Kerry campaign in trouble AM - Monday, 6 September, 2004 08:17:00
Reporter: John Shovelan
TONY EASTLEY: There are a lot of worried Democrats in the United States, concerned not so much about gains that George W Bush may have made but because of what their own candidate has failed to do.
Worried Democrats are urging Senator Kerry to hit back at Republican attacks against him and to stay focussed on his messages to American voters.
John Shovelan reports two new opinion polls show President Bush now with a commanding lead.
JOHN SHOVELAN: Senator John Kerry's Presidential campaign is in trouble.
Two new polls released over the weekend show President Bush with a better than 10 point lead.
A Newsweeksurvey has the President with a 52 to 41 lead while a Time Magazine also has Senator Kerry trailing by eleven points.
While the campaigns are trying to play down the margin Rudolph Giuliani - the Republican former mayor of New York and a key speaker at last week's Republican party's convention - acknowledged Senator Kerry's weakened position.
RUDOLF GIULIANI: His campaign is in, you know, some degree of disarray.
JOHN SHOVELAN: Last month proved a disaster for the Kerry campaign. The advertising attacking his medals for gallantry in the Vietnam War - by a group of veterans with close ties to the Bush-Cheney team - undermined the Democratic Party's sales pitch of Senator Kerry the war veteran - who could keep America safe.
James Carville, the Democratic strategist agrees that the Kerry campaign has struck problems.
JAMES CARVILLE: Well, sure. He's had a bad August. But it's imminently fixable. I think he's starting to get better. The question he's got to point to is, you know, the country's had a bad August. And I think once they focus on that from unemployment numbers to poverty numbers to more soldiers in Iraq being wounded, to everything else, then I think that Senator Kerry's putting things into place that's going to improve his campaign. I expect that to happen in the next three days.
JOHN SHOVELAN: The sudden surge of support for the President isn't abnormal according to Democrat Richard Gephardt who says those gains will melt away in the coming campaign.
RICHARD GEPHARDT: Well I always expected that President Bush would get a bounce out of his convention. He is after all, President of the United States. People watched all of that. And I think he was always going to get this bounce. I think a week from now, this race is going to be right where it's been. It's going to be tied.
JOHN SHOVELAN: With Senator Kerry now running from behind he is trying to re-focus his campaign. But just as he's trying to regain some momentum for the flagging campaign and get off the defensive, the Pentagon is reported to have ordered an investigation into the awarding of Senator Kerry's five medals.
The inquiry is to be carried out by the Inspector-General's office of the US Navy.
A spokesman for Senator Kerry angrily denounced the investigation saying that this is a waste of taxpayers' dollars and the Pentagon's time, especially during wartime.
John Shovelan, Washington. |
