But anyway, here are the major print articles on the supposed re-birth of Kerry's campaign. These all take a fairly familiar theme: Kerry was getting pounded, too many nice people running the campaign, the street-fighters are brought in, historical Kerry pattern being followed, Show Time. Top articles, with favorite passages:
Washington Post: Kerry Shakes Up Top Staff, Campaign
The first two polls taken after Bush's convention, by Time and Newsweek, showed an immediate boost, with Kerry trailing by 11 percentage points in both -- the largest deficit either candidate has suffered in the campaign. Kerry campaign officials said their internal polls also put Bush in the lead, but by a narrower margin.
Some of Bush's gains likely will recede quickly, given the normal rhythms of presidential campaigns, but Kerry's performance in August unnerved many Democrats outside the campaign, who groused privately and sometimes publicly that the candidate needed to make a significant mid-course correction to counter Bush's gains.
New York Times: Kerry Enlisting Clinton Aides in Effort to Refocus Campaign
Former President Bill Clinton, in a 90-minute telephone conversation from his hospital room, offered John Kerry detailed advice on Saturday night on how to reinvigorate his candidacy, as Mr. Kerry enlisted more Clinton advisers to help shape his strategy and message for the remainder of the campaign.
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.
MSNBC: Striking Back: Reeling from tough attacks and bad advice, Kerry launches a counteroffensive against a resurgent president
Kerry's counteroffensive seems to fit a well-worn pattern. After a period of complacency, the senator blew his slender lead in the polls and slid into frustration and inertia, before emerging with a new fighting spirit. It happened in the Democratic primaries, when Kerry's campaign was written off well before the first votes were cast in Iowa. Could it happen again in the general election? "There is nobody, nobody, who is a better finisher than John Kerry," says one close adviser and former staffer.
LA Times: Kerry Allies Take Shots at Bush, Cheney on Vietnam
After being targeted for weeks by criticisms of his service in Vietnam and his later protests of the war, Sen. John F. Kerry looked on Saturday as a series of his supporters lambasted President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for avoiding combat service during those years.
Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) made the strongest attack at an evening rally here on the banks of the Ohio River, saying that Kerry "was carrying a gun through the jungles of Vietnam while George Bush was neglecting his military service and carrying out his responsibility as a cheerleader at Yale University."
IHT: Kerry is being pressed to get tougher on domestic issues
President George W. Bush roared out of his New York convention last week, leaving many Democrats nervous about the state of the presidential race and pressing Senator John Kerry to torque up what they described as a wandering and low-energy campaign.
In interviews, leading Democrats - governors, senators, fund-raisers and veteran strategists - said they had urged Kerry's campaign aides to concentrate almost exclusively on challenging Bush on domestic issues from here on out, saying he had spent too much of the summer on national security, Bush's strongest turf.
