ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, Aug 11 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush on Wednesday released a new campaign advertisement that invokes the September 11 attacks, drawing charges from his opponent that he is desperate.
The 30-second ad, entitled "Solemn Duty," features Bush and First Lady Laura Bush but no footage from the strikes or their aftermath, unlike a previous commercial that led to a controversy over using the tragedy for political gain.
"My most solemn duty is to lead our nation to protect ourselves. I can't imagine the great agony of a mom or a dad having to make the decision about which child to pick up first on September 11," Bush says.
"We cannot hesitate, we cannot yield, we must do everything in our power to bring an enemy to justice before they hurt us again," says the president, who delivers essentially the same message in his stump speech to voters.
But the campaign of Senator John Kerry, the Democratic White House hopeful, fired off a statement saying that the advertisement smacks of desperation on the part of the incumbent candidate 83 days before the November 2 election.
"If you ever wanted proof that the Bush campaign has reached the point of desperation, now we have it," said Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton.
"The president has his back against the wall, so now he invokes September 11 in his ads and getting rid of IRS on the stump," said Clanton, referring to Bush's call to consider replacing income taxes with a national sales tax.
"It's another sign Bush has lost credibility -- he can't speak to a single issue voters care about: not jobs, not health care, not deficits," the spokesman said.
But Clanton stopped well short of calling the commercial inappropriate -- which is how Democrats greeted a March 2004 Bush ad that featured firefighters carrying a stretcher from the burning ruins of the World Trade Center.