Election Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN


CHENEY: TERRORISTS MAY BOMB U.S. CITIES


CARROLL, Ohio – Vice President Cheney yesterday raised the possibility of terrorists bombing American cities with nuclear weapons and questioned whether Senator Kerry could combat such an “ultimate threat … you’ve got to get your mind around.”


“The biggest threat we face now as a nation is the possibility of terrorists ending up in the middle of one of our cities with deadlier weapons than have ever before been used against us – biological agents or a nuclear weapon or a chemical weapon of some kind to be able to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Mr. Cheney said.


“That’s the ultimate threat. For us to have a strategy that’s capable of defeating that threat, you’ve got to get your mind around that concept,” Mr. Cheney said.


Mr. Cheney, speaking to an invitation-only crowd as he began a bus tour through Republican strongholds in Ohio, said Mr. Kerry is trying to convince voters he would be the same type of “tough, aggressive” leader as President Bush in the fight against terrorism. “I don’t believe it,” the vice president said. “I don’t think there’s any evidence to support the proposition that he would, in fact, do it.”


The Democrats called Cheney’s comments ironic.


“He has the audacity to question whether a decorated combat veteran who has bled on the battlefield is tough and aggressive enough to keep America safe,” said Mr. Kerry’s campaign national security spokesman, Mark Kitchens. “He wants to scare Americans about a possible nuclear 9/11 while the Bush administration has been on the sidelines while the nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran – the word’s leading sponsor of terrorism – have increased.”


– Associated Press


RELATIVES OF 9/11 VICTIMS VOUCH FOR BUSH, KERRY IN TV ADS


In emotional appeals, relatives of people who lost loved ones in the September 11 terrorist attacks vouch for President Bush or Senator Kerry in new TV ads that try to persuade voters that just one of the two would best lead the country in a time of terrorism.


“I want to look in my daughter’s eyes and know that she is safe, and that is why I am voting for John Kerry,” Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband was killed in the attacks, says in an ad by the Democrat’s campaign.


In another commercial by a Republican interest group, Ohio teenager Ashley Faulkner recalls being comforted by Mr. Bush after her mother died in the attacks. The president is shown embracing her. “He’s the most powerful man in the world, and all he wants to do is make sure I’m safe, that I’m OK,” the girl says.


The commercial by Progress for America Voter Fund strikes a positive note in what has been a generally negative campaign, particularly on the air. The ad, which started running yesterday, is meant to appeal to voters on the fence, particularly women and seniors, by showing a different side of the Republican incumbent.


With two weeks to go in the presidential campaign, terrorism, the 2001 attacks, and the Iraq war are dominating the TV ad wars as commercials on those topics fill airwaves in key battleground states and on national cable networks.


On Monday, Mr. Bush began running a new commercial that calls Mr. Kerry and “his liberal allies” a risk the country can’t afford to take. His ad says, “After September 11, our world changed. Either we fight terrorists abroad or face them here.”


Over the past two days, Mr. Kerry has launched at least three ads about those issues. One assails Bush for a comment he made that “I truly am not that concerned about him,” a reference to Osama bin Laden. Another released yesterday has Mr. Kerry assuring voters “I’ll stop at nothing to get the terrorists before they get us.”


– Associated Press

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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