Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A01
The opening stages of President Bush's reelection campaign represent a dramatic departure in tone and style from Bush's campaigns for governor and president. The man who calls himself a wartime president has become a warrior as a candidate.
Bush's earlier campaigns were notable for their positive tone, the candidate's buoyant optimism and an agenda focused on a few specific policy proposals. But the combination of a presidency transformed by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the partisan polarization that exists nationally, have produced a new script in 2004.
(snip)
It is not clear that the two Bushes -- the firm and sometimes-grim leader of the war on terrorism and the cheerful, wisecracking candidate the public saw in 2000 -- can coexist successfully in this campaign. By leading the attack on Kerry and doing so eight months before the Nov. 2 election, Bush has stepped from the Oval Office into the trenches, potentially denying himself what has been seen as one of the most potent weapons of any incumbent seeking reelection: retaining the power and aura of the office itself as long as possible.
(snip)
Others attribute the changes in the Bush campaign to the fact that he is in deeper trouble than he expected against an opponent he did not anticipate. After preparing for a race against former Vermont governor Howard Dean, a contest many Republicans around Bush relished, they have had to readjust on the fly to combat Kerry, who has emerged from the Democratic primaries virtually unscathed.
"Those things have thrown them a bit off their feet and put them in a 'We'd better go after this guy before we fall too far behind
,' "said Bruce Buchanan, a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin. "They're off their feet, and that's led them to a diagnosis that calls for a campaign that departs from their pattern."
more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56551-2004Mar13.html