2004 Election: Inside The War Rooms

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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 email 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."

KERRY

Waiting Too Long To Return Fire

For all the campaign's worry about how it would survive Bush's August blitz without money of its own to fight back, the strategists had failed to see the sniper that was waiting in the weeds. Just a week after a Democratic Convention that had been a four-day-long infomercial about Kerry's Vietnam record, a group styling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was suddenly dominating the cable airwaves with accusations that Kerry had faked his injuries and lied about his heroism in Vietnam to collect a chestful of medals that he didn't deserve. Kerry's initial strategy was to do ... nothing.

His handlers, led by pollster Mark Mellman and consultant Bob Shrum, had convinced themselves it was unwise to respond to the Swifties' ads, which were running in only three states and were funded by a longtime Bush donor, because a rebuttal would serve to amplify the phony charges. And the advisers were determined to stay upbeat, in keeping with the holy writ of the focus groups that kept saying how distasteful they found negative campaigning. So when a jolt finally forced Kerry to face reality, it didn't come from any of his high-priced consultants and pollsters. The truth was delivered by men Kerry didn't even know, folks who have better training than any political operative in spotting and surviving an ambush. It came from the vets.