Bush condemns anti-Kerry ad

US president George Bush has criticised a TV commercial that accused Democrat rival John Kerry of inflating his own Vietnam War record, saying broadcast attacks by outside groups had no place in the race for the White House.

More than a week after the ad stopped running, Bush said: “I think they’re bad for the system.” The president had ignored calls to condemn the commercial while it was on the air.

Democrats criticised the president’s remarks yesterday at the same time they worked to limit the political damage from the ad which they denounced as a smear sanctioned by Bush and his high command.

“The moment of truth came and went, and the president still couldn’t bring himself to do the right thing,” Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards said in a statement.

“We need a president with the strength and integrity to say when something is wrong.”

“Too little, too late,” added party chairman Terry McAuliffe.

Campaign surrogates worked throughout the day to rebut the claims made by Kerry’s detractors.

“The fourth Purple Heart could have been an AK-47 through his heart,” said Rich Baker, who served on a swift boat in Vietnam at the same time as Kerry. He was referring to weekend comments by former Republican senator Bob Dole - seriously wounded in the Second World War – that Kerry had won three Purple Hearts “and never bled that I know of”.

Dole’s comment drew a morning-after phone call from Kerry, his colleague in the Senate for more than a decade.

“He said he was disappointed. And I said: 'John, I didn’t mean to offend you',” Dole told CNN.

Other Swift Boat veterans came forward over the weekend to verify the events that Kerry’s detractors challenged.

The controversy over the ad aired by Swift Boat Veterans For Truth has rocked the race for the White House during what is customarily a quiet summer interlude between the parties’ political conventions.

While attacking the ad, Democrats have also said privately that Kerry and his campaign were slow to recognise the potential danger in the attack.

The four-term Massachusetts senator, who came home from Vietnam with five medals, has made his wartime service a cornerstone of his challenge to the president.

Sean McCabe, a spokesman for the veterans’ group, said the ad that questioned Kerry’s record ran in three states for a week and stopped on August 12. The organisation intends to begin airing a second commercial today in three other states. That spot intersperses clips of a youthful Kerry talking about war atrocities during an appearance before Congress in 1971 with images of members of the swift boat group condemning his testimony.

Asked about the issue, Bush said: “I think Senator Kerry served admirably and he ought to be proud of his record. But the question is who is best to lead the country in the war on terror? Who can handle the responsibilities of the commander in chief? Who’s got a clear vision of the risks that the country faces?”

Meanwhile, John Kerry’s former crew mates vouch for his Vietnam war heroics in a documentary released on Friday.

Brothers In Arms, a first film by journalist Paul Alexander, features Kerry and four men who served with him on Patrol Craft 94, the last of three boats he commanded during the war and the one from which he won the Silver Star for chasing down and killing a combatant who threatened his crew with a rocket.

In Brothers In Arms, opening at a New York cinema just days before the Republican National Convention starts in the city, Kerry’s mates relate the familiar story of their commander fearlessly ordering their boat to be beached in the thick of an enemy outpost, and hunting down a man who intended to fire a rocket at them.

They also recount an ambush during which Kerry and his crew rescued survivors of another patrol boat that hit a mine.