This Week’s

Attitude
First Bush Campaign Salvo Is The Lowest Of Blows

No sooner did my colleague’s (Charles Rogers) column (‘Candidate’ Bush Hasn’t Started To Aim His Guns Yet) appear in last week’s issue than the first salvo in President Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign was fired.

Ethically, it truly misfired.

It was insensitive, tasteless and exploitative — the lowest of blows!

If this is the chief strategy the Bush campaign intends to maintain for the next eight months, the ABB (Anyone But Bush) opposition will surely be plentiful and multiply before seeing history repeat itself when George W. Bush becomes a one-term president like his daddy.

Doesn’t anyone in the Bush Administration have any compassion and concern for those who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the rescue efforts on September 11, 2001?

Probably not or they wouldn’t have opted to
include scenes from Ground Zero in the first round of television campaign spots that began appearing on local stations in seventeen states (New York was not one of them) and on three national cable networks last week.

A widow whose husband died when the Twin Towers collapsed told the media, "This is a slap in the face of the murders of 3,000 people. It is unconscionable."

One New York City firefighter told the Daily News, "The images of firefighters at Ground Zero should not be used…for politics."

Harold Schaitberger, the general president of the International Association of Firefighters union, which has endorsed John Kerry, issued a statement after the ads debuted: "I’m disappointed, but not surprised that the president would try to trade on the heroism of those firefighters…The use of 9/11 images are hypocrisy at its worst...."

One person’s disgust is another’s satisfaction. A woman, who lost her brother on 9/11, supported the commercials, saying, "It speaks the truth of the times…Bush led us through the darkest moments in history."

Due to the disputed results of the 2002 election President Bush happened to be in office when the 9/11 catastrophe occurred, therefore he has an obvious political advantage and is entitled to blow his horn about what a great leader and crisis manager he believes he was in its aftermath.

For many, though, especially those who lost family members and friends, any graphic reference to that tragic day is a painful reminder of their loss. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t find it as inexcusable if the Bush campaign used that memorable photo of the president standing atop the debris from the Twin Towers with a fireman holding an American flag. After all, Bush wouldn’t have made it to the White House if he didn’t take advantage of and savor every possible photo opportunity.

But it’s shameful and appalling for his campaign to include in one ad a brief image of one of the collapsed towers then a glimpse of several firemen walking out of the rubble at Ground Zero carrying the body of
fallen comrade on a flag-draped stretcher.

Last weekend at his Texas ranch the president defended the controversial ads, which market his "steady leadership in times of change," vowing he will not drop them, citing his guidance that day and in the subsequent war on terrorism.

For a president and an administration that have refused full cooperation with the federal commission selected to investigate the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, it’s disgraceful that they chose to spotlight the tragedy in his
reelection effort.

When New York State Governor George Pataki referred to the tragedy in his reelection campaign two years ago, he at least had the sense and decency to preview ads for victims’ families for approval before letting them be broadcast.

You can bet you’ll never see the Bush campaign produce ads showing any of the 550+ servicemen killed in action being shipped back home in body bags. It would be risky to remind voters that the war in Iraq has absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 retaliation and have them question whether or not the unprovoked conflict has actually made the nation safer.

While opponents condemn Democratic presidential candidate-in-waiting John Kerry’s position changes on some issues, it should be noted that in January, 2003, President Bush told the Associated Press he didn’t have "any ambition whatsoever to use (9/11) as a political issue." (Emphasis is mine.)

Like a typical politician, he’s evidently had a change of mind to suit his political needs.