04 March 2004

by Anai Rhoads

AnaiRhoads.org - President Bush released a slew of commercials Thursday designed to stilt his ruinous image. The adverts were released on a national level on cable in about eighty media markets in a total of eighteen states.

The advertisements cast a penumbra over the infamous day of 9/11 by specifically recounting the images of that day. For some, the recounted effigies were a reminder of the tragedy that unfolded that day and to others it was taken as a tactless move by a politician whose aim is to quickly catch the plunging ratings.

The White House endorsed the promulgation as a declaration of strong leadership while some of the family members of the 9/11 victims were not so harmonious.

"It makes me sick," Colleen Kelly expressed to the Associated Press early Thursday. "Would you ever go to someone's grave site and use that as an instrument of politics?"

Kelly who lost her brother Bill Kelly Jr., in the attacks and directs an organisation called Peaceful Tomorrows for the victim's families was but one of several disappointed and angry responders.

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) wrote a letter to Bush requesting that he cease promotion of what he and many consider to be a shameless prelation.

The advertising campaign, in order to gain the minority vote, created a version in Spanish that replayed images of the fire-fighters, the noise and the bodies as they were being removed from the rubble. Another ad depicts the mutilated and scorched fragments of what where once two unyielding towers. Amongst the debris stands the America flag, waving theatrically.

The spokeman for the International Association of Fire Fighters Union, Jeff Zach, asked that Bush "apologise to the families of fire-fighters killed on 9/11 for demeaning their memory."

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