If Wesley Clark looks like a candidate, and acts like a candidate…
When Rt. Gen. Wesley Clark appeared on Meet the Press in February, DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe was so excited after watching the show, he was calling all over Washington touting Clark as a sure-fire winner for Democrats in 2004. Several Democratic activists started emailed transcripts of Clark’s appearance around DC.
In the months since, Clark’s following in Dem circles has grown. A second Meet the Press appearance two weeks ago, which went a heck of a lot better than Howard Dean’s recent interview, pushed him to the edge of a potential run for the presidency.
Clark remains coy, offering carefully worded answers to questions about his future. He reminds reporters, “I am not a candidate,” at every opportunity.
But if Clark were about to begin a serious run for the presidency, what steps would he be taking? Logically, he’d be sitting down with party leaders, speaking to Dem lawmakers about their ideas, and forging relationships with Dem constituency groups such as labor leaders.
With this in mind, yesterday’s item in Roll Call about Clark’s recent visits to Capitol Hill was telling.
Clark has spent the last several days going from one appointment with Dem members of Congress to another. To say he faced enthusiastic welcomes from most of the people he met with would be an understatement. For example, he ran into Rep. Ronnie Shows (D-Miss.), one of the more conservative members of the Democratic caucus.
“Nice to meet you,” Clark said, shaking the Mississippi Democrat’s hand. “What can I do for you?”
“I want to help you get elected,” a beaming Shows bellowed. “That is what the hell I want to do.”
Roll Call reported that Clark also spent the better part of Thursday meeting privately with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and several Democratic House Members, including Reps. Gene Taylor (Miss.), Baron Hill (Ind.), Steve Israel (N.Y.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Dennis Moore (Kan.) and Mike Ross (Ark.).
True to form, Clark also spent considerable time with officials from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — one of the nation’s most powerful labor unions.
Clark also ran into Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.), a southern moderate, who has already endorsed John Kerry’s candidacy. Despite committing to another candidate, Ford urged Clark to run.
“I have signed up with John Kerry,” Ford said. “I think he needs to take a lesson from [you].”
Ford isn’t abandoning Kerry, in fact he’s got an increasingly popular idea.
“[Clark] would be a great ticket mate for John Kerry,” Ford said. “Even running for president, his voice out on the trail right now sends an unmistakable signal to the country that there are people in my party who understand national security and foreign policy. One of the reasons I am supporting John Kerry is that he also brings many of those same credentials.”
This idea of a Kerry-Clark ticket has considerable appeal. As I mentioned in February, such a ticket would set up a terrific match-up for the general election — two Democrats who served valiantly in foreign wars against two Republicans who dodged the draft.
Joe Conason, a liberal columnist for the New York Observer and Salon, raised the same point in a recent column.
“Smart and telegenic, Mr. Clark easily transcends the old stereotype of the Southern military man,” Conason said. “He supports abortion rights and affirmative action. His opinions about tax cuts, health care, education and the environment are all well within the progressive Democratic consensus. Speaking as a career Army officer, he might be able to persuade independent voters who tend to be suspicious of traditional Democrats.”
Conason concluded, “[W]hatever the merits of all the other candidates, it would badly complicate Mr. Rove’s ‘patriotic’ strategy if Messrs. Bush and Cheney were required to confront not one but two progressive Democrats who served in Vietnam.”