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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
With 9/11 hearings over, back to the campaign
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
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Stay with CNN for updates, reports and analysis on reactions to the week's 9/11 commission hearings and the campaign efforts of John Kerry and President Bush.
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 VIDEO |
 CNN's John King on th e White House defense against Richard Clarke's assertions.
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 CNN's David Ensor about the day of drama at the 9/11 commission.
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 'Larry King Live:' Richard Clarke on his assertions and testimony before the 9/11 commission.
PLAY VIDEO
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RELATED |
 Gallery: Key testimony in the 9/11 investigation
• Audio Slide Show: Testimony
• Gallery: Commission members
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RELATED |
 Staff statements
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two full days of 9/11 commission hearings have blocked most TV coverage of the '04 campaign, but those hearings did more to influence the Bush/Kerry race than any new attack ad or policy speech ever could. With the pent-up energy of two boys stuck in rainy-day recess, George Bush and John Kerry roar back into campaign mode today, armed with publicity stunts they've kept under wraps all week.
Bush's biggest play: A taunting trip to John Kerry's kitchen for a $1 million fund-raiser in Boston -- just a few blocks from Kerry's house on Louisburg Square. We also hear rumblings of new TV ads, courtesy of the Bush/Cheney campaign. Meanwhile, in New York City, Reggie the Republican National Committee's registration rig rolls into Times Square for a guest appearance on MTV's uber-hip "TRL" program. Reggie in the hizzle!
'Recharged' Kerry
On the Democratic side, Kerry returns from Idaho fully "recharged" and unified with fellow Dems.
The senator holds a unity (read: endorsement) rally this morning in D.C. with Howard Dean, who goes so far as to ask his loyalists to resist the urge to back Ralph Nader. Kerry then co-hosts a unity dinner tonight and appears with Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, among others, at a youth fund-raiser at Dream nightclub. (Other headliners joining Clinton and Carter: Star Jones, Q-Tip, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, and Tracy Edmonds).
Guest speakers at tonight's dinner include former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, who backed Dean in the primary, and Barack Obama, the party's Senate nominee in Illinois.
The dinner begins at 7 p.m. with a unity photo-op of DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, Al Gore, Carter, Clinton, Kerry and the rest of the '04 field -- except, notably, Carol Moseley Braun and Dennis Kucinich. (We know Kucinich is skipping the event because he still sees a road to his own nomination. But Braun -- didn't she work out some plan with Joe Trippi to clear her campaign debt by appearing with the nominee at the unity dinner? Aides cite a scheduling conflict.)
One other Kerry event today: The senator plans to meet privately at 1:15 p.m. with the 31-member executive board of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is expected to endorse his campaign. Union chief Gerald McEntee is expected to hold a 5 p.m. ET conference call to discuss his board's decision.
Dean behind Kerry
But back to Dean, who said in a statement posted on his Web site yesterday that he's endorsing Kerry because they share the goal of beating Bush. "The primary goal throughout my campaign was to send George Bush back to Texas. John Kerry shares this goal and is the only person with a chance of doing just that," Dean wrote. "I will do everything I can to help him win, and I hope you will join me in this endeavor."
Dean said Kerry "has the experience, strength, and vision to get this country back on the right path" and said another Bush term "would be devastating to our country for many decades to come."
Seeking to quash any movement among his supporters to side with Nader, Dean said "the future of our country depends on defeating this president, so this election is much too important to support any effort by any third candidate."
Dean said his new group, Democracy for America, has established partnerships with a young Democrats' group and two unions that supported his presidential candidacy.
One of those, AFSCME, withdrew its endorsement of him as his presidential campaign faltered. But Dean said that split has been healed. "Gerry (McEntee) and I sat down last time I was in Washington and had a really great breakfast," Dean told the Burlington Free-Press newspaper. "We worked out our differences."
Bush in Boston, Reggie on the road
Now, to Bush, who spends the day in Boston raising money in Kerry's back yard. Bush expects to raise about $1 million at the Park Plaza Hotel, just spitting distance from Kerry's Louisburg Square town house. Kerry has raised $3.7 million in his home state through the end of February; the Bush camp has raised about $2 million in the Bay State through February 29.
While Bush is in Boston, the RNC will roll out "Reggie" for yet another registration rally. (You know Reggie, right? Why, he's the RNC's registration rig! Get with the plan! The following paragraph is straight from an RNC press release. (Honestly, we couldn't make this stuff up):
"Reggie's stop in New York City is part of the rig's eight-month tour as the RNC aims to register 3 million new voters nationwide by election day. Other stops so far have included a NASCAR race in Atlanta, Bush's campaign rally in Orlando and Marshall University in West Virginia. The rig will continue to hit a variety of sporting events, parades, Cinco de Mayo festivals, and other college campuses across America. When parked, the rig converts into a 24-foot sound stage complete with computers, Xbox games, plasma screen TVs and a live webcam."
New ads target Bush
But seriously, folks, the Bush and Kerry camps aren't the only ones who are back to campaign mode following the two-day hiatus imposed by the 9/11 hearings. MoveOn.org announced yesterday that its PAC will air a new ad next week on CNN that hits Bush, using former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke's testimony yesterday before the 9/11 commission.
"Frankly, I find it outrageous that a president is running for re-election on the grounds that he'd done such great things on terrorism," an announcer says while Clarke's words are typed onto the screen. "He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11."
The ad buy is expected to be at least $200,000 and run on CNN nationwide. The ad ends with the tag line, "George Bush, a failure in leadership."
