A new campaign ad released by the Bush reelection campaign on its web site on Thursday which features political attacks comparing the president to Adolf Hitler made by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry has been denounced by the Kerry campaign as "disgusting," "bizarre," and "outrageous."
In a message to supporters, the Kerry campaign encouraged them to visit the reelection campaign web site for President George W. Bush to view this 77-second campaign ad.
"It isn't often that we'd ask you to go to George W. Bush's campaign web site," the Kerry campaign wrote to supporters. "But every single American should go to georgewbush.com immediately and watch the disgusting ad the Bush/Cheney campaign has featured on the front page."
The campaign ad that concerns the Kerry campaign is entitled "Kerry's Coalition of the Wild-eyed."
The ad begins with a message to viewers, "The following video contains remarks made by and images from ads sponsored by Kerry Supporters."
"John Kerry has denounced our use of these ads attacking the president," the ad continued. "He has not denounced liberal supporters like Al Gore, George Soros, and many others who have made speeches comparing the President to Adolf Hitler."
Then, in a series of video clips showing "The Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party," several familiar liberal Democrats are shown denouncing the president and America.
Former Vice President and 2000 Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore was the first video image shown in the ad.
"How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud of Saddam Hussein's torture prison," Gore states in the ad.
This clip was from a speech sponsored by liberal political action group MoveOn.org that Gore gave last month lambasting Bush for his handling of the war in Iraq.
The next video image was one from an anti-Bush ad contest conducted by MoveOn.org, a 527 organization with the Internal Revenue Service, which is permitted to collect an unlimited amount of money to spend on political attack ads against Bush.
As Talon News reported in January, MoveOn.org prominently featured two controversial ads comparing Bush to Hitler as part of its "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest.
In the clip shown on the latest Bush campaign ad, a picture of Hitler is shown on the screen with "Sig Heil! Sig Heil!" being chanted in the background.
On the screen is the statement, "What Were War Crimes in 1945 Is Foreign Policy in 2003."
A picture of President Bush is shown with his hand raised at his inauguration in 2001 as the ad concludes.
The ad is tagged at the end with the words "Sponsored by MoveOn.org."
Next, a brief black and white shot of former Democratic presidential nominee Howard Dean is shown exclaiming, "I want my country back!"
That is quickly followed by the infamous speech given by liberal movie producer Michael Moore at the 2003 Oscars.
"We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons," exclaimed Moore to a chorus of boos in the background.
Then yet another former Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MO) is shown saying, "This president is a miserable failure."
A portion of the second Bush/Hitler comparison ad from MoveOn.org is the next image in the Bush campaign ad and it includes the disclaimer at the bottom "Images from MoveOn.org ad."
The ad transitions the picture of Hitler to a waving picture of Bush with words showing, "God told me to strike at al Qaeda, and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did."
As previously reported by Talon News, extensive research into this alleged quote made by Bush revealed that he never actually made this statement as the MoveOn.org ad suggested.
After the MoveOn.org Hitler ad finished, Gore was again featured saying about Bush at last month's MoveOn.org rally, "He betrayed this country, he played on our fears."
Finally, Kerry is shown during a recent campaign stop when he spread a message of pessimism and despair about the Bush administration.
"Today, George Bush will lay off your camel, tax your shovel, kick your a**, and tell you there is no promised land," Kerry said as the screen begins to blur out and the words, "This is not a time for pessimism and rage..." appear on the screen.
The campaign ad ends with inspiring music playing in the background as a photo of Bush appears on the screen in front of a waving American flag with the words, "It's a time for optimism, steady leadership, and progress."
The ad disclaimer states it is "Paid For By Bush-Cheney '04, Inc."
The Kerry campaign said this new Bush campaign ad is "a new low" for negative attack politics.
"We've always said the Bush campaign would do anything to win, but even we are shocked that they've sunk this low," the Kerry campaign continued in its e-mail to supporters. "It's bizarre. It's outrageous. And we're not going to stand for it."
The Kerry campaign has called for Bush to "remove this hateful ad from his website immediately" and has started a petition on the Kerry web site.
"Take action today and sign our petition to Bush demanding that he repudiate this disgusting ad putting Hitler alongside Democrats and remove it from his web site," the Kerry campaign expressed.
The petition from the Kerry campaign is a direct appeal to Bush to remove the new campaign ad running.
Yet it was the Democrats who collectively refused to denounce the comparisons of Bush to the former Nazi leader during the Democratic primary race in January.
"[E]very Democrat seeking his or her party's nomination and who stands to benefit politically from MoveOn.org's efforts to defeat President Bush in November though millions of dollars in advertising should ... urge MoveOn.org to apologize for posting these ads on their web site and deeming them appropriate for television," Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie exclaimed at the time.
However, no Democrat apologized to Bush for these attack ads against him.
This was not the first time Bush had been compared to Hitler by liberal Democratic activists. Leftist billionaire George Soros, who has donated millions of dollars to MoveOn.org, told the Washington Post in an interview last November that Bush reminds him a lot of Hitler.
"America, under Bush, is a danger to the world," Soros said in the Washington Post interview. "When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans [under Hitler]."
Dave Lindorff, a left-wing commentator at Counterpunch.org, said that although Bush "is not the orator that Hitler was ... comparisons of the Bush administration's fearmongering tactics to those practiced so successfully and with such terrible results by Hitler ... are not at all out of line."
Finally, David R. Hoffman, who serves as the legal editor of PRAVDA, claims the similarities between Bush and Hitler are striking.
"[O]ne must wonder if history would have been so radically different if George W. Bush and his war-crazed cronies were in power in 1938 Berlin instead of 2004 America," Hoffman exclaimed in a column late last year.
The Bush campaign strongly defended its new ad in an e-mail to 6 million supporters by stating that it is simply featured "Democrats who support John Kerry making negative and baseless attacks against the president."
"As the video shows, the faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party are ones of pessimism, rage, and baseless attacks," commented Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman.
Addressing the claim by the Kerry campaign that the ad is "disgusting" and unfairly puts Democrats alongside Hitler, the Bush campaign quotes Kerry campaign spokeswoman Mary Beth Cahill when she said, "The use of Adolf Hitler by any campaign, politician, or party is simply wrong."
"We agree," Mehlman wrote in an e-mail to supporters on Friday. "These ads, like much of the hate-filled, angry rhetoric of Kerry's coalition of the Wild-eyed, are disgusting."
The Bush campaign then lists a series of questions for the Kerry campaign regarding the campaign tactics of Democrats this year.
"Where was John Kerry's disgust when he hired Zack Exley - the man responsible for encouraging the production of these ads as part of a MoveOn contest - to run the Kerry campaign's internet operation," Mehlman inquired.
"Where was John Kerry's sense of outrage when Al Gore, just [last week], compared the Bush Administration to the Nazis saying, "The Administration works closely with a network of 'rapid response' digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for 'undermining support for our troops'," Mehlman asked. "Where was John Kerry's anger when Al Gore in May spoke of 'Bush's Gulag'?"
The Bush campaign then questions the sincerity of Kerry's "outrage" over having Hitler shown in new Bush campaign ad.
"Why has John Kerry not denounced billionaire and Democrat Party donor George Soros for comparing the Bush Administration to Nazis," Mehlman stated. "Soros stated, 'When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans. It conjures up memories of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind Hort mit ('The enemy is listening')."
Finally, Mehlman ponders, "Why has Kerry not spoken out against filmmaker Michael Moore who last October compared the Patriot Act to Mein Kampf."
"The Patriot Act is the first step. 'Mein Kampf' -- 'Mein Kampf' was written long before Hitler came to power," Moore is quoted by the Bush campaign as saying.
Mehlman said this new campaign ad was created to "show the depths to which these Kerry supporters will sink to win in November."
"Is this the Democratic Party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who reassured his countrymen we have nothing to fear but fear itself?," Mehlman inquired.
"No," he answered. "This is John Kerry's Coalition of the Wild-eyed, who have nothing to offer but fear-mongering."
Mehlman concluded that the "choice will be clear in November."
"This is not a time for pessimism and rage," he said. "It's a time for optimism, steady leadership, and progress."
Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.
Not that I really have anything against swearing, there is just a time and a place for it!
