Bush-Kerry TV war risks turning off US voters

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2004

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival Senator John Kerry launched a television advertising war shifting the US presidential election campaign into attack mode.

Bush's first adverts directly targeting the Massachusetts senator hit the television and radio airwaves in about 17 states considered particularly crucial to win the November 2 election.

The Kerry camp announced they would respond in kind against the Republicans but political experts warned that the increasingly nasty tone taken by the president and his challenger so far from polling day risks turning off voters.

Bush's 30-second adverts accuse Kerry of seeking to raise taxes by 900 billion dollars and to weaken post-September 11 legislation "used to arrest terrorists...