Misleading ad more than a nuisance (10/14)

By Bryan Keefer

An ad released Monday by the Bush-Cheney campaign is one more addition to the growing number of dishonest spots in the current election.

It states that "now Kerry says: We have to get back to the place where terrorists are a nuisance like gambling and prostitution, we're never going to end them. Terrorism - a nuisance? How can Kerry protect us when he doesn't understand the threat?"

The ad clearly suggests that Kerry regards terrorism as nothing more than a nuisance. The quote from Kerry, reported in an Oct. 10 New York Times Magazine article, was a response to a question about how Americans could feel safe again. Kerry actually stated: "We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance." Drawing an analogy between organized crime and terrorism, he continued: "As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life."

Kerry was not suggesting terrorists were currently just a nuisance; rather, that the goal of American policy should be to reduce terrorism to the point where it is minimally disruptive to peoples' lives. The Bush campaign surely knows that, but it seems more interested in a slick marketing message than the truth.

Update (10/14):A version of this post was included in our Philadelphia Inquirer column today.

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10/14/2004 01:45:43 AM EST |

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