Inside The War Rooms

WINGMAN: Senator John McCain with the Bush family

BROOKS KRAFT / CORBIS FOR TIME

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Bush: The White House Springs a Trap
By early August, Bush was fighting to get back on offense, and in the conference room on Air Force One, he thought he had finally found a way. Nine days earlier, at his convention, Kerry had said he would never mislead the country into war, and so Bush would now force him to explain his vote authorizing it. "I'm going to keep after him," Bush told aides, "until he answers it."

What so tantalized the President was the chance to reanimate his most powerful charge: that Kerry didn't know his own mind. The Bush campaign had been pushing the story line since the Democratic primaries, but it was given neon prominence when Kerry's own remarks ratified the Bush message. In March, Kerry uttered what Bush adviser Karl Rove had called the most deadly phrase in politics: "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it," said Kerry about his vote against supplemental funding for the war. The trap looked foolproof: If Kerry defended his vote, that would seem to be at odds with his four-day convention attack on the war. If he changed his position, he would undermine his convention's theme of strength. If he wiggled, the G.O.P. would use his running mate Edwards' devastating line during the Democratic primaries: "Senator, that's the longest answer I've ever heard to a yes-or-no question."

Bush was overdue for a score. Throughout the summer, every time his aides rustled up a notion about how to regain control of the race, their idea would be overtaken by events. May, June and July had been filled with spikes of violence in Iraq and new disclosures about abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. "We'd try (to change the subject), but even if the President said Iraq once, that's all people would talk about," recalled Rove. Though Kerry had seen no real bump in the polls, voters were viewing him as a more plausible Commander in Chief than they had before, and they were listening more closely to him than before the convention. "We couldn't believe it," says a top campaign official. "We were on defense on Iraq when Kerry had held 10 different positions."

Bush uncorked his dare during an event in New Hampshire. "There are some questions that a Commander in Chief needs to answer with a clear yes or no. My opponent hasn't answered the question of whether, knowing what we know now, he would have supported going into Iraq." The next day at the Bush team's weekly session held in Rove's dining room, advisers planned to put the question in each of Bush's speeches. Some privately feared that Kerry might not take the bait. The Democrat was looking stronger. His vice-presidential selection and convention had been managed smoothly. "We weren't sure he would do it," says Bush adviser Mary Matalin. "We thought we might be seeing the strong closer everyone had talked about." Then Kerry bit. Standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon three days after the President's challenge, Kerry told a reporter who had repeated the President's question that even though inspectors had found no stockpiles of unconventional weapons in Iraq, he believed even now that it was right to authorize the use of force. Kerry's answer would dishearten some of his strongly antiwar supporters and make it seem as if he still could not find a consistent thread in his case against Bush. "We couldn't believe that he went for it," says White House communications director Dan Bartlett. Onboard Air Force One the President sat with Rove, Karen Hughes and Bartlett, his advisers almost giddy as they worked on new language for the President's remarks. Bartlett answered an e-mail on his BlackBerry that asked if Kerry had given the campaign a gift. The communications director messaged back, "Yes, and my boss is about to open it." They crafted a speech that would lampoon Kerry's "new nuance" as the President ticked off the Senator's various positions for and against the war, concluding with the mocking compliment "I want to thank Senator Kerry for clearing that up."