Demos divided over Kerry's campaign

WASHINGTON -- Democrats following the presidential campaign are divided into two factions these days: people who are frustrated that John Kerry isn't crushing President Bush in polls, and people who say Kerry is in great shape compared to past challengers.

"Gas prices are up, the stock market is down, Iraq is a mess, and John Kerry is saying to himself, 'How am I going to beat this guy?' " David Letterman joked Monday night on CBS, summing up the sentiments of the first group.

Kerry's team says it's amazing that he's tied with a wartime president after a $60 million ad campaign against him. "They (the Bush campaign) thought they would unleash this and we would be standing before you dead. That is not the case," Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, said in an interview Tuesday.

Bush has been under siege for weeks over violence against Americans in Iraq and the Iraqi prisoner-abuse scandal.

Despite Bush's difficult stretch, most polls show the presidential race tied. Kerry's inability to break away, along with perceived missteps by him and his campaign, has fueled so many critiques that online commentator Mickey Kaus of Slate has started a "Dem Panic Watch" -- a catalog of columns and stories about everything from Kerry team infighting to advice to lighten up.

"I've always thought Kerry was a terrible candidate," Kaus, a Democrat, said in an interview. "I think he is proving that . . . now. Democrats are definitely panicking."

But Paul Begala, an architect of Bill Clinton's 1992 victory, said Democrats "whining about Kerry have no sense of history, no sense of strategy." Case in point: Clinton was in third place behind President George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot at this point in 1992.

But critiques persist. Among them:

Kerry has failed to offer a dramatic alternative to Bush on Iraq. Kerry says he'd push harder to involve international institutions. He says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign. But mostly he's stayed low-profile -- for instance, talking about health care Tuesday in Kentucky. "This is George Bush's war," Cahill said.

Bush ads painted Kerry as a flip-flopper and weak on security for weeks before Kerry started a $25 million biographical ad campaign last week. "It's amazing to me that those weren't up earlier," said Ken Goldstein, director of a national ad study at the University of Wisconsin.

Kerry campaign officials say they were busy raising money to finance the ad campaign. They contend Bush's ads did not cause lasting damage. "They've raised concerns," senior strategist Mike Donilon told USA Today. "But I think we will address those concerns, and Kerry will pass the threshold."

Kerry let himself get sucked into an argument over whether he threw away medals or ribbons at a Vietnam War protest. He went on TV, appeared angry and failed to make "the Clinton pivot," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, head of the Pew Center for Public Policy. As in "I'm not focused on the past, I'm focused on the future and that requires jobs, jobs, jobs."

"He's not the greatest candidate," conceded Ruy Teixeira, co- author of "The Emerging Democratic Majority." "They made some errors in the past four to six weeks. But they've got six long months to make the case that 'you can hire me, I'll do a better job than that guy.' "

Jim Pederson, chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party, said frustration is high in his state. Many activists are "absolutely just obsessed with doing something about this president. They look at the Kerry campaign and it's easy to second-guess" and ask, "Why is he not 20 points ahead?" Pederson's job is to convince them that "we can't go jumping off the dock at every little dip in the polls or what we perceive to be a dip in the campaign."

Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore's campaign in 2000, has criticized Kerry for faulty strategy and failing to develop a compelling theme. But she said Tuesday that she sees encouraging new signs -- among them Kerry's ad campaign and hires in key states. "Many Democrats are going to mute their criticism and advice and give them the floor." She said she'll mute herself for two weeks and see what happens.

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