The Note

ByABC News
February 17, 2004, 8:45 AM

W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 13&#151;<br> -- TODAY SCHEDULE AS OF 9:00 am (all times ET):

7:30 am: Sen. John Kerry calls into MSNBC's "Imus in the Morning" 9:20 am: Off-camera gaggle by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan 9:45 am: Sen. John Edwards attends a roundtable at the Smith Steel Workers Hall, Milwaukee, Wis. 10:00 am: President Bush meets with a Delegation of Governors returned from Iraq, the White House 10:00 am: ABC's Cokie Roberts moderates a Glamour Magazine event with Liz Cheney, Catherine Edwards, Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry, Rebecca Lieberman and Corinne Quayle, New York, N.Y. 10:00 am: Gov. Howard Dean tours the Anibas Family Farm, Eau Claire, Wis. 10:00 am: Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and Sens. Bob Graham and Ron Wyden speak to the press about President Bush's 2005 budget for veterans, Washington, D.C. 10:00 am: The National Press Club hosts a roundtable discussion about Sen. Kerry's ability to beat President Bush featuring Joe Lockhart, Scott Reed, Charlie Cook and Stu Rothenberg, Washington, D.C. 10:30 am: Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack speaks about the economy at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 11:30 am: Sen. Kerry receives the endorsement of Gen. Wesley Clark at the Armory and Gymnasium, Madison, Wis. 11:30 am: Gov. Dean attends a rally at the State Theater, Eau Claire, Wis. 12:00 pm: Sen. John Kerry attends a forum with Gov. Jim Doyle at the Alliant Energy Center, Madison, Wis. 12:15 pm: On-camera press briefing by Press Secretary McClellan 1:00 pm: Politics Live on abcnews.com and AOL 1:45 pm: President Bush participates in a conversation on choosing schools, Washington, D.C. 3:00 pm: Gov. Dean holds a roundtable discussion at Lake Shore Technical College, Cleveland, Wis. 6:00 pm: RNC Chairman CEO Bill Harris addresses members of the Pan Asian American Leadership Caucus, New York, N.Y. 6:45 pm: Gov. Dean attends a fish fry at American Servian Memorial Hall, Milwaukee, Wis. 11:00 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a rally at Valley High School, Las Vegas, Nev. 11:30 pm: Sen. Edwards appears on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Los Angeles, Calif.

NEWS SUMMARY

President Bush's political team is under tremendous pressure to aggressively counter John Kerry's rise.

Republican Party and elected officials are, like their Democratic counterparts, the first to panic at the sign of negative poll numbers, and the President -- despite the State of the Union and "Meet the Press" -- is still routinely seeing public polling representing a bad trend -- such as the just-out ABC News/Washington Post poll (more on that below).

Kerry's favorable media coverage and the lingering press' focus on the President's National Guard history are also of concern to Republicans -- who are asking the White House to step things up.

See, for example, this passage from today's Mike Allen/Lois Romano Washington Post opus: LINK

"Republican lawmakers have been growing increasingly concerned about the fallout from the dispute over Bush's Guard service. GOP aides on Capitol Hill, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the White House had put the party on the defensive on an issue related to national security, which is traditionally a GOP strength, as Bush prepares to face.... Kerry..."

"' We will never win the debate over who was the better soldier,' said a Republican leadership aide. 'This has to be about who would be a better commander in chief, and we let the Democrats shift the terms of the debate. Who would have thought Bush would get caught in the quagmire of Vietnam?'"

Although November's election is far away for most normal Americans, both the Bush and Kerry campaigns see this as a critical time in the race -- particularly on the matter of defining Sen. Kerry for a public who still barely has heard of him.

So -- through surrogate speeches and TV appearances, as well as bushels of e-mails -- the Republicans are trying to paint a picture of a soft-on-defense, hypocritical, special-interest-coddling liberal. They want the daily negative political stories to start being about Kerry, and stop being about Bush.

See, for example, Ed Gillespie's Thursday sleight-of-hand speech in Nevada, in which he pulls every possible and imaginable newspaper quote to "demonstrate" that the Kerry campaign will be historically rough and negative in going after the President, and simultaneously goes after Kerry! LINK

And see also the Boston Globe's Susan Milligan on the planned attacks on Kerry's record on national security -- in which she Notes that "Kerry said he was prepared for the anticipated Republican attacks and predicted he would not be defeated because of them." LINK

There's also the new, unwithdrawn BC04 anti-Kerry video that attempts to suggest two of the GOP's other new favorite themes: Kerry is a captive of special interests and Kerry is a Gore-like say-one-thing-do-another hypocrite. LINK

Democrats, of course, have been hammering the President for months, and there isn't any reason for the media to pass judgment on the merits of attacks on Kerry or the methods by which they are being delivered.

But we do want to highlight one textbook case of how the right cleverly uses the modern media conveyer belt to produce sound and fury about Democrats who they want to take down.

The sequencing is pretty basic: they start by handing something to one or more right-leaning Web sites.

That begets talk radio, which begets cable TV (usually FNC first), which begets a Washington Times story, which leads to other newspaper stories, and then, finally -- pay dirt -- network television coverage.

On Monday, the conservative website NewsMax.com ran a 1970 photo of John Kerry with Jane Fonda. Kerry seems for weeks to have gotten positive mileage in his paid and free media on his Vietnam-era personae, and whoever put the photo out there was clearly hoping to dirty that up with some Hanoi Jane stuff.

And after passing through all the steps above, the picture yesterday found some morning show traction.

Corbis -- who owns the rights to the picture -- tells ABC News that it is a huge seller right now, to the media and others.

The New York Times Sheryl Gay Stolberg even says today that there is ANOTHER Fonda-Kerry photo, showing them even CLOSER together!!! LINK

This general phenomenon is one worth watching for the next eight months, along with the methods the left will use to try to damage the President's image.

The left is in fact trying to follow the right, using Moveon.org and John Podesta's Center for American Progress to try to create its own echo chamber. The resuscitation of the Guard story is a good example of their fairly swift learning curve.

As for Sen. Kerry: he is in Wisconsin and Nevada today. He will be in Nevada and Wisconsin on Saturday and Wisconsin on Sunday for the debate, to be aired on MSNBC.

This morning, per ABC News Kerry campaign reporter/superstar Ed O'Keefe:

While the reporters and crews of ABC, CBS, and Fox were arguing with the Kerry press staff on the plane about shooting Kerry boarding his plane, the Senator quickly boarded and sat down in his seat -- which means there is no video of Kerry boarding his plane.

Shortly thereafter, Kerry walked back and talk with the press, off camera for some idle, quick chitchat.

He said he took 20 minutes out of his day yesterday to buy his wife Theresa a Valentine's Day present.

When asked what he bought her, Kerry responded, "I won't say. You'll have to ask her."

When asked what she bought him, Kerry smiled and said, "I don't think you want to know."

Kerry's mood is light. He looks and sounds much healthier than he did before he took two days off, and his cough has diminished significantly.

Kerry and press are heading to Wisconsin, where he will receive the endorsement of Gen. Wesley Clark.

It is not yet clear whether there will be a press availability either before or after the endorsement.

Kerry will be in Nevada and Wisconsin on Saturday and Wisconsin on Sunday.

This weekend in Wisconsin there is the J-J dinner Saturday in Milwaukee, where Sens. Kerry and Edwards and Rep. Kucinich will speak. Gov. Dean will join them at the debate sponsored by MSNBC at Marquette University in Milwaukee Sunday night.

Sen. Edwards is in Wisconsin today and appears on NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" tonight in California. He will be in Wisconsin through the weekend.

Gov. Dean is in Wisconsin today and through the weekend (although returns to Vermont on Saturday night).

Rep. Kucinich is in California today. He will campaign in Wisconsin through the weekend.

President Bush is in Washington, D.C. today, talking with governors who visited Iraq and a group on school choice. He will attend the opening ceremony of the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

Monday is one of The Note's favorite holidays -- so we will next publish on Tuesday. Enjoy your weekends!!!

ABC News/Washington Post poll:

ABC News' Polling Director Gary Langer analyzes the latest poll figures on ABCNEWS.com.

Writes Langer, "President Bush is at a low point in public approval, his popularity depressed by questions about the Iraq war, continued economic frustration and public interest in his leading Democratic rival. Bush's overall job approval rating has fallen to 50 percent, a career low. His rating for honesty and trustworthiness is likewise at a new low. "