Sunday, September 21, 2003

By Maeve Reston, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark's decision to enter the 2004 presidential race this week thrilled "Draft Clark" Democrats and some party elders, but it produced a collective groan at the campaign headquarters of the other Democratic candidates, who have been trying to distinguish themselves in an already crowded field.

The official line from Clark's competitors was nearly identical. They welcomed his entry into the fray, while noting he has yet to offer many specific policy proposals. But off the record, several campaign staff members acknowledged Clark was going to hurt their candidates.

Clark already has enlisted powerful allies. Former President Bill Clinton and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton encouraged him to run, and aides from the former president's administration flocked to Clark's campaign last week, giving him instant credibility. Clark is expected to collect endorsements from more than a dozen Democratic members of Congress this coming week, as well.

The front-page attention generated by Clark's announcement underscores how unsettled the race remains only four months before voters start choosing delegates in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 19 and the first state primary in New Hampshire on Jan. 27.

Recent polls show most Democratic and independent voters are undecided. Prized endorsements of traditional Democratic groups, including that of the 13 million member AFL-CIO, are still up for grabs.

Labor support is especially important in getting voters to attend the caucuses in Iowa, and unions in the state are split at the moment. Peverill Squire, professor of political science at University of Iowa, said the leadership is leaning toward Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt while many rank-and-file members support former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. Clark has never publicly addressed many of organized labor's key issues, such as limiting trade or raising the minimum wage.

Perhaps the biggest question about Clark's viability as a candidate, in fact, is how well he will deal with a wide variety of issues as he's tossed into the national spotlight in his first political campaign.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that Clark claimed to have "few specific policy ideas to present to voters right now," even though he'd been considering a run all summer. Yet in just four days, Clark will be the focus of his first presidential debate as he takes on his more-practiced competitors at a forum sponsored by CNBC and The Wall Street Journal at Pace University in New York City. The debate will focus on the economy, a key issue for voters but one on which Clark has made virtually no public pronouncements.

Clark's staff originally said he could not attend the event because of a prior commitment, but after other candidates pounced, saying Clark had a responsibility to present and defend his positions on the issues, his campaign said he would be there.

Clark also faces the difficult task of quickly building a campaign organization and raising money, especially in the early primary states, which most of the candidates have been doing for months. In New Hampshire many prominent Democrats already have made their endorsements.

"Obviously [Clark] will not have the same sort of organization in place that other candidates ... have been able to assemble," Squire said. "But he has a unique record to bring to the race and because of that he may be able to get more attention than other candidates who have been scrambling to get anybody to notice them."

Republicans already are attacking Clark, as well. Some are raising questions about his forced retirement from the Army in 2000, following political disputes over his conduct of the war in Kosovo. And his association with the Clintons could be as much of a minus as a plus for his campaign. In an early September issue, the conservative Weekly Standard billed Clark as "another slippery candidate from Arkansas."

No matter what kind of obstacles Clark faces, he is certain to draw attention and support from other leading candidates.

"The two big unknowns are, can [Clark] raise money to go with what appears to be a very professional team and [are] the media going to give sustained attention to him and give him the kind of momentum that they generated for Dean last spring," said Linda L. Fowler, a professor of government and director of Dartmouth College's Rockefeller Center. "And if the answer to those questions is yes, then he is a lot of trouble for everybody, most obviously [Massachusetts Sen. John F.] Kerry."

In the wake of Clark's announcement, analysts are questioning the wisdom of Kerry's decision to center his candidacy on his military service in Vietnam and to present himself as a "citizen soldier." All of a sudden he is facing a four-star general who also fought in Vietnam, who also went to heroic lengths to bring his men to safety -- after having been shot multiple times -- and who also was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star.

For Dean, suddenly another candidate can claim the mantle of Washington outsider, a candidate who also has attracted thousands of supporters through the Internet and who also has sharply criticized Bush for invading Iraq (although Clark said Thursday he probably would have voted for the congressional resolution to invade Iraq). Clark's entry marked at least a temporary pause in the media's fascination with Dean's rise, which has helped Dean gain supporters across the country.

Clark's timing completely upstaged North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who was officially announcing his run for the presidency just as the news of Clark's decision trickled out. The general -- along with Hurricane Isabel -- dominated the headlines on a day that could have been all about the former North Carolina trial lawyer who has been campaigning hard to get a flailing candidacy off the ground.

New York Rep. Charles B. Rangel, who is supporting Clark because of his credibility on foreign policy and national security issues, said he expects more than a dozen members of Congress to follow suit this week.

"He takes the stigma that Democrats are weak on national security away from all of us," Rangel said, complaining that Republicans have been labeling Democrats who opposed the war in Iraq as unpatriotic. "They will never, never, never be able to do to him and our party what they've been doing.... I think Gen. Clark is going to capture the imagination of the entire country, including Republicans."

Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, isn't so sure. New revelations about Clark's past political views, such as his having voted for former Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, might not play well with Democrats, he said.

"What I read in the [Washington] Post about him this morning is a little off-putting -- especially that he would have voted for the [Iraq] War," Bond said. "I think the great promise the undeclared Wesley Clark offered seems to be diminished a bit now that we see the declared Wesley Clark.

"Everybody seems to think he's going to diminish Dean, but I think Dean might be unstoppable. I'm not sure that's necessarily a good thing for beating George Bush, but he seems to me to be really on a rampage."

Fowler cautioned against making any bets on Clark's success just yet.

"The fact of the matter is, it's very hard to run for president," she said. "The spotlight's on you in a different way. Almost everyone else has had six months to be out there and step on their lines and forget where they were going and misspeak at times when voters weren't paying attention, but now they're more likely to be paying attention. It's a tough time to be learning how to do this on the job."

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