Well, the presidential campaign ad wars are in full swing now. And “President” Bush has wasted no time in getting dirty and smearing Senator Kerry the way he did with Senator McCain in the 2000 Republican primaries. As of May 31 a whopping 75% of Bush’s ads were negative compared to only 27% by the Kerry campaign. Most of these ads are aimed at painting Kerry as a person who “flip-flops” on the issues. As Bush said in a stinging criticism of his Democratic rival in March, “In fact, Senator Kerry’s been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue.” And the scary thing is it seems to be working.

Let’s face it. Bush is somebody who would never waffle on the issues. He’s not the kind of person who would, for instance, claim that there is no connection between al Qaida and Saddam Hussein in January 2003 and then contradict himself by saying this week that there was a connection between al Qaida and Saddam Hussein. Nor would he claim in an October 3, 2000 debate that, “I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and therefore prevent war from happening in the first place,” only to launch an unjustified preemptive war against Iraq with the intent of overthrowing the government there and establishing a democracy. That would just be hypocritical.

But the almost comical claim that Bush is a strong leader aside, I think it really says something that the absolute worst attack conservatives can come up with to use against Kerry is that he is open-minded enough to change his mind. I mentioned in an earlier post that the decision making that led up to the Bay of Pigs is now used as the classic example of groupthink. But at least President Kennedy was willing to look at what he did wrong there and make changes to prevent it from happening again after that. Those changes may have been what prevented the end of the world during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bush, on the other hand, is so stubborn he refuses to admit that he has ever even made a mistake, saying in an April 13, 2004 press conference, “I hope I — I don’t want to sound like I’ve made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I’m not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.” As long as Bush refuses to see that he has made mistakes he can never correct those mistakes. So saying that Kerry is willing to change his mind on some issues isn’t really a huge criticism, especially coming from somebody like Bush. Right now we could use somebody who is a little more comfortable with change.

Of course, Bush’s attack ads look even more infantile than they already are when compared to positive ads from the Kerry campaign such as this one, which I think is probably the best campaign ad so far. So now, after spending millions of dollars on negative ads resulted in him falling in the polls, being embarrassed by Kerry’s ads, and seeing the support for President Reagan following his recent death, the new campaign buzz word is “optimism.” Bush is coming to the optimism game a little late, but he gave it his best shot with this new ad.

Now George, this is start. You’re heading in the right direction. One thing, though. Ending your positive ad about optimism with an attack against Kerry probably defeats the whole purpose of running a positive ad about optimism. I know it’s hard to control yourself. You just can’t seem to help taking every opportunity to smear your opponent. But you’re going to have to try. It’s hard to believe that you’re really an optimist when your ad about optimism is entitled “Pessimism.”