New Bush Ad Spotlights Foreign Policy : Media: New Hampshire TV spots ignore challenger Buchanan. Three Democrats also unveil more broadcast messages.

President Bush’s reelection campaign aired a third television advertisement in New Hampshire on Friday, this one ignoring challenger Patrick J. Buchanan and instead seeking to promote Bush’s leadership qualities by invoking foreign policy triumphs.

With New Hampshire’s Feb. 18 presidential primary 10 days away, Bush advisers also are contemplating adding an extra day of campaigning in the state just before the voting. Currently, Bush is slated to campaign in the state Wednesday and Saturday.

Three Democrats also unveiled new ads. The spot for former Massachussets Sen. Paul E. Tsongas criticizes proposals for a middle-class tax cut. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin’s commercial blasts American companies using Chinese labor. And Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, in two ads, tries to link his remarkable personal story with his policies for national health care and economic recovery.

In the new 30-second Bush ad, the President tries to remind voters of what are widely seen as the high points of his presidency--the successful prosecution of the Persian Gulf War and the end of the Cold War.

While the screen shows pictures of Bush with troops in the Saudi desert, an F-15 fighter about to take off and the Berlin Wall tumbling, an announcer says: “When President Bush led America to victory in Desert Storm and the Cold War, some opposed him.”

“Now,” the announcer says, “the President has a plan to cut wasteful spending, create jobs and restore home values to New Hampshire and the nation. But the Democrats in Congress oppose him again.”

“Send Congress a Message,” says text on the screen. “Support President Bush.”

Campaign aides acknowledge the ad is an attempt to defuse the challenge from Buchanan by implying that Bush has gotten the message that people are unhappy. The problem is Congress and the best way to address that is support Bush, the ad admonishes. The “send Congress a Message” ending is an attempt to turn Buchanan’s “Send Bush A Message” theme on its head.

While Bush’s ad implies that all Democrats opposed him on the Persian Gulf War, in fact many sided with him, particularly once U.S. troops were committed.

In the Tsongas 30-second ad, the viewer sees a handful of coins jump toward the screen as an announcer intones: “Some candidates want to give you a tax cut of 97 cents a day. But will that create jobs? One candidate knows it’s gimmicks and bigger deficits that got us into this mess. Paul Tsongas offers straight answers.”

The announcer then promises that Tsongas will “declare an economic emergency immediately to get America moving, get business to invest in new jobs and plants, rebuild industry and make our workers the most skilled and productive in the world.”

The ad is a further attempt to portray Tsongas as the candidate who won’t try to con people. The bouncing coins, his ad makers say, represent how much money Americans would get from the various tax cut proposals endorsed by President Bush as well as two Democratic contenders--Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Kerrey.

As in his previous ads, Tsongas does not appear on camera. He is generally considered the least telegenic of this year’s candidates.

In one of Kerrey’s ads, the narrator promotes his record as co-owner of a Nebraska chain of restaurants and health clubs, saying that “starting with nothing, he built a business, and created hundreds of jobs. As governor, his economic plan of investment in telecommunications and infrastructure produced thousands of jobs, and now Nebraska’s unemployment is only 2.8%.”

The ad then touts “a 20-point plan” of Kerrey’s “to put America back to work.” Mentioned are such items as industrial policy, a middle-class tax cut and retraining workers.

The ad is an attempt to link the disparate parts of Kerrey’s sometimes wavering campaign into a whole. Until now, the campaign has not spotlighted any sort of 20-point plan; Kerrey often has criticized what he calls other candidates’ laundry lists.

In the Harkin ad, he speaks directly into the camera against a backdrop of pictures of China’s Tian An Men Square: “It is not fair to American workers to have our workers compete against slave labor. I’ll tell you it is not right that our companies go to China, to get young people over there to work making products and yet those same young people are crushed under the wheels of tanks. And we say, ‘Oh that’s all right. We’ll still import their products.’ I say no. And as President, I wouldn’t import those products.”