Iraq
Posted: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 9:08 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Security
In previewing Bush’s VFW speech today,
USA Today also writes about the TV ad battle over how to define the success of the troop surge. “Freedom's Watch, a conservative group, plans to launch a $15 million advertising campaign in 20 states today. The group's spokesman, former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer, says the goal is to tell people that the buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq is working. ‘We want to get the message to both Democrats and Republicans: Don't cut and run, fully fund the troops, and victory is the only objective,’ Fleischer says.”
"One of the main voices in the anti-war movement is a coalition called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, which includes such liberal groups as MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress and the Service Employees International Union. The coalition is running advertisements attacking senators and representatives who support Bush's Iraq policies. "Our ads are about defining the Republicans in the minds of the voters as sticking with Bush on Iraq," says Tom Matzzie, director of the ad campaign."
The Washington Post on the GOP ad campaign: "Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions."
Meanwhile, the liberal group Americans United for Change is going up with TV ads tomorrow that target GOP Sens. Pete Domenici (in New Mexico), Susan Collins (in Maine) and George Voinovich (in Ohio), as well as GOP Reps. Michele Bachmann (in Minnesota) and Jon Porter (in Nevada). Here’s an example of one of the ads.
For what it's worth, the Chicago Tribune notes Obama received a larger throng of folks at his rope line after his VFW speech than Fred Thompson did. Both Obama and Thompson were given standing ovations following their speeches.
The New York Daily News adds, “Obama's pledge to improve pay and benefits won him several rounds of applause, but the vets were less responsive to his call for withdrawing from Iraq to focus on Afghanistan.”
The Edwards campaign decided to pounce (a day later) on the interpretation of Clinton's VFW speech on Monday, which claimed the surge is working. While not technically what she said, her remarks have been interpreted that way. Said Edwards campaign manager David Bonior in a statement: "Senator “Hillary Clinton's view that the president's Iraq policy is 'working' is another instance of a Washington politician trying to have it both ways. You cannot be for the President's strategy in Iraq but against the war. The American people deserve straight talk and real answers on Iraq, not double-speak, triangulation, or political positioning.”
