Bush campaign plans McCain ad

FOX CHAPEL, Pa. – President Bush’s re-election campaign has a television ad in the works featuring former Republican rival John McCain, and advisers are weighing whether to air it when Democrat John Kerry announces his vice presidential pick.

McCain, the Arizona senator who rejected Kerry’s overtures to be No. 2 on the Democratic ticket, campaigned with Bush in Fort Lewis, Wash., and Reno, Nev., last month. Bush’s ad makers filmed the appearance, and the footage is being included in an ad, according to GOP sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans remain incomplete.

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt would neither confirm nor deny that the ad is being cut.

But Rick Davis, a McCain adviser, said the senator gave permission for Bush’s campaign to use footage of the joint appearance in an ad.

“They haven’t given us details on exactly what’s in it other than to say they plan to do an ad, and they plan to feature Bush and McCain campaigning together that day,” Davis said. “We said ‘Sure. It’s OK with us.’ John’s glad to do it.”

Chad Clanton, a Kerry campaign spokesman, said: “No ad can change the fact that under George W. Bush we’ve lost 1.8 million jobs, health care costs are up 49 percent and our military is overextended. The American people believe we can do better, and so does John Kerry.”

In May, Kerry ran a biographical ad that showed a picture of himself with a hand on McCain’s shoulder as the two walked away from the camera. The ad said: “He joined with John McCain to find the truth about POWs and MIAs in Vietnam.”

The Bush campaign has not run ads for more than two weeks in local media markets in 20 battleground states where it had been on the air.