Bill Bennett: “If I may finish. At the same time, my experience in the last campaign is that when there were ads attacking me, I found…”

“If I may finish. At the same time, my experience in the last campaign is that when there were ads attacking me, I found that the general public did not pay any attention to them and did not care. But my own troops all panicked until I was able to get back on television and answer those ads. And they heaved a gigantic sigh of relief. By the same token, I am told by my opponent's people--Utah is a small enough State that virtually all the politicians talk to each other, particularly when the campaign is over--that it was one of my ads puncturing my opponent's attack on me that took all the starch out of their door-to-door grassroots organization. The former chairman of the Democratic State committee said, ``I was shaving in the morning, feeling good about the campaign. We were closing the gap on you. Our attacks were taking hold. I had the radio on and heard your voice come on on the radio. At the end of 60 seconds, I said, `It's all over. He has just punctured our balloon. There's no way we can get anybody going again.' '' So, these things play hand in hand. Everyone has his or her own experience in it. We come back to the basic posture that I took. We, as candidates, should be in charge of our campaigns. We, as candidates, should make the decision as to what is said, when it is said, how it is said. We should make the decision whether we use grassroots or television or radio or billboards or handbills or newspapers.…”