US: With opinion polls pointing to big losses in next month's congressional elections, Republicans are spending the final days of the campaign driving home the message that a Democratic victory could make the United States more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
Starting tomorrow, the party will broadcast a television ad that warns of further attacks on US soil, using quotes from Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and ending with the words, "These are the stakes. Vote November 7th."
Political analysts have described the spot as the most aggressive negative advertisement since Lyndon Johnson's notorious "Daisy" ad against Republican Barry Goldwater, which featured a girl plucking petals from a daisy as a clock ticked in a countdown to a nuclear explosion.
The new ad includes bin Laden's December 26th, 2001 vow that "what is yet to come will be even greater".
President George Bush told Republican supporters yesterday that difference in the two parties' approaches to fighting terrorism was the defining issue of this election. "There's just a difference of opinion. We believe we're at war and we should give all the folks protecting you the tools necessary to do so. Evidently, Democrats don't," he said.
Mr Bush said the election offered Americans a chance to choose between the strategies favoured by each party for fighting terrorism and to decide which was more effective.
"The voters out there need to ask the question: which political party will support the brave men and women who wear our uniform when they do their job of protecting America? Which political party is willing to give our professionals the tools necessary to protect the American people? Which political party has a strategy for victory in this war on terror?" he said.
While Mr Bush defends the continued US presence in Iraq as a central element in the struggle against terrorism, some Republicans in tight races have sought to distance themselves from the policy.
Virginia senator George Allen, who is in a dead heat with Democratic challenger Jim Webb, called this week for a change of course in Iraq. "We cannot continue doing the same things and expect different results. We have to adapt our operations, adapt our tactics . . . The Iraqi people need to show some backbone, some spine," he said.
Top Republican strategist Karl Rove continues to maintain that his party can win in November by focusing on the issue of terrorism and persuading supporters to come out and vote. Other Republicans are less optimistic they can retain control of Congress and recriminations have already started, with moderates blaming evangelical Christians and neo-conservatives for their party's unpopularity.
Former Republican House majority leader Dick Armey has accused congressional Republicans of pandering to evangelicals. Mr Armey claims that conservative Christians could cost the party seats in swing states such as Ohio.
"The Republicans are talking about things like gay marriage and so forth, and the Democrats are talking about the things people care about, like how do I pay my bills?" he said.