Or, the right people.
| The Bush campaign began broadcasting four ads on Thursday in 17 states that are expected to be battlegrounds in November. One of the ads shows the smoldering wreckage of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, with a flag flying in the rubble. Another ad shows firefighters carrying a flag-draped stretcher. The International Association of Fire Fighters, which is backing Kerry, denounced the ads and demanded that Bush pull them.
The ads brought several victims' relatives to tears and triggered angry charges that Bush was exploiting others' misery for political gain. ...[Chris] Burke, whose brother died in the attacks, said tears welled in his eyes when he first watched the ad. He said he wouldn't have minded Bush using the imagery if the president hadn't obstructed an independent commission that's investigating the attacks. ..."I find it hypocritical that he would use 9-11 images and then not cooperate with the commission," said Stephen Push, co-founder of Families of September 11, a support group. Push's wife, Lisa Raines, was aboard the jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon. "I hope this leads him to pull the ads. I voted for George W. Bush, as did a lot of 9-11 families," Push said. "He's alienating people who supported him." |
| The International Association of Fire Fighters Union, which was meeting today in Bal Harbour, Fla., approved a resolution asking the Bush campaign to pull the advertisements, the union's spokesman, Jeff Zack, told The Associated Press. The resolution also urges Bush to "apologize to the families of firefighters killed on 9/11 for demeaning the memory of their loved ones in an attempt to curry support for his re-election."
..."It makes me sick," Colleen Kelly, who leads a group of victims families called Peaceful Tomorrows, told The Associated Press. Her brother died in the attacks. "Would you ever go to someone's grave site and use that as an instrument of politics?" she asked. "That truly is what Ground Zero represents to me." |
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