Bush Ads Stress Experience, Call for ‘Gentler’ U.S.

Republican presidential nominee George Bush fired off the first round Tuesday in what will be a multimillion-dollar battle of television ads in California between him and Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis.

Bush went on the air statewide with two commercials, one stressing his experience in handling crises and the other calling for “a kinder and gentler nation.”

One Bush commercial shows footage of his speech to the GOP convention last month in New Orleans, in which he says:

“For 7 1/2 years I have worked with a great President. I have seen what crosses that big desk. I have seen the unexpected crisis that arrives in a cable in a young aide’s hand. And so, I know that what it all comes down to in this election is the man at the desk. And who should sit at that desk? My friends, I am that man.”

The other Bush ad also uses convention footage and his voice, as well as that of an announcer.

Bush says, “I want a kinder, gentler nation” and the announcer says, “It’s the President who defines the character of America.” It continues in that vein.

Declines to Discuss Cost

The Bush campaign declined to discuss how much is being spent on the ad campaign or how long it would run. Sources close to the Dukakis campaign in California said their tracking showed that Bush had spent $700,000 to buy air time for the ads in the Los Angeles market and at least $400,000 in the San Francisco Bay area.

Democratic strategists said if that much is being spent this early for TV ads in California, it indicates that the Bush campaign senses it is about to open a lead on Dukakis here.

The Democratic National Committee recently ran a commercial in California showing Dukakis’ triumphant speech at the Democratic convention and calling for “a new era of economic greatness.”

Democrats are in the process of buying TV time for an advertising campaign that is expected to begin in California and nationally within a few days, according to Tom Kiley, a Dukakis campaign aide in Boston. One ad, sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, will criticize the Republicans over the federal deficit, while another, sponsored by the Dukakis campaign, will praise the nominee’s economic record as governor of Massachusetts.