by Jerome Bernard
CANONSBURG, Pennsylvania, Sept 6 (AFP) - Under pressure in the polls as he enters the final stretch in his race for the White House, Senator John Kerry turned to Democratic heavy-hitter former president Bill Clinton for help from his hospital bed.
Kerry spoke by phone at the weekend with the former president, known as a brilliant campaigner, and got advice about how to retool his message.
A spokeswoman also confirmed that Kerry had appointed a new senior advisor to help him until the November 2 vote but the campaign has denied there have been panic changes.
The Massachusetts senator spoke with Clinton on Friday and Saturday as Clinton awaited heart bypass surgery, said Kerry spokeswoman Allison Dobson.
"On Friday night Kerry called to wish him well. And they decided to speak in the evening on Saturday night," she said. "They had a discussion about the campaign."
Clinton and Kerry spoke for 90 minutes, according to the New York Times, and the former president told Kerry to move away from talking about his Vietnam war record and instead attack Bush on job creation and health care.
On the campaign trail Monday, Kerry stuck to his economic message.
"If you want four more years of losing jobs overseas and replacing them with jobs that pay 9,000 dollars less than the jobs that you had before, then you should go vote for George Bush," he said.
"If you want health care for all Americans, if you want schools that work, if you want jobs that pay you more money, if you want social security..., then we need to move America in a new direction."
Several media reports have highlighted concern among Democrats that Kerry has been slow to respond to attacks on his military record and to counter Bush on domestic policy.
In recent days, several former Clinton aides have joined the Kerry camp including former spokesman Joe Lockhart.
Kerry is on the defensive after polls released since the Republican National Convention closed last week, showed Bush with a commanding lead.
Time magazine, in a poll made public Friday, found Bush up 52-41 percent over Kerry. Newsweek's poll, out Saturday, had Bush up 54-43 percent over Kerry. Both surveys had an error margin of plus or minus four percentage points.
Kerry was virtually tied with Bush for most of the summer but his campaign foundered in recent weeks following attacks on his military record during the Vietnam War and the lashing he received by Bush and other speakers at the convention.
Much attention will be focused on the televised debates which are a opportunity for each candidate to make major political gains.
The US Commission on Presidential Debates -- the non-profit organization tasked with setting the official debate schedule and format -- has planned three prospective debates: September 30 in Coral Gables, Florida; October 8, in Saint Louis, Missouri; and October 13 in Tempe, Arizona.
Lockhart, in one of his first appearances since joining Kerry, accused the Bush campaign of stonewalling on agreeing to the debate dates.
"If the president has an agenda that he can defend, show up at the debates," Lockhart said.
Both candidates spent the three-day weekend feverishly campaigning in so-called battleground states which, together with some 2.6 million undecided voters, are expected to decide the election.