The Hindu : International : Kerry invites Hillary to speak at convention

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Monday, Jul 19, 2004

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International

Kerry invites Hillary to speak at convention

By Julian Borger

WASHINGTON, JULY 18. The U.S. presidential candidate, John Kerry, has bowed to pressure from Hillary Clinton's supporters and invited her to address the Democratic Party convention in Boston at the end of the month, it was reported.

Ms. Clinton had been omitted from the list of speakers issued by the Kerry campaign, provoking uproar from loyalists and a quick U-turn by the candidate.

Mr. Kerry phoned her in person to ask her to make a primetime speech introducing her husband, Bill Clinton, on July 26, the convention's opening night.

A Kerry spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, said the campaign was ``thrilled'' that Ms. Clinton had accepted the invitation. It remained unclear why Ms. Clinton, who is extraordinarily popular among liberal activists, was excluded in the first place. Some explained it by the campaign's fear that she might overshadow Mr. Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, whom she is likely to confront in the 2008 nomination race if Mr. Kerry is defeated in November. The Republicans are also struggling over space behind the lectern at their convention in New York at the end of August. More than half the Republicans in the House of Representatives have signed a protest letter to the President, George Bush, complaining that no prominent anti-abortion conservatives had been given a speaking role at the convention.

As in the 2000 election, the Republican Party that appears on stage in New York will be considerably to the Left of the party's core supporters.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, George Pataki, the Governor of New York, and Rudolph Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York, have been given prominent speaking times, but they represent the party's abortion rights minority.

Senator John McCain, another speaker, has an anti-abortion voting record, but is a centrist maverick who has frequently clashed with the party's Christian conservatives. — Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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