaign, sitting on a $100 million war chest, is planning on early advertising in 16 battleground states. Those early ads will offer a positive and upbeat message, avoiding mention of Mr. Kerry while stressing the president's "steady leadership in times of change" -- the slogan of one of the first ads that will air in select television markets.