The Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns conducted an encore presentation of the 2004 race as the two sides battled it out on national security matters.

The back-and-forth also played to one side’s perceived strength and the other side’s perceived weakness — the same situation that developed four years ago.

The subsequent response from the Obama team brought back shades of the national security fight between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 — when the term “flip-flop” was something of a neologism.

Kerry was even at the front of Obama’s response, accusing McCain of embracing Bush’s policies and rhetoric.

Obama told ABC News on Monday that it had not been necessary to put those responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in a detention facility like Guantanamo. He said U.S. prisons would be sufficient.

“And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, ‘Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims,’ ” Obama said in the interview. “So that, I think, is an example of something that was unnecessary. We could have done the exact same thing, but done it in a way that was consistent with our laws.”

The McCain campaign used those comments to launch a daylong assault Tuesday, claiming Obama advocated a law enforcement-only approach to battling terrorism. Those words had familiar overtones from the 2004 presidential campaign, when Republicans said the Democratic candidate’s national security policies would lead to another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

McCain’s rollout included cameos from other players in the 2004 election, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a 2008 GOP presidential candidate and one of Bush’s most popular and prolific surrogates against Kerry.

“Throughout this campaign, I have been very concerned that the Democrats want to take a step back to the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter rather than a clear and present danger. Barack Obama appears to believe that terrorists should be treated like criminals — a belief that underscores his fundamental lack of judgment regarding our national security,” Giuliani said. “In a post-9/11 world, we need to remain on offense against the terrorist threat, which seeks to destroy our very way of life.”