SAVE AMERICA - VOTE FOR THE GENERAL. Being able to print signs and bumper-stickers like that would be enough for a lot of Democrats to vote for Wesley Clark.
And Clark does have a lot going for him as a candidate. He's smart, he's articulate and he is very convincing on national security issues. He will be able to criticize the Bush Administration over the Iraq War and lay out his priorities for fighting terrorism with a credibility that no other Democratic candidate is likely to match.
As for calling the "horse race," I'm willing to speculate a bit. Even though I haven't followed the polls that closely. (Others like Daily Kos have.) But I think that Clark will quickly become a close competitior for Howard Dean.
John Edwards, Bob Graham, Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton and Carol Mosley-Braun are already looking like also-rans, even though all of them may stay in the race through the New Hampshire primary. Joe Lieberman made a favorable impression on Democrats in 2000. But his "I'm kind of like a Republican" pitch just isn't what most Democrats want to hear right now.
That leaves John Kerry, also an attractive candidate who, like Clark, is very credible as a "tough dove." And Dick Gephardt, who has been a labor stalwart and has good name recognition among Democratic primary voters. By the time the primaries roll around, I'm guessing that the race will quickly come down to Dean, Clark and one of those two.
The Republicans are already slinging dirt furiously at Clark. Hesiod and Joe Conason are already all over that story. Liberal Southerners just drive the Limbaugh dittohead crowd wild, for some reason. Limbaugh himself has already chimed in.
Even if Clark doesn't ultimately win the nomination, his presence in the primaries attacking Bush and Rummy over foreign and military policy is something that has the White House understandably worried. So Bush's political chief Karl Rove will make sure that a steady flow of attacks flow Clark's way, from the highbrow crowd at the Weekly Standard to the partisan commentators at Fox News to the Limbaughs and the Hannitys and the Savages. Count on it.
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