LA Times: Bush to scale back TV ad spending

As I pointed out last week, it appears the huge Bush TV ad juggernaut has failed to substantially alter the dynamics of the president race. The events of the last weeks have essentially erased any advantage Bush had bought with his ads.

In tomorrow's LA Times, Ron Brownstein reports, exclusively I might add, that the Bush team is scaling back its TV ads in key swing states by about 30% and will focus more of its remaining ad budget, estimated at about $50 million, on attacking Kerry. However, Brownstein notes a collective sigh of relief from Democrats.

Still, many Democrats are relieved that the race remains so competitive after a Bush ad barrage that appears to have totaled at least $40 million. Pointing to recent polls that generally show Kerry at least even with the president, these Democrats say the Massachusetts senator has taken what could be the Bush campaign's hardest punch and is still standing.

This may be overly optimistic, but there is plenty of truth to it. The Bush team was hoping for a knock out punch and instead, events in the Middle East have put them on the ropes.