Senator Kerry made no mention of the attack in his economic speech.
And Aide said he had no intention of personally responding.
But when pressed after the speech, he took issue with the vice president's tone, not his criticism.
You know, it's sad that they can only be negative.
They have nothing to say about the future vision of America.
I think Americans want a positive vision for the future.
In the speech at issue a week ago, Senator Kerry vowed to destroy terrorist networks.
And Aide said by promising to be more sensitive, he simply meant more diplomatic with other countries.
Much as President Bush used the term six weeks after taking office.
Precisely because America is powerful, we must be sensitive about expressing our power and influence.
The Bush campaign attacks are designed to protect a critical campaign edge.
A 13-point advantage over Senator Kerry when voters are asked who would better handle terrorism.
Another Bush-Cheney strategy is daily questions about Senator Kerry's vote in favor of the Iraq War.
That is more risky. It was Mr. Bush who launched the war.
And nearly half of Americans now think it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq.
But just among Democrats, 74% call the war a mistake.
And the White House thinks the more Senator Kerry has to explain his vote,
the more anti-war Democrats might become disillusioned with his candidacy.
And Senator Kerry here in Oregon. Tonight, senior advisors for his campaign concede
the Bush-Cheney campaign has had some success in raising questions,
perhaps even doubts about the senator's views on Iraq and his broader approach to the war on terrorism.
These advisors attribute the attacks to a Bush White House they insist is worried,
but they also concede, Miles, they need to do a better job of answering them.
I suppose the best defense is a good offense.
Given events in Iraq and around the world, you could make a suggestion that the table should be turned,
that the Bush campaign should be on its heels.
Some pretty successful campaigning, I'd say.
It is one of the most interesting dilemmas and issues of this campaign.
Senator Kerry believes he can score points talking about what happened after the bomb started dropping in Iraq,
saying the president did not have a plan for the peace.
The Bush White House believes it can mute those criticisms and put Senator Kerry on the defensive
by making him explain and defend his vote to go to war.
Both campaigns believe you have a polarized electorate,
and the winner will be the candidate who most effectively turns out his votes on Election Day.
And the White House is banking that if Senator Kerry is out there publicly saying,
yes, I voted for the war in Iraq, then enough Democrats, even if it's just a tiny sliver, Miles,
will get disillusioned and not vote. They think that will help.
But you're right. Senator Kerry, and he just did it in this speech here, says the issue should be,
did the commander-in-chief have a plan not only to win the war and win the peace?
He says this president did not. Miles?
You know, it's interesting, John, though.
Every poll I read shows that Americans are most concerned about the economy,
and yet the debate always goes back to this. Why?
Well, certainly President Bush is at a disadvantage right now when it comes to the economy,
which is another reason the Kerry campaign says it will focus on the economy for the next two weeks,
run up to the Republican convention.
Some aides were very disappointed that the senator even responded at all to Dick Cheney's criticism today.
They wanted him to stay focused like a laser on the economy.
Now, they believe in the end that will be the big issue.
What the Bush campaign is banking on is that because there are 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq,
still troops in Afghanistan, still the terrorist threat,
that come a week before the election, all Americans will sit back and think about a threshold question.
Do they want to change commanders-in-chief in the middle of a war?
And the Bush campaign is banking on the fact that that answer for enough voters will be no.
That is one of the key debates.
John King, with the Kerry campaign, thanks very much.
Ahead on Newsnight, the battle for Najaf.
U.S. forces launch an assault, raid the home of a radical cleric.
Could this American offensive ignite a firestorm throughout the Muslim world?
A live report from Najaf is next.
Also, Hurricane Charlie just hours away from bearing down on Florida.
Hundreds of thousands are in harm's way.
We'll give you the latest predictions for Charlie.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is Newsnight.
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In Iraq today, the long-awaited push against a rebel cleric and his army
began in earnest.
Long-awaited, perhaps long-dreaded as well.
Thousands of American and Iraqi lives are on the line,
and so is a very delicate political balance
which extends far beyond the borders of Iraq.
Here's CNN's Matthew Chance.
What up, Mike?
Go, go, go, go!
I got a holo right here!
This is how the U.S. Marines made their house call
at the gates of the Medi Army leader in Najaf.
Let's go, kid.
Kid, mid-time!
These are exclusive CNN images of a raid on the home of Muqtada al-Sadr.
He was long gone, but as this new offensive against his Medi Army rages,
it was a strong message.
Back down or be hunted.
Go, go, go, go, go!
Where's he coming from?
We are currently now moved over to this private hospital here,
which we believe Sadr used as another headquarters for his bodyguard.
And right now we have just gone through Sadr's house.
The house was clean, and we're currently exploring anything we can find inside.
U.S. forces have now unleashed awesome power to crush the Shia uprising.
Military officials say thousands of troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships,
have been raiding Medi Army strongholds.
And when the insurgents hold out, like at this Najaf school, air strikes are called in.
For many Iraqis, this is overkill.
The U.S. military says it's using restraint.
The reason we're here is because the government in Najaf has asked for our help
to restore law and order and control to the rightful Iraqi government.
Being very careful to stay away from the mosque area,
definitely not going to do any damage there.
We're using a lot of restraint in our operations.
On the streets of Najaf, the fighting is intense.
Millions have been urged to stay in their homes, but many have been fleeing the city.
This has been a display of overwhelming U.S. firepower,
but the battle for Najaf is far from won.
That was CNN's Matthew Chance in Najaf.
Coming up on Newsnight, tears of sorrow.
Same-sex couples react to the news of a California court.
Thousands of gay and lesbian marriages are no longer legal.
The pageantry of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games just hours away.
We go back in time when the Olympic movement was all about blood, brutality, and nudity.
You heard it right. This is Newsnight.
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It's been just five a century since two big storms pounded the state of Florida back to back.
Ninety-eight years, to be precise.
Tropical Storm Bonnie hit this morning, doing little damage to speak of.
Hurricane Charlie, on the other hand, well, people from the Keys to the Panhandle spent the day making ready for something a lot more consequential.
The plywood went up, the bread and water were bought, and people began leaving for safer ground.
Authorities are urging about 800,000 people from the Keys to Tampa to evacuate, and that may soon become an order.
For the latest on where things stand at the moment, we turn it over to CNN's Orland Sidney in the Weather Center.
Hello, Orland.
Miles, thanks a lot.
Right now, the center of Hurricane Charlie is located 200 miles south of Key West,
moving now to the north-northwest at about 17-18 miles an hour.
The wind speed has been holding at 105 miles an hour.
That's a strong Category 2 storm.
The latest satellite images, though, it really looks like it's taking on a little bit more of a ragged profile,
so we might actually see the winds drop a bit and then perhaps pick up again as it moves north of Cuba and moves away from the interaction with land.
What we have for you currently are the warnings from the dry tortugas through Key West to Seven Mile Bridge.
A hurricane warning is in effect.
And then from East Cape, Sable, northward to Bayport, they also have a hurricane warning.
That means hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours, and down in Key West, you believe it, winds are up to 16 miles an hour now.
But the thing that you're getting is some of the outer rain bands and even some tornado warnings up towards Marathon.
We had reports of strong thunderstorms with rotation.
Again, these are some of the outer rain bands moving in.
We expect to see this storm perhaps as strong as Category 3 across the area of the Keys 2 a.m. in the morning.
Miles.
Orland, let's talk a little bit about that storm surge.
That is a big concern aside from the winds and the rain.
That's exactly right.
And the stronger the storm is, obviously, the bigger the surge is.
As this storm works its way northward towards Tampa, we're looking at a potential landfall about 2 p.m. tomorrow.
Maybe as strong as Category 3.
That would give us a storm surge of 10 to 13 feet before it moves on off.
That could be a real problem for folks, obviously, across the West Coast, not just in Tampa, but that will be the area we think will have the strongest impact.
And in some cases, the later in the day you get, the closer you're going to get to the time of high tide.
So that certainly will be a problem as well.
Orland Sidney, she's got her cot set up in the weather center.
Good luck.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Still to come on Newsnight, tonight on Larry King, the president derided those who spent a lot of time talking about politics as the chattering class.
Well, guilty as charged, I suppose.
We'll chatter about the interview shortly.
Later, more on the explosive announcement by the New Jersey governor.
He is gay and he is resigning.
The announcement sure surprised us, but what about a reporter who has covered Jim McGreevey for 20 years?
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What's disappointed you?
The bitterness inside Washington.
It's different than I thought.
Certainly it wasn't that case in Austin, Texas when I was the governor.
You were never hated there.
No, I don't, you know, I don't pay that much attention to it.
I just don't pay that much attention to it.
The President of the United States responding to our own Larry King tonight.
Mr. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush there for the entire hour,
touching on a wide range of issues above and beyond the bitter tone in Washington.
Joining us from Washington to talk about the interview and presidential politics in general,
David Sanger of the New York Times and Liz Marlantes of the Christian Science Monitor.
Good to have you both with us.
Thank you.
Want to play a few clips and get your response to it.
Let's start with the first one.
This one is on the subject of war.
It's painful to know that a young American has lost his or her life in combat.
It's painful because I know how brokenhearted their loved ones are.
We have met with their loved ones a lot.
Oh, you have? You bet.
Because we don't see any stories.
Well, you shouldn't. These are private moments.
Liz, I suppose a cynic would say we don't see those moments
because the President and the White House doesn't want to call attention to the effect
that the casualty toll continues to mount there.
And what's interesting to me is as you see events unfold in Iraq,
it belies what's happening on the campaign.
The Bush campaign seems to be on the offensive on this point.
Absolutely. They went on the offensive on Iraq really hard this week.
It started with Bush issuing a sort of challenge to Kerry to get him to say
whether he would have voted the same way, knowing then what he knows now.
And Kerry took the bait and said he would, and then Bush immediately cast that as a flip-flop.
And they really haven't let up.
Today you had Dick Cheney out there castigating Kerry for a comment he made earlier
that he would fight a more sensitive war on terror.
So this has really been, we've seen a strong, strong push from the Bush campaign this week
to really question Kerry's credentials in national security and specifically on Iraq.
Bush has really tried to seize that issue back.
And you're right. In a week when casualties are continuing to mount,
there's something sort of ironic in that.
But absolutely, Kerry was the one on the defensive this week.
David, how do you explain that?
Is there complete outmaneuvering on the part of the Bush campaign or ineptitude on the part of the Kerry campaign?
Well, a little bit of both, and I don't think this one is over.
I was talking to a number of people in the Kerry campaign about this yesterday when I was writing on this topic.
And what I think is interesting is that the President did exactly what Liz said, issued this challenge.
Mr. Kerry did take the bait.
Then the President came back and said, well, you know, Mr. Kerry and I now are in complete agreement
that we needed to go to war in Iraq, which of course is not what Mr. Kerry's position has been.
It has been that he voted to authorize the war because he thought the President needed the maximum negotiating leverage,
but then thought he would take a series of steps, which Mr. Kerry has described at some length.
The difficulty for this position for Mr. Kerry is that this is hardly the kind of bumper sticker talk
that happens in presidential campaigns, particularly as they get down toward the end.
And we're now within, what, 83, 84 days.
And so Mr. Kerry has had a very difficult time, I think, trying to get, to use his word, the nuance of his position out there.
And the President has twisted it just enough to make nuance sound like flip-flopping.
All right. Let's move on to another subject.
This one is gay marriage, of course, in the news today. Let's listen for a moment.
It's too important an issue for judges to make that decision.
And I think one way to guarantee that traditional marriage is defined as between a man or a woman is through the constitutional process.
What about the union of gays?
Well, that's up to states. If the states choose to do that, in other words, if they want to provide legal protections for gays, that's great.
That's fine. But I do not want to change the definition of marriage. I don't think our country should.
Liz, it's a bit of an evasive answer. Is it enough for the right wing of the GOP?
I think so, yes. I mean, Bush is really sort of where the majority of Americans are on this issue in the sense that, you know,
most Americans do not favor gay marriage. They don't want to deny rights to gays.
And so Bush made clear tonight that he felt there were other ways to make sure that homosexuals get the same sort of rights as all Americans.
But he cast it as a question of democracy.
This is something that Americans should make up their minds in the states, and this shouldn't be left up to judges, which is sort of what he's been saying all along.
And I think that is a position that will sell well in most parts of the country.
Of course, David, it's worth pointing out there's not much daylight between Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry on this point.
There isn't. And, you know, it was that answer and the answer on stem cells, Miles,
that struck me that the president was using this interview to very much move right down the middle.
Sometimes when we are out in the campaign trail with him, depending on who the audience is,
you hear him make an appeal that's very clearly to a more conservative, more right-wing element of the party.
But with this audience, he was clearly trying to appeal to mainstream and perhaps the swing voters.
And so he took a down the middle road or at least what his party would view as one.
And in fact, at one point in that, he was asked by Mr. King, so what about inheritance?
They couldn't do a – if you deny gay marriage, then you deny the rights of inheritance the way a man – a husband and wife would have it.
And he said, well, the answer to that is get rid of the inheritance tax.
I thought that was a pretty good answer. Definitely. All right. David Sanger, Liz Marlantes, thank you both very much for your time.
I appreciate your instant analysis. Still ahead on Newsnight, the fight over same-sex marriage.
A California court declares thousands of marriages invalid. We'll have the story for you in just a moment.
Also, a return to Olympia when Olympic athletes wore olive oil, just olive oil.
Moneyline Roundup is brought to you by Bank of America Higher Standards.
To latte.