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 Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers  KEY MOMENTS ? INSIDE THE CAMPAIGNS Wed Nov 03 2004 19:40:31 ET TIME REVEALS A SERIES OF UNTOLD STORIES AND CRISES IN THE BUSH AND KERRY CAMPAIGNS How Bush Laid A Trap for Kerry on Iraq The Bush Team's Reaction to the bin Laden Videotape Helped The President and Hurt Kerry How Bush Pulled McCain Into His Camp Kerry Was Furious When Word of ?Strategy Call? With Clinton Was In Newspapers Shortly Before Clinton Heart Surgery New York ?TIME goes behind the scenes of the Bush and Kerry campaigns and reveals a series of untold stories and crises as well as the key moments that changed the race for President. Bush and Kerry weren?t only battling each other -- in the hunt for every last vote, each man had to rediscover his own instincts as well, TIME?s Karen Tumulty, John Dickerson, Perry Bacon and Jay Carney report. BUSH: How the President laid a trap for Kerry on Iraq after the Democratic Convention: After the Democratic National Convention, when Kerry was seen as a more plausible Commander in Chief, the Bush team planned to bait Kerry by inserting into every speech Bush?s question, "My opponent hasn?t answered the question of whether, knowing what we know now, he would have supported going into Iraq." Some on the Bush team feared Kerry wouldn?t take the bait, TIME reports. Bush adviser Mary Matalin tells TIME, "We weren?t sure he would do it. We thought we might see the strong closer everyone had talked about." But three days later at the Grand Canyon Kerry responded to a reporter who posed Bush?s question, saying he believed even now it was right to authorize the use of force. "We couldn?t believe that he went for it," says White House communications director Dan Barlett. Barlett answered a message on his Blackberry asking if Kerry had given the campaign a gift. "Yes, and my boss it about to open it," he replied. They crafted a speech in which Bush lampooned Kerry?s "new nuance" concluding with the mocking compliment "I want to thank Senator Kerry for clearing that up." Other key moments, behind the scenes: BUSH AND KERRY: How Do We Play The Videotape?: Four days before the election Bush learned that Osama bin Laden had delivered another video to al-Jazeera. It looked like the opportunity to ride the storyline the White House loved best?right through the final days. It would "bring the security moms back home," said a Bush adviser, describing the campaign?s view of the political benefit. Word went out from Air Force One that no one in the campaign or at G.O.P. headquarters was to make a political calculation within earshot of a reporter. Once aides were sure the video was being aired, however, Bush wrote down some remarks that included Senator John Kerry. "We knew that Kerry couldn?t resist responding more than he should on these issues," said a senior White House aide at the time. "He has to show that he knows better." The President lured Kerry in a brief statement: "Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country. I?m sure Senator Kerry agrees with this." Then the Bush campaign?s rapid-response team discovered remarks Kerry had made to a local Wisconsin TV station, reiterating that Bush had let bin Laden slip away at Tora Bora. The Bushies cried foul and had Bush do so in his last speech of the day. "It?s the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking," said Bush. "It is especially shameful in the light of a new tape from America?s enemy," TIME reports. KERRY: "He Says Saddam? You Say Osama": The first debate?the one on foreign policy?would be the crucial one. Kerry was going to have to make two big, risky points: The war in Iraq was not the war on terrorism, and Saddam Hussein was not Osama bin Laden. Again and again, Klain coached Kerry: "He says Saddam? You say Osama," TIME reports. BUSH: How Bush Pulled McCain Into His Camp: At times, John McCain?s television appearances were scary duck-and-cover drills for the Bush message team. On the eve of the first debate, campaign communications director Nicolle Devenish drew the line: McCain was forbidden to go into the postdebate spin sessions and give praise to both sides. That would be a loss for Bush. "People see you as the referee," she said. "We need you to be for us." By the third debate, Bush asked McCain to sit in the audience in his line of sight for moral support. But it was as much to be seen by the audience. KERRY: Return of Bill Clinton, the Ace Campaigner: Hours after word spread that Bill Clinton was being rushed to the hospital for emergency bypass surgery, Kerry telephoned him to wish him luck, and Clinton, alarmed at the drift of Kerry?s campaign, suggested they make some time over the weekend to have a serious talk. The two made the connection around 10 p.m. the next day, a Saturday. By the time they finished?Clinton mostly talking and Kerry mostly listening?it was nearly midnight. One message stuck. "If you?re the issue in this campaign, you lose," Clinton told Kerry. "If he?s the issue in this campaign, you win. Stay in his face." News of the call was all over the papers by Monday. Kerry was furious. Some believed that Clinton?s real interest was in clearing the way for Hillary to run in 2008. KERRY: Waiting Too Long To Fight Back Against Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: Kerry?s handlers, led by pollster Mark Mellman and consultant Bob Shrum, had convinced themselves it was unwise to respond to the Swifties? ads, which were running in only three states, because it would serve to amplify the phony charges. But Kerry was jolted to respond when, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Aug. 18, dozens of vets asked, "What are you waiting for? You gotta fight back!" Kerry was livid. The campaign quickly changed gears, TIME reports. |
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