[00:04.10]but the Kerry and Bush campaigns are already hitting

[00:07.09]the television airwaves with a barrage of advertisements normally

[00:11.70]reserved for the final weeks of an election campaign.

[00:14.65]For weeks now, the Bush re-election campaign has been running

[00:17.57]television ads in 18 states that both parties view as

[00:21.28]critical battlegrounds in the November election.

[00:24.26]The Bush ad campaign is an effort to portray Senator John Kerry,

[00:27.97]the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee,

[00:31.46]as a liberal who favors tax increases and has a

[00:34.88]habit of changing his positions on various issues.

[00:37.91]"Raising taxes is a habit of Kerry's," says the ad.

[00:40.28]"He has supported higher gasoline taxes 11 times. Maybe,

[00:44.10]John Kerry just doesn't understand what his ideas mean to the rest of us."

[00:48.49]The Kerry campaign is now responding with an ad campaign

[00:51.48]of its own that intends to allow the candidate to present

[00:54.18]himself to the public in his own words.

[00:56.48]The ad war has been driven into the background

[00:58.79]in recent days because of the situation in Iraq.

[01:01.45]Senator Kerry has been critical of the president's handling of Iraq,

[01:05.16]calling on the administration to line up more international help.

[01:08.54]Kerry surrogates have been arguing his case on American television.

[01:12.32]Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry

[01:14.30]McAuliffe debated the issue on NBC's 'Today' program.

[01:18.01]"You know what, George Bush misled the American public," said Mr. McAuliffe.

[01:20.82]"They politicized and embellished the intelligence data.

[01:23.84]John Kerry believed the commander in chief when

[01:25.72]he told him things that turned out not to be true."

[01:28.24]On the other side, Republican National Chairman Ed

[01:30.97]Gillespie pointed out that Senator Kerry supported

[01:33.56]the congressional resolution that gave the president

[01:36.66]the approval to use military force against Saddam Hussein.

[01:40.04]"Senator Kerry, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee,

[01:43.03]had the same access to intelligence that

[01:44.90]President Bush had," said Mr. Gillespie,

[01:45.91]"and he made a very forceful case, as a member of that committee,

[01:48.68]in support of the war in Iraq,

[01:50.99]before he reversed himself under pressure

[01:52.86]in the Democratic primaries from Howard Dean."

[01:55.27]The Bush campaign has begun running a new television

[01:57.97]ad that questions Senator Kerry's support of U.S. troops in Iraq.

[02:01.46]Political analysts say the Bush ads targeting Senator

[02:04.16]Kerry have had an impact in slightly increasing a negative

[02:07.76]public view of the Massachusetts senator in several recent polls.

[02:11.87]But the experts also say the race remains virtually even,

[02:15.86]with the president struggling to defend his policy in Iraq

[02:19.36]and the administration's handling of the terrorist

[02:21.73]threat prior to the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

[02:25.51]Norm Ornstein is a political analyst with

[02:27.89]the American Enterprise Institute here in Washington.

[02:30.80]He says despite the Bush campaign's efforts to

[02:33.79]influence the public's view of Senator Kerry,

[02:36.38]it is more likely that the election will come down

[02:38.76]to what the voters think of President Bush.

[02:41.39]"When an incumbent is running, it is about the incumbent," said Mr. Ornstein.

[02:44.56]"Kerry has to [talk about] having plans, but that is about it.

[02:50.14]In the end, the judgment that people will make is based on the question,

[02:55.14]does [President Bush] deserve another four years?"

[02:57.26]Most analysts believe the election will be decided for

[03:00.11]the most part on three key issues - the situation in Iraq,

[03:04.00]the president's handling of the war

[03:05.51]on terrorism and the health of the U.S. economy.