Bush-Cheney:
Leadership is key

updated 4:32 p.m. ET April 6, 2004

TITLE: "Tested."

LENGTH: 30 seconds.

PRODUCER: Maverick Media.

AIRING: In rotation in 18 battleground states and nationally on cable networks.

SCRIPT: Bush: "I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message."

Announcer: "The last few years have tested America in many ways. Some challenges we've seen before. And some were like no others. But America rose to the challenge. What sees us through tough times? Freedom, faith, families and sacrifice."

KEY IMAGES: Bush appears at the beginning and end only. The ad mainly includes portraits of people of all ages and races, along with Sept. 11, 2001, wreckage, a flag being raised, children saying the Pledge of Allegiance, parishioners at a church, parents with a new baby and firefighters.

ANALYSIS, by Liz Sidoti, Associated Press writer: The ads portray the Republican incumbent as a steward who has led the country through three years of economic woes and terrorism fears and seek to make the case that Bush has emerged as a leader amid foreign and domestic challenges.

The ads are meant to instill pride in the country and convey the notion that it is headed in the right direction under Bush. The ads ask viewers, in a sense, to step back and recall all that the nation has been through over the past three years.

One ad suggests that Bush inherited the economic recession from President Clinton, a Democrat, and claims that Bush's policies have contributed to a recovery. Footage from the 2001 terrorist attacks serve as a reminder that Bush was at the helm during the crisis.

The economy has been among voters' top concerns and is expected to be a central issue in the fall campaign. Bush seeks to make the case that he understands how important jobs are to the public, and claims that the economy is recovering.

Advisers say the nation added 100,000 jobs in January and more than 350,000 over the past five months, and they give credit to Bush's economic policies. Still, since Bush took office, about 2.9 million jobs have been lost, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.