How Bush Plans To Win

For all its repositioning, the Bush team was not going to abandon one of its best weapons — hitting Kerry from on high. On Air Force One the day after Kerry spoke in Boston, aides described for the President, who hadn't watched the address, the Democrat's line of attack, including his claim that he would always fund U.S. troops. Afterward, Bush asked to pump up the portion of his stump speech that lampooned Kerry's explanation of his vote against the $87 billion to fund the U.S. occupation of Iraq. "There is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat," Bush said at stops in Missouri and Michigan. It was a double barb, attacking Kerry for his vote but also undercutting the assertion in his speech that what Republicans portray as a lack of constancy in him is really a more sophisticated view of the world.

That the Bush campaign had to act quickly to thwart Kerry's attacks on the President's record on fighting terrorism is a sign of just how hard the slog has become. Dowd prophesied months ago that the campaign would be behind in the summer and down by its largest margin after the Democratic Convention. But even Dowd's downer memos — a mix of prescient analysis, spin and innate caution (aides joke his screensaver should say THE END IS NEAR)--didn't foresee that Bush would lose so much of his advantage over Kerry on fighting terrorism. Even top staff members who went through the low points of the 2000 Bush campaign have had bouts of worry. "Some days I wake up and think that we're going to win big, and some days I think we're going to lose big," said a top Bush official during the darkest days a month ago. Says a Bush family intimate: "You'd have to be on Mars not to be worried." But now that Bush is launching his new offensive, the team is feeling brighter. "It's the happiest I've been in 18 months," gushed a top adviser seeing Bush on the stage last week. "Boy does he look like the happy warrior there." To win though, Bush will have to show that he's an effective warrior and John Kerry isn't.