Kerry Changes The Subject

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry accused the Republicans of "fear and smear" tactics on Tuesday and said they would offer only empty slogans rather than real plans to help most Americans in their national convention here next week.

"They have obviously decided that some people will believe anything, no matter how fictional or how far-fetched, if they just repeat it often enough. That's how they have run their administration, that's how they're running their campaign, and that's how they will run their convention," Kerry said.

"You can't cover up reality with a few empty slogans."

The speech represented a move on Kerry's part to shift the campaign spotlight from his Vietnam War record to alleged unethical behavior by the Republicans.

The Democrat has accused President Bush of being behind Swift Boat Veteran For Truth, a group that has questioned Kerry's valor in combat. The White House has dismissed the charge as false.

Initially, the Massachusetts senator ignored the group's allegations, but when polls showed his support among veterans was slipping, Kerry launched a counter-offensive that pointed up the group's ties to the Republican Party.

He also persuaded a number of Navy Vietnam veterans to come forward to say that Kerry had acted honorably and bravely in Vietnam.

As a result, Kerry's Vietnam War record has topped the political agenda for days. But now the candidate hopes to point the voters in different direction.

Kerry delivered his speech at New York's Cooper Union, the site of President Lincoln's 1860 speech against slavery that historians say thrust Lincoln into national prominence.

Kerry's speech contrasted his plans for raising middle-class living standards with the past four years, just days before Mr. Bush heads to the city to lay out his agenda for the next four years.

"On almost every issue before us, we face the same fundamental choice ? between the narrow interest of the few and the future of the vast majority of Americans," Kerry said.

"The Bush campaign and its allies have turned to the tactics of fear and smear because they can't talk about jobs, health care, energy independence and rebuilding our alliances ? the real issues that matter to the American people."

Kerry's bid to change the subject followed a war of words that unfolded Monday over his war record.

The Kerry campaign produced three Navy Vietnam veterans who attested to Kerry's valor in combat. Campaign aides urged reporters to contact other Vietnam vets they said opposed the attack on Kerry.

Separately, Mr. Bush called for an end to campaign commercials aired by outside groups, including an ad that accuses John Kerry of lying about his combat record in Vietnam. He also praised Kerry's military service.

"That ad and every other ad" run by such groups have no place in the campaign, Mr. Bush said when asked specifically about the commercial sponsored by Swift Boat Veterans For Truth that has roiled the race for the White House.

The White House later emphasized that the president was speaking of all such ads and not singling out the Swift Boat commercial.

The impact of the Vietnam dispute on voters - if any - remains to be seen.

David Gergen, who served as an image adviser for both Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, told CBS News that "in the short term, these ads have harmed John Kerry."

But he says this episode could also hurt the president. "In the long term it may backfire against the White House," Gergen says. "Especially if Americans decide that the ads are incorrect, they're lies, they're smears, they're part of a dirty tricks campaign."

Kerry has fought back with two commercials of his own.

A former Vietnam prisoner of war, McCain lost the South Carolina Republican primary in 2000 after Bush supporters accused him of opposing legislation to help military veterans. McCain never recovered from that primary loss.