Have already had meetings with Kerry (A guy named Brown, who is one of Blairs ministers)
Why Tony Blair fears the coming of President Kerry
Clinton made Labour credible, now the Democrats threaten Bush's ally
Martin Kettle
Tuesday February 17, 2004
The Guardian
If there is one thing that Tony Blair has never underestimated, it is the importance of an American presidential election in shaping the dynamics of British domestic politics. Until now. For years, Blair's analysis of American politics has been simple, strategic and, ultimately, determinist. He believes that we live downstream from them. He believes that what happens in the US defines the limits of the possible for Britain, and thus for the Labour party.
Everyone knows about the practical lessons that Blair's Labour party learned from Bill Clinton - the campaign tactics, the triangulation, and even what became the third way ideology. What fewer people grasp is the overriding importance that Blair attached to the fact that Clinton won.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/comment/0,9236,1149645,00.htmlNo 10 unease at Brown's contacts with John Kerry
By Francis Elliott, Deputy Political Editor
15 February 2004
John Kerry, the frontrunner to challenge George Bush for the US presidency this autumn, has held a series of private meetings with Gordon Brown. The Senator set to win the Democratic nomination has links with the Chancellor stretching back over a decade.
Mr Kerry once even offered to send a private plane to ferry the Chancellor to a meeting with him in the US, The Independent on Sunday has learnt. Friends of Mr Brown last night admitted that the close relationship between the pair was likely to discomfort Downing Street.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=491464Blair is worried about the labour party replacing him with someone more amenable to Kerry if Kerry wins.