Washington ? The fear factor has become a defining ingredient in America’s first post-9-11 presidential race as both sides exploit voter anxieties about issues ranging from terrorism and the war in Iraq to Social Security and soaring medical costs.

Although manipulating voters’ fears dates back to the nation’s earliest presidential campaigns, independent analysts say the scare tactics of the 2004 race are perhaps the most blatant in modern-day politics, intensified by the extremely tight race and a polarized electorate.

With only days before Tuesday’s election, fear itself has become an issue as the campaigns step up fear-based appeals to tilt undecided voters their way, according to political experts.

Each camp is accusing the other of preying on the fragile mood of an electorate still haunted by the terrorist attacks of 2001. Kerry has criticized Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for trying to “scare Americans” by claiming that the Massachusetts senator would be a weak commander in chief who would leave Americans vulnerable to terrorists. Bush, in turn, has countered that his Democratic challenger is resorting to “the politics of fear” by claiming that the Republican president would reinstate the draft and plans to cut Social Security benefits by 30 percent to 45 percent.

Many concerns

There is plenty to stoke voter insecurities: the danger of further terrorism, American troops at war, crime at home, and a litany of economic concerns, from jobs and higher taxes to rising gasoline prices and prescription drug costs.

With Bush and Kerry running neck and neck, the closing days of the race have featured a barrage of negative ads and statements filled with breathless half-truths, or in some cases, outright falsehoods, say political experts and campaign monitoring groups.

“This is the ugliest presidential election we’ve ever had,” said Curtis Gans, director of the non-partisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate. “The volume and negativity, the distortions and the impugning of people, is greater than it’s ever been.”

The Bush-Cheney “Wolves” ad that debuted Oct. 22 seems destined to take a lasting place in political lore, similar to the so-called “Bears” ad President Reagan used 20 years ago to warn against the Soviet menace.

The Bush ad raises the specter of terrorism by showing a pack of wolves glaring into the camera. A female voice tells viewers, “In an increasingly dangerous world,” Kerry and “the liberals in Congress” slashed intelligence spending by $6 billion and thus “weakened America’s defenses.” “And,” the narrator concludes, “weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm.”

A critique by FactCheck.org, an online monitoring service run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, called the ad a “direct appeal to fear” that “misleads voters” by distorting Kerry’s record.

Tactic not new

To be sure, fear as a political weapon is hardly new. In the bitterly fought presidential race of 1800, for example, Thomas Jefferson’s opponents warned that his election would lead to the teaching of “murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest,” according to www.historycentral.com.

During the Cold War, candidates relied on the Soviet threat and images of a nuclear holocaust to terrify voters. The infamous “daisy” ad implicitly depicted President Johnson’s 1964 opponent, Barry Goldwater, as a war-mongering extremist by showing a girl plucking daisy pedals, followed by a countdown to a nuclear explosion. The ad aired once and was quickly pulled.

Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush, won election in 1988 on a campaign that portrayed Democratic rival Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts, as a criminal coddler who was soft on defense. One controversial ad, tinged with racial overtones, showed a black inmate named Willie Horton who terrorized a young couple while free on a weekend pass.

But these days, say analysts, scare tactics have become a standard feature in the volatile political climate following the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2000 presidential race that was decided by the Supreme Court. The expanded use of the Internet has been a contributing factor, giving campaign operatives and their allies a forum to spread rumors through mass e-mail campaigns.

Accusations that Bush was planning to resurrect the draft spread across several Web sites, with e-mails saying the administration planned to induct all “boys and girls” between 18 and 26.

Almost from the outset of the race, Bush-Cheney supporters have sought to portray Kerry as a weak and indecisive leader who is poorly suited to continue the war on terrorism. An ad sponsored by the Progress for America Fund, a Republican group, shows images of Osama bin Laden and other terrorists as an announcer asks: “Would you trust Kerry against these fanatic killers?”