The Hindu : International : Kerry advised to shift campaign strategy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 07, 2004

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International

Kerry advised to shift campaign strategy

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 6. With just about seven weeks to go for the November 2 presidential election , the Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry, is getting some advice from none other than the immensely popular former Democratic President, Bill Clinton.

From a hospital in Upper Manhattan, New York, where he is undergoing a coronary bypass surgery, Mr. Clinton is said to have had a 90-minute conversation with Mr. Kerry, telling him that he should move away from Vietnam and start making sharper contrasts between himself and the President, George W. Bush, on such issues as jobs and health care.

Mr. Clinton is also said to have urged Mr. Kerry to explain to voters the effect of going to war in Iraq on domestic policies.

"He ( Mr. Clinton) always felt that you've got to give people a reason to vote for you and give people a choice.

"He believes that at the end of the day if you do make it an effective choice for the voters, they'll figure it out. But the burden's on the candidate to make the case," an unnamed Democratic strategist has been quoted in the Washington Post.

Revving up campaign

Mr. Kerry is said to have responded well to the advice from Mr. Clinton and will be taking on more former Clinton advisors and top aides in an attempt to rev up his campaign. But at the same time the Kerry campaign is denying that there has been some kind of a "Clinton takeover" of a troubled campaign and there has been the insistence that there is no tension between the two groups.

Mr. Clinton's advice has to be seen in the backdrop of the Kerry campaign in the month of August, which, Democrats say, has not been a particularly `good' month.

Terrorism issue

Democratic strategists inside and outside of the Kerry campaign wanted him to precisely do what Mr. Clinton is saying now: stay away from Vietnam and issues that Mr. Bush is seen to be strong at by the American public, such as war on terrorism or who will make a better Commander-in-Chief and focus on where the incumbent is perceived as weak and vulnerable — the economy.

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