US: The "Clintonistas" appear to have gained the edge in the civil war within the John Kerry camp. Since he was taken on last month, Joe Lockhart, who was Bill's Clinton's White House spokesman, has emerged as chief strategist in the Democrats' presidential campaign. Along with Kerry friend John Sasso and key adviser Michael Whouley, Lockhart has been shoring up Kerry's defences and sharpening his attacks on the President, says the Washington Post, writes Conor O'Clery
Another former White House spokesman Mike McCurry was recruited last week to be the "adult on the plane" among communications people. The shakeup sidelines Kerry's pal Robert Shrum, to whom he had given a powerful role despite Shrum's 7-0 record in running Democratic presidential campaigns. Kerry blamed Shrum and campaign manager Beth Cahill for failing to respond quickly to the damaging attacks on his Vietnam record by Swift Boat Veterans in August. The turning point came when he consulted Bill Clinton, never a fan of Shrum, as the former president was preparing for heart surgery two weeks ago.
Kerry got the message: Stop listening to everyone. Pick one guy to run the campaign. And stop being so passive. The results were evident this week. Kerry hit Bush hard every day, accusing him of being an "excuse" president on the economy and of deceiving the country with his rosy picture of progress in Iraq.
The Republicans have 45 days left to combat the re-energised Kerry campaign. Meanwhile, the polls have gone haywire. Gallup yesterday showed President Bush leading by 14 points (54-40 per cent ), while the Pew Research Centre and a Harris poll had him statistically in a dead heat with Kerry.
Both campaigns say their own polling shows a tightening since Bush's post-convention bounce, with Kerry still lagging. Democrats such as Al Gore's former campaign manager, Donna Brazile, cling to the hope that Kerry is "like Seabiscuit, the horse that ran better from behind". But she acknowledges that many party activists are pushing the panic button. Some look to history for comfort.
In 2000 George Bush was 10 points behind with only a few weeks to go and gained an electoral college majority. In 1980 Ronald Reagan was down eight points in the last days but won in a landslide. Both turned their campaigns around by exceeding expectations in presidential debates. Both camps are now looking to the debates starting on September 30th in Miami to settle the matter one way or another. They are shaping up to be bare-knuckle fights.
Another bare-knuckle fight is going on over the future of liberal-leaning CBS broadcaster Dan Rather. The 72-year-old anchorman is facing the biggest crisis of his career over his September 8th report questioning Mr Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. It relied on National Guard memos said to come from the personal files of Col Jerry Killian, Bush's squadron commander, who has since died. Experts say the documents are not authentic. CBS initially defended Rather but now acknowledges the memos are suspect. Rather's long-time critics are calling for his head. The broadcaster has been in the wars before. During the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon asked him during a press conference: "Are you running for something?" Rather replied: "No, Mr President. Are you?" In an 1988 interview with George H.W. Bush, the then vice-president became so angry with Rather over his aggressive questions about Iran Contra that he asked: "How would you like if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?" This referred to the time when Rather left his anchor seat in a fit of pique because his news broadcast was delayed by a US championship tennis match. Bush Sr said afterward of his encounter with Rather, "that bastard didn't lay a glove on me". He was right. In fact by standing up to the CBS man, Bush laid to rest his wimp image. This time Rather has not laid a glove on the son either.
His reliance on suspect documents have given his critics an opportunity to take out both him and the story of George Bush's incomplete service in the National Guard. In a week when Iraq was falling into chaos, top-rated cable shows devoted night after night to flaying Rather for trying to bring down a president with forged documents and of a Nixon-style cover-up, though no one is suggesting he deliberately did anything wrong. Rather and NBC's Tom Brokaw and ABC's Peter Jennings have for a long time been considered the gatekeepers of the nation's broadcast news, but today are working under pressure from 24-hour cable news and Internet news sites. The CBS man, who broke the Abu Ghraib story, is the subject of hostile internet chatter, with sites dedicated to his downfall - the latest is RatherGate.com. An internet blogger called FreeRepublic.com was the first to raise questions about the documents, 10 minutes after Rather's initial broadcast.
Rather has refused to say where the memos came from and dismissed criticism as politically motivated or generated by the "professional rumour mill". He promised CBS News president Andrew Heyward: "This is going to hold up." He interviewed Killian's 86-year-old former secretary, Marian Carr Knox, on Wednesday. Despite her conclusion that the documents are forgeries, she said they reflected accurately Killian's belief that Bush had relied on connections to avoid military duties. But it didn't make much difference. The fate of Rather may be a business decision. His news show has been ranked third for several years among the networks.
Retirement looms.
France is still pretty unpopular in the US. John Kerry resists giving interviews in French despite being fluent, in case it would be used against him.
One of the biggest Euro-bashers on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, made news for suggesting that French fries be renamed "Freedom fries". However Hastert, who is of Luxembourg descent, last week received a medal "as the most famous American of Luxembourg descent". He is now Dennis Hastert of the Order of the Grand-Croix de l'Ordre de la Couronne de Chene. It's not likely to appear on his business card.