Bush won't pull campaign ads

2004-03-07 19:52

Washington - President George W Bush's re-election campaign has no plans to withdraw controversial televisions ads using brief footage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, its chairman said on Sunday.

Marc Racicot said the campaign was "very comfortable" with public reaction to the ad campaign launched last week. He said the use of images from the terror strikes was "entirely appropriate" to highlight Bush's leadership qualities.

"We have not thought about pulling the ads," Racicot said in an interview on Fox News Sunday.

"Certainly we grieve with the families of all those who lost loved ones ... (but) this is a very important event that we recall and we remember, because it has do with our future, not only the future of this country but the future of the planet," he said.

The ads, particularly brief footage of two firemen over a flag-draped coffin, have drawn sharp criticism from the camp of Bush's Democratic challenger John Kerry as well as some relatives of the victims.

Difficult moment

But Racicot said on Sunday: "Recalling this moment is about the president's record of service during a very, very difficult moment. And it's also about what we're going to do about terrorism in the future."

Bush has invoked the attacks, which killed nearly three thouand people, frequently in the early days of his campaign for re-election in November. He said on Saturday he would continue to do so.

"I have an obligation to those who died," Bush said Saturday, adding: "I look forward to the debate about who is the best to run this country in the war against terror."

Some of those who have expressed anger contrast Bush's readiness to discuss September 11 on the campaign trail with his decision to spend only an hour with a congressional panel investigating intelligence failures before the attacks.

But Racicot called Bush's agreement to meet with the commission "unprecedented" and added that the panel had been provided with all the documents it requested.

"I think their own assessment is that, in fact, the president has been entirely co-operative and trying to provide all the assistance," said Racicot, a former governor of the western state of Montana.

- SAPA