No sooner did President Bush begin running his new campaign ads than the Democrats started erupting in expressions of shock and disgust that the ads are about something that matters. Among the first set of advertisements being released by the Bush-Cheney campaign are two with images of the destruction of the World Trade Center, an American flag flying amid the debris, and firefighters working through the wreckage. The ads do not even mention Senator Kerry.

Mr. Kerry’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, responded by calling the ad campaign “revisionist.” Revisionist, we suppose, because September 11 did not really happen. “Most astonishing,” she says, “George Bush’s ad features a shot of the wreckage of that tragic September day… and the firefighters who so bravely worked to save lives. What he doesn’t tell you is that only 10% of fire departments across the nation have personnel and equipment to respond to a building collapse.”

We assume, then, that in the very same spirit, Mr. Kerry’s ads will refrain from mentioning or picturing, among others, schoolchildren, who continue to underachieve despite years of Mr. Kerry’s hard work; air or water, which remains stubbornly impure in places in the face of his environmental activism, or poor people, since, after his decades-long efforts to eradicate poverty, there are many left.

One firefighters union, the International Association of Fire Fighters, which has endorsed Mr. Kerry, is echoing his outrage. “The use of 9/11 images are hypocrisy at its worst,” said IAFF President Harold Schaitberger. On the contrary, it would be hypocrisy if Mr. Bush had caused the attacks and then proceeded to lament them — or, say, if a candidate voted to slash the intelligence budget and then blamed the current administration for failing to strengthen our intelligence agencies. Who might possibly be guilty of that?

The Democrats would have us believe that footage of Mr. Kerry fighting in the jungles of Vietnam more than 30 years ago is relevant and appropriate — but footage of the defining moment in American life these past three years is out of bounds.

The fact is, there is hardly a New Yorker who will, if he or she saw it, soon forget the broadcast of Mr. Bush grabbing that megaphone at ground zero and saying to the firefighters, police officers, rescue workers, and ordinary Americans hungering for leadership, “I hear you.”

Maybe it’s time to amend Mr. Kerry’s now famous “Bring It On” rallying cry, meant to welcome a debate on national security between him and Mr. Bush, to “Bring it on, and watch me whine.” Elections are about issues. The single-biggest issue in this election year is, who is best equipped to lead America to victory in the war that was declared on America by Islamic extremists on September 11.