A race with no trash talk? Not likely

While the Kerry-Edwards campaign calls for an end to "tired, old" negativity, observers on both sides think the odds are slim.

BOSTON - Imagine a thoroughly positive presidential campaign for the next three months.

To hear John Edwards tell it at the Democratic convention last week, that's precisely what the Kerry-Edwards campaign is striving for.

"Aren't you sick of it?" Edwards said of negative attacks. "Between now and November - you, the American people - can reject the tired, old, hateful, negative politics of the past. And instead you can embrace the politics of hope, the politics of what's possible."

Nice rhetoric, but within hours people in both parties were chuckling about the slim likelihood of a friendly, issue-oriented campaign over the next three months.

Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie scoffed at John Kerry's call Thursday night for an end to "small-minded attacks."

"I'm trying to remember," Gillespie said of Kerry's acceptance speech, "was that before or after he said the president had polluters in the Oval Office and was dishonest?"

Attempting to keep the campaign positive could put Edwards in an awkward position. Part of his political appeal is his sunny persona, and many Democrats during the primaries and caucuses praised him for avoiding negative attacks while running for the presidential nomination.

"It is largely the job of the running mate to aggressively draw distinctions, and it will be interesting to see how he embraces that role," said Jennifer Duffy, an analyst with the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter. "It's not really realistic that he can remain positive."

Some running mates in modern history have been tougher than others. Spiro Agnew was an attack dog for Richard Nixon. Michael Dukakis' running mate, Lloyd Bentsen, in 1988 famously belittled Dan Quayle with his "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" zinger during a televised debate. Vice President Dick Cheney threw barbs at Al Gore in 2000 and continues to do it to Kerry this year.

One person's perception of a negative attack can be viewed by others as legitimately informing voters about a rival's record. The day after the Democratic convention, for instance, President Bush belittled Kerry's Senate record.

"After 19 years in the United States Senate, my opponent has had thousands of votes, but very few signature achievements," Bush said Friday at a Missouri rally, using a line of attack expected to be repeated regularly in coming weeks.

Edwards has often criticized the Bush administration's record and at times has gone after Bush and Cheney personally.

"We have this president who, best I can tell, disappeared during a period of his National Guard service; nobody can figure out where he was. And we have a vice president who avoided military service four or five times in the '60s criticizing John Kerry for the medals he won in Vietnam," Edwards said at a June Florida rally, before he had been tapped for vice president.

The Kerry campaign has shown early on that it intends to push back hard against attacks. Dukakis' race against the former President George Bush has driven home to Democratic strategists the danger of trying to stay above the fray and ignore charges and criticism.

After the 1988 Democratic convention in Atlanta, Dukakis led in the polls by 17 points. That lead quickly evaporated under a barrage of negative ads, including one from a conservative group noting that during his tenure as governor, a convicted murderer named Willie Horton received a weekend pass and went on a violent crime rampage.

Kerry campaign officials say they will not take Dukakis' passive approach to opposition charges.

"Look, we want to set a positive tone. But the Bush campaign is doing nothing but negative and misleading campaigning, and I'm sure we may have to respond to it," said Cameron Kerry, John Kerry's brother and a top adviser on the campaign.

In trying to seek the high ground on negative campaigning at their convention, Kerry and Edwards hoped to inoculate themselves from attacks and put the Bush and Cheney campaign on the defensive. Voters repeatedly say they can't stand negative campaigning.

"People respond if you take the high road and you talk about a vision," said Tom Shea, who is leading Kerry's campaign in Florida. "The negative campaign on their part in some ways works to our advantage, because it reinforces the negative association people have about (Bush) being stubborn and arrogant, with a my way or the highway attitude."

Of course, the Kerry-Edwards campaign has the luxury of running largely positive TV ads while others harshly attack the Bush administration.

While filmmaker Michael Moore bashes Bush as incompetent or worse, the Kerry-Edwards campaign decries negative politics and touts its own positive tone.

Likewise, while the Kerry-Edwards campaign airs positive TV commercials about its agenda and biographies, independently operating groups such as Move-On.org have aired spots in Florida showing children working to pay off a growing deficit and Bush failing a lie detector test with justifications for war in Iraq.

"We have no control over what those groups do," Shea said with a smile.

-- Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com