Thompson cautions against Clinton obsession

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Republicans, it seems, have already decided they're running against New York Senator Hillary Clinton, and have made the Democratic presidential candidate a frequent target on the campaign trail.

References to "Hillary-care'' and other derisive remarks about Clinton's platform might rile up the conservative base. Rudy Giuliani, the GOP front-runner in national polls, argues incessantly that he's the one who can beat Clinton next November.

But the focus on Clinton makes for a bad general election strategy, former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson warned today.

Addressing a polite, but unenthusiastic, audience of the Republican Jewish Council, Thompson said his party needs to persuade voters to vote for Republicans -- not against Clinton.

"I don't think we need to worry about Hillary Clinton as much as we need to worry about ourselves,'' Thompson, a late entry into the presidential race, told the group. Merely demonizing Clinton would "play into the hands'' of the Democrats, he said. Instead of telling voters what's wrong with the Clinton approach, "we need to figure out what we want to do,'' he said.