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| Sunday, 15 February 2004 |
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Kerry vows to confront Republican onslaught as Clark gives support Democratic presidential frontrunner Senator John Kerry vowed Friday to resist any Republican onslaught on his campaign and character ahead of the November 2 election as he gained new support for his bid to take on President George W. Bush. Retired general Wesley Clark, who withdrew from the Democratic race on Wednesday, threw his weight behind Kerry's runaway campaign, which has secured victories in 12 of the 14 states contested so far. Now virtually certain to secure the Democratic nomination at the party convention in July, Kerry said he was ready for a Republican offensive against him to be financed by Bush's campaign war chest of more than 130 million dollars. Speaking a day after the Bush campaign released its first anti-Kerry video, the Massachussets senator and Vietnam war hero said: "I think we've seen evidence. We know exactly where they're going to go." "I've been through some tough races. I've been pretty well vetted and examined from one side to the other. And I think that they're in for a surprise. I'm going to fight back. I am a fighter," he declared on MSNBC television. Both sides have opened campaign hostilities with Bush also facing questions about his military service record during the Vietnam war, when he served as a National Guard pilot in Texas. Kerry was questioned in the interview about an internet gossip site report alleging a past relationship with a young woman. None of the mainstream US media has touched the story and when asked, Kerry, 60, acknowledged he was the subject of gossip but replied: "Well, there is nothing to report, so there is nothing to talk about. I'm not worried about it." Kerry's divorced his first wife and later, in 1995, married Teresa Heinz Kerry, who inherited 500 million dollars from her late husband. The campaign of the president and Vice President Dick Cheney released a video which described Kerry as "unprincipled" and "brought to you by the special interests." A link to the video message was put on an e-mail sent to six million Americans. But Kerry expressed confidence in the judgment of the US public. "I think that the American people want the truth about a whole bunch of things. They are just just tired of the games that are being played in terms of American politics. "These guys will want to try to do everything to change the subject. But the subject is three million jobs lost in the last few years. It's health care that is completely unaffordable and unreachable for tens of millions of Americans." Kerry was in Wisconsin to campaign for the next big state primary next Tuesday. Smaller votes are to be held in Washington, DC and Nevada on Saturday. He was joined in Madison on Friday by Clark for a warmhearted endorsement following recent rivalry over their respective military records. Clark told a rally in Madison, Wisconsin that he would launch himself into the campaign to help Kerry force Bush out of the White House and pointedly declared "I admire your service in the US navy in Vietnam." Kerry, a navy gunboat skipper, was decorated after saving another soldier despite having been wounded. Clark, also served in Vietnam with honour, was a four star general who was NATO's supreme commander during the 1999 Kosovo war. Their military backgrounds have featured strongly in their campaigns and had caused controversy when Clark once appeared to insist his should be given greater weight. But the two stood smiling next to each other as Clark said: "I want to say as we come to the Navy, we say 'Sir, request permission to come aboard, the army's here'. "John, I'll work with you to do everything I can to help you take the White House back for its rightful owners, the American people." Clark caused campaign rancour following Kerry's win in the opening Iowa state caucuses last month by saying: "I have the military leadership he has not." Clark went on to say: "He was a lieutenant in the Navy and I was a four-star general in the Army." At another point he referred to Kerry as "a junior officer in Vietnam." But Clark quickly backtracked and insisted he had not intended to offend Kerry. Going into this weekend's caucuses, Kerry has 512 delegates, former Vermont governor Howard Dean 179, Senator John Edwards 159, Clark 94, civil rights campaigner Al Sharpton 11 and liberal congressman Dennis Kucinich two delegates. The winner needs 2,162 delegates to secure the nomination. (AFP) |
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