Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
President Bush Delivers Major Campaign Speech Tonight
Aired February 23, 2004 - 07:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: While Nader's entrance in the presidential race may have made things a little bit murky for the Democrats, the president's campaign path is pretty clear. Mr. Bush is about to shift his re-election effort into high gear with a major speech tonight.
CNN's Dana Bash is at the White House for us this morning with the very latest.
Hey, Dana, good morning.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
And even though his poll numbers have certainly been sliding, President Bush has been very careful to not personally jump into the fray while the Democratic primary process has been going on. Well, tonight that will change. We're told that candidate Bush will plunge into the process, giving a highly-political speech, we are told, tonight before a meeting of Republican governors here in Washington.
Now, we're told he won't name any Democrat by name, but it will be pretty clear whom he's talking about. We're told he's going to hit back hard against his opponents on both the economy and on national security, and begin to lay out what will be some of his campaign themes in this coming year.
Now, we're also told, Soledad, that the president's campaign aides will begin to make phone calls to national cable outlets, to key local media networks in order to lay the groundwork for the president's first paid television advertisements. Those will air for the first time on March 4, we're told. They were shot here just a couple of weeks ago with the president in the White House residence and on the White House grounds. And we're told that they are going to start out talking about what the president believes is his record, perhaps with a tag line, steady leadership in times of change.
And lastly, the president's campaign, which is just across the river in Virginia, is going to step up their tactical efforts. They're going to begin starting -- sending out daily e-mails and talking points to members of Congress, to governors, to other surrogates. It's all part of what the campaign is describing as a tactical shift to begin a new period of high-level engagement -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Dana, as you mentioned, there is not yet any actual Democratic candidate, and also, as we know, the president's approval numbers are at 48 percent, which is, I think, the worst ever is the way "Newsweek" put it. Do either of those factors you think weigh into the president making this decision now?
BASH: Well, what the campaign is saying, what aides tell us, is essentially that they were absolutely planning to wait to run ads and for the president himself to be really highly political until the Democratic nominee was actually set in stone. But they decided after getting attacked really quite aggressively from John Kerry, John Edwards and from others throughout the past few months and also because they think that really they understand that the president needs to get out there, they decided to move up this timeframe, move up going out more aggressively to this point.
O'BRIEN: Dana Bash at the White House for us this morning. Dana, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 23, 2004 - 07:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: While Nader's entrance in the presidential race may have made things a little bit murky for the Democrats, the president's campaign path is pretty clear. Mr. Bush is about to shift his re-election effort into high gear with a major speech tonight.
CNN's Dana Bash is at the White House for us this morning with the very latest.
Hey, Dana, good morning.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
And even though his poll numbers have certainly been sliding, President Bush has been very careful to not personally jump into the fray while the Democratic primary process has been going on. Well, tonight that will change. We're told that candidate Bush will plunge into the process, giving a highly-political speech, we are told, tonight before a meeting of Republican governors here in Washington.
Now, we're told he won't name any Democrat by name, but it will be pretty clear whom he's talking about. We're told he's going to hit back hard against his opponents on both the economy and on national security, and begin to lay out what will be some of his campaign themes in this coming year.
Now, we're also told, Soledad, that the president's campaign aides will begin to make phone calls to national cable outlets, to key local media networks in order to lay the groundwork for the president's first paid television advertisements. Those will air for the first time on March 4, we're told. They were shot here just a couple of weeks ago with the president in the White House residence and on the White House grounds. And we're told that they are going to start out talking about what the president believes is his record, perhaps with a tag line, steady leadership in times of change.
And lastly, the president's campaign, which is just across the river in Virginia, is going to step up their tactical efforts. They're going to begin starting -- sending out daily e-mails and talking points to members of Congress, to governors, to other surrogates. It's all part of what the campaign is describing as a tactical shift to begin a new period of high-level engagement -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Dana, as you mentioned, there is not yet any actual Democratic candidate, and also, as we know, the president's approval numbers are at 48 percent, which is, I think, the worst ever is the way "Newsweek" put it. Do either of those factors you think weigh into the president making this decision now?
BASH: Well, what the campaign is saying, what aides tell us, is essentially that they were absolutely planning to wait to run ads and for the president himself to be really highly political until the Democratic nominee was actually set in stone. But they decided after getting attacked really quite aggressively from John Kerry, John Edwards and from others throughout the past few months and also because they think that really they understand that the president needs to get out there, they decided to move up this timeframe, move up going out more aggressively to this point.
O'BRIEN: Dana Bash at the White House for us this morning. Dana, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
