Clinton Tells Kerry To Stop Talking About Vietnam

The New York Times reports that former President Clinton advised Kerry to stop talking about Vietnam:

In an expansive conversation, Mr. Clinton, who is awaiting heart surgery, told Mr. Kerry that he should move away from talking about Vietnam, which had been the central theme of his candidacy, and focus instead on drawing contrasts with President Bush on job creation and health care policies, officials with knowledge of the conversation said.

The same article also reports on the Kerry campaign's slow motion shakeup. A number of old Clinton hands are now playing a more prominent role In the Kerry campaign. According to the Times the Kerry campaign is trying to spin this as a simple staff expansion:

Mr. Kerry's aides emphasized that this was an expansion of the staff for the fall campaign and did not represent another upheaval of the Kerry campaign.

The Kerry campaign shakeup has resulted in two distinct camps:

The installation of former Clinton lieutenants is creating two distinct camps at Mr. Kerry's campaign headquarters on McPherson Square in downtown Washington.

The first is the existing Kerry high command, which includes Mary Beth Cahill, the campaign manager; Bob Shrum, a senior adviser; Tad Devine, a senior adviser; and Stephanie Cutter, the communications director. The second is the Clinton camp, which includes Joe Lockhart, a former White House press secretary; Joel Johnson, a former senior White House aide; and Doug Sosnik, a former Clinton political director. And Howard Wolfson, a former chief of staff to Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined the campaign yesterday.

Kerry is making two mistakes here. A staff shakeup shouldn't be done in slow motion. If you need to fix something, fix it and move on. Allowing two distinct camps within the campaign staff will cause dissension and dilute the campaign's focus. This will also create an impression of indecisiveness, which will just confirm Kerry's flip flop image.

Comments

[Marc]

A year late and a few million short.

[LB]

Clinton is the smooth operator in the crew. Too bad Kerry chose not to involve the man who finessed his way into two terms. Maybe he'll listen now, you think?