Dick and W Fight Back

Things have gotten even more interesting in the past few days. I continue to get direct mail from Dick Gephardt's campaign. One piece continues a common theme of Gephardt literature: quotes from news sources that keep repeating that Gephardt is the candidate GOP strategists most fear. (Dear blog readers and political insiders, is this true, or is this - as someone recently suggested to me - just GOP strategist disinformation to get people to endorse Gephardt, who Bush really thinks he could beat?)

The other Gephardt direct mail piece fights back by naming Dean, Kerry, and Edwards in a comparison on economic proposals. The piece says in part, "Dick Gephardt Will Beat George W. Bush Because He Can Give Voters What Other Candidates Can't � A CHOICE on Jobs and Trade." Below, it says "Other Candidates Support Policies that Send American Jobs Overseas." Below that are entries for his three rivals:

Howard Dean. Supported NAFTA, Fast Track, and permanent trade relations with China - even though NAFTA and other bad trade deals he supported have cut Vermont's exports 38% (9/13/93 and 2/26/03).

John Kerry. Voted for NAFTA (11/20/93) and the recent China trade deal (9/19/00) - agreements that did far too little to protect American jobs or American workers.

John Edwards. Voted for the recent China trade deal (9/19/00) - the kind of bad deal that has opened our country to cheap imports and has cost his state of North Carolina thousands of jobs in the textile and furniture industries.

OK, now everyone has the gloves off. Including the Republicans, who don't even have a presidential primary or caucus season.

You've probably heard about the new TV ad for Bush: on Friday, Nov. 21, the Republican Party unleashed their first TV ad of this long, long campaign season. The ad says in part that there are those people who are "attacking the president for attacking terrorists." It is, of course, the intention of ad writers to use the "attack" word to reference both what Bush is purported to be doing to terrorists and what critics of Bush are doing to him. Bill Maher got forced out of his job at ABC a long time ago for comments critical of Bush, so this ad must be referring to the Democratic candidates who are critical of Bush's approach to the war on terrorism. The ad sounds like it has all the charm of former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer's now-famous announcement that "there are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do." The new Bush ad is apparently one of those reminders.

These ads may continue. Republicans paid $100,000 to place the new Bush ad. One advocacy group from the left, Moveon.org, vows to raise $500,000 to put out response ads.