Bush Ratchets Up Reelection Campaign
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN ANCHOR: As the Democrats duke it out for their nomination, President Bush has been defending his actions against critics. Now there's word that the Republicans are ratcheting up Bush's re-election plans. Let's go to White House correspondent Dana Bash for more. Dana, good morning.</s>DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jamie. And the president's political advisers have said for months they were going to wait to be more aggressive in their campaign and wait to dip into that more than $100 million they have in their war chest until it is clear who the Democratic nominee is, who their clear opponent will be. Well, now, of course, John Kerry, as we've been reporting, has won 15 out of 17 early Democratic contests, and he has turned his attention to the president. So Republican officials, Bush officials are saying that they feel it is time step it up a bit in terms of how they are handling their campaign. Now, this also comes as the White House has really been on the defensive over the past few weeks on a host of issues, from weapons of mass destruction, to Iraq, to more recently, last week, as the White House began to try to get beyond the controversy over the president's military record during the Vietnam era, releasing really pages and pages of documents to try to move beyond that controversy. The administration has not been able to control their message through the free media, if you will, so GOP sources that team Bush is in the final stages of unleashing its first ad campaign, an ad campaign that we should see in the next couple of weeks, really in probably key media markets around the country. And what the White House -- what Bush officials are saying is that they want to come up with a theme that shows that the president has "steady leadership in times of change." That is the kind of bumper sticker that we're likely to hear at the beginning from the Bush campaign. Now, we've already seen the direction that the White House and the Bush campaign has been going in, in terms of their attacks on John Kerry. They unleashed their first Internet ad on Friday, saying John Kerry is somebody who is beholden to special interests. What Bush officials say is that this is going to be a thread, if you will, in their attack against John Kerry, because they say that this shows that they believe he is hypocritical because, on the stump, he says that he is against special interests. Now, this all comes, Jamie, as the president prepares later this morning to go to the ever important state of Florida. He's off to the races, if you will, there. He is going to the Daytona 500. That is something that he is going to certainly enjoy, but it's also politically important. Republicans have been trying to register Republicans down there for the past couple of days. Back to you, Jamie.</s>MCINTYRE: Ah, yes, the all-important NASCAR vote. Thank you very much. CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash reporting live.