csmonitor.com: The uncampaigners: Clinton and Moore

The uncampaigners: Clinton and Moore | csmonitor.com: "WASHINGTON - Once again, phenomena beyond the control of George Bush and John Kerry are crowding campaign messages off the nation's TV screens.
Though flags remain at half-staff for the late President Reagan, TV airtime is now dominated by the images of two other larger-than-life men - former President Clinton and documentary-maker Michael Moore.

Clinton's just-released memoirs, titled 'My Life,' are flying off bookstore shelves - several hundred thousand in the first 24 hours - as fans of the 42nd president drive hundreds of miles and wait in line for hours for his autograph. Political analysts are still parsing the ex-president's appearances on '60 Minutes' and other TV shows.

Mr. Moore, the controversial filmmaker, is lobbing his biggest political bomb yet: the release Friday of his film "Fahrenheit 9/11," which he calls an "op-ed" on President Bush and the war in Iraq, aimed at helping defeat the president in November.

Who noticed that Senator Kerry, the Democratic challenger for the presidency, flew 3,910 miles on Tuesday to cast a vote in Washington on veterans' healthcare - and then didn't get to vote after all, because of procedural delays? Or that Bush delivered a major speech on AIDS in Philadelphia Wednesday?"

Linda Feldmann
The Christian Science Monitor