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Kerry told to drop Vietnam
06/09/2004 16:26 - (SA)
Washington - Ex-president Bill Clinton spent 90 minutes from his hospital bed awaiting a heart bypass operation advising Democratic presidential contender John Kerry how to rejuvenate his campaign, US media reported on Monday.
Eight weeks from the November 2 vote, Kerry has also taken on more Clinton advisors in a bid to strengthen his battle against President George W Bush who has taken a major lead in some opinion polls, reports said.
Clinton told Kerry that he should move away from talking about his Vietnam war record to establish his national security credentials and instead attack Bush on job creation and health care, the New York Times quoted officials who knew about the conversation as saying.
The report said there was rising concern among Democrats about the state of the Kerry campaign. There has been criticism that Kerry was slow to respond to attacks on his military record and to counter Bush on domestic policy. No Clinton 'take-over'
Kerry staff said the appointment of top Clinton aides such as James Carville, Paul Begala and Stanley Greenberg was not a Clinton takeover. The Times said they insisted this was an expansion of the staff for the final straight of the Kerry-Bush race.
But Democrats outside the campaign said Clinton's influence could be seen in Kerry attacks on Bush policies in recent days.
They said Clinton advisors had been pressing the Democratic candidate to increase the intensity of attacks on domestic policies because Kerry had failed to engage Bush over the past month.
But the New York Times said there was now two camps at the Kerry headquarters: "the existing Kerry high command" and "the Clinton camp" which includes Joe Lockhart a former White House spokesperson and Doug Sosnik, a former Clinton political director.
Carville and Begala are high profile Democratic consultants.
- AFP
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