Poll: More Believe Bush Behind Attack Ads
Fri Aug 27, 7:07 PM ET
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&u=/ap/20040827/ap_on_el_pr/kerry_vietnam_opinion&printer=1
NEW YORK - Americans increasingly believe President Bush's re-election
campaign is behind
the ads attacking Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam experience, a poll found.
Almost half in a poll taken this week say they think the president's
campaign is behind
the ads that try to undercut Kerry's medals for heroism while just over a
third think the
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is an independent group, the National
Annenberg Election
Survey found.
The Swift boat ads, which ran in three swing states earlier this month,
challenged Kerry's
wartime service in Vietnam for which he received five medals.
The public's belief that Kerry did not earn his medals grew to 30 percent
when the attack
ads got widespread publicity on cable news networks. But that number has
dropped to 24
percent now.
Kerry's campaign has accused President Bush of involvement in the ad
campaign, a charge
that was stepped up after Bush campaign counsel Benjamin Ginsberg
acknowledged he was
advising the group and resigned Wednesday from the Bush campaign.
In polling from Monday through Thursday, 46 percent said they believed the
Bush campaign
was behind the ads and 37 percent said they thought the ads were done
independently.
The president and his campaign staff have said repeatedly they have no
connection to the
ads, which have come under increasing criticism as Navy records and
additional witnesses
backed Kerry's version of events.
On Monday and Tuesday when the Kerry campaign was making the accusation
Bush was involved,
42 percent said the Bush campaign was behind them and 41 percent said they
were truly
independent.
After Ginsberg resigned from the campaign on Wednesday, 50 percent said in
polling the
next two nights that the Bush campaign was connected to the ads and 34
percent said it was
not.
Ginsberg and lawyers on the Democratic side have represented both the
campaigns or party
and outside groups running ads in the presidential race.
The poll of 1,244 adults was taken Aug. 23-28 and has a margin of sampling
error of plus
or minus 3 percentage points.
On the Net:
_
National Annenberg Election Survey: http://www.naes04.com
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