Bush's Campaign More Aggressive in Coming Weeks
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and RICHARD W. STEVENSON

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 — President Bush's political advisers are completing plans for a more aggressive stage of his re-election campaign, seeking to discredit Senator John Kerry and promote Mr. Bush's record and character with television advertisements and a more visible role for the president himself, aides and Republican officials say.

With Mr. Kerry having emerged as the almost certain Democratic nominee, Mr. Bush has told associates he wants to get more assertive in drawing sharp distinctions with Democrats and defending his tenure as he travels the nation.

The planned shift in strategy, to be executed in the next few weeks, comes amid anxiety among Republicans about the president's declining poll numbers, uncharacteristic missteps by a usually assured White House and a torrent of criticism of Mr. Bush from an energized Democratic Party that appears to be unifying around Mr. Kerry.

…"The two defining events for this year have been the State of the Union and the `Meet the Press' interview, and both have been colossal failures," one prominent Republican strategist said Friday night after the document release, referring to an interview broadcast by NBC last Sunday. Mr. Bush's inability to present a compelling, aggressive case for himself in those two nationally televised appearances has "got Republicans, especially at the grass-roots level, questioning the White House's strategy and tactics," said the strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

…Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said the Republican campaign team appeared not to have fully anticipated the intensity of the news media's focus on the Democratic primary battle, which left Mr. Bush exposed to a months-long partisan onslaught.