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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mannie who wrote (33953)	1/2/2004 12:11:22 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

After Halting Start, Clark Seems to Be Finding Legs ________________________________ By EDWARD WYATT THE NEW YORK TIMES January 2, 2004 nytimes.com CONCORD, N.H. — Gen. Wesley K. Clark is having fun. On a whirlwind tour that touched eight Southern states in two days this week, he practically bounded into the room at each event, increasingly energized by the growing crowds, by his improving standing in the polls and by a steadily rising cache of money that should carry him through the primary season. "It's incredibly energizing to talk about what you believe in," General Clark said in an interview this week. "It's been fun going around the South, where I had a chance to tell people what I'm about. Now I think I have a great opportunity to reach out to New Hampshire voters," while most of his rivals spend the first half of the month in Iowa, where General Clark has chosen to skip the Jan. 19 caucuses. Whether that energy will give him a boost here, where the nation's first primary will be held on Jan. 27, remains to be seen. And the campaign's ability to stay in the voters' minds over the next two weeks while the national news media is racing through Iowa is anything but certain. The campaign's newly upbeat tone contrasts sharply with General Clark's abrupt, sometimes stumbling entry into the race in mid-September. He started with no money and no organization. In the first week, he fumbled a question about whether he would have supported the Congressional resolution authorizing military action in Iraq, saying he probably would have. He now admits the mistake, and says his record of statements before the war make clear his opposition to the Bush administration's actions. General Clark still gets questions about why he voted for Ronald Reagan and Richard M. Nixon and why he spoke at Republican fund-raisers early in 2001, a sign that Democratic Party loyalists, the kind of people who are more likely to vote in primaries, still might not trust him. He has responded that as a military man he voted for candidates that were strong on defense and maintained that the Bush administration's response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed his mind about the president's capabilities. But those disclaimers have seemed only partly to satisfy some undecided voters who have come to see him. "Ideologically, Howard Dean is more down my alley," said Brian Turbyfill, a law student who attended a Clark campaign rally last week in Jackson, Miss. "But if Dean is going to beat Bush in the general election, he has to carry these states, and I don't know if he can. I just don't know that much about Wesley Clark, which is why I wanted to come and find out a bit." Steady practice seems to have honed General Clark's performance on the trail, which in the early days suffered from his tendency to digress into multiple subjects. At an early December town-hall-style meeting in Nashua, N.H., General Clark's response to one question ran nearly 10 minutes. This week, his stump speech was more focused and his answers to questions more to the point. Lately, he has also avoided the emotional outbursts that cropped up early in his campaign when asked about subjects like Iraq or why some former generals seemed to dislike him. The Clark campaign points to what it calls tangible reasons for its growing confidence. It raised about $11 million in the fourth quarter, more than any campaign other than Dr. Dean's. General Clark has also earned more in federal matching money than any of the six other candidates participating in that program. In essence, that means that in a little more than three months he has raised more than candidates like Representative Richard A. Gephardt and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman have in nearly a year of campaigning. In polls in early primary states like New Hampshire, General Clark is closing in on Senator John Kerry, who is running second but is slipping. In South Carolina and Arizona, General Clark is also moving up, and in some states the numbers indicate he is neck-and-neck with Dr. Dean. It is in those Southern states where his campaign is confident that General Clark's military experience will attract independent voters who supported Bill Clinton in the 1990's but who might have defected to George W. Bush in 2000. The campaign also maintains that skipping the Iowa contests was perhaps the only choice they had. But whether it will prove to be the advantage the campaign expects could be a long shot. "It was a matter of doing a good job in one place when you can't do a good job in two places," General Clark said. "The New Hampshire voters, they're not in Iowa. They're out there reading the local papers, they're worrying about local issues. I'm real happy to have some extra time in New Hampshire."

To: Mannie who wrote (33953)	1/4/2004 1:22:55 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89467

Brilliant Meet the Press interview this morning with Clark. Nearly perfect answers for the heavy questions, especially regarding what Bush has done to this country. The interview left me with the impression that Russert was announcing the other player of the two-man competition for the nomination, and calling all news organizations to play their part and to be fair, because whether they like it or not, Clark is coming, and he may very well be the nominee...;-)