{"id":1078,"date":"2004-01-13T10:40:39","date_gmt":"2004-01-13T15:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/1078.html"},"modified":"2004-01-13T10:40:39","modified_gmt":"2004-01-13T15:40:39","slug":"more-rumors-about-wesley-clarks-support-from-the-clintons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/more-rumors-about-wesley-clarks-support-from-the-clintons\/","title":{"rendered":"More rumors about Wesley Clark’s support from the Clintons"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Post, a tabloid-style newspaper with little credibility, caused a bit of a stir yesterday by quoting an unnamed NY Dem activist saying Bill and Hillary Clinton are beginning to work more aggressively to support Wesley Clark’s presidential campaign<\/a>. I’m not sure if I buy it.<\/p>\n

The Post article claimed the Clintons support is coming, in particular, in the form of fundraising.<\/p>\n

The article’s source, described as “one of [New York’s] best-connected Democratic activists,” told the Post, “Bill is said to be personally involved and it’s believed he’s begun making money calls on Clark’s behalf.” The source added, “Word out of the Clinton camp is that Bill and Hillary think this is a key moment for the Clark campaign.”<\/p>\n

The Clark campaign denied the accuracy of these rumors, which is to be expected, and I remain unconvinced, regardless of their source.<\/p>\n

If Bill Clinton was personally making phone calls to major Dem donors, urging them to contribute to Clark, word would get out in a hurry. The Post’s source didn’t even have direct knowledge, using qualifiers such as “said to be personally involved” and “it’s believed he’s begun” making calls. Hardly persuasive stuff.<\/p>\n

That isn’t to say that Clinton, in his heart of hearts, is truly neutral on the presidential race. The fact is he very well may support Clark; there’s just no proof of him doing anything about it. The conventional wisdom tells us the former president is mysteriously pulling strings behind the scene to manipulate the process. Where’s the evidence to bolster these suspicions? There is none.
\n
\nThe only proof I can find alluding to a Clinton-Clark nexus comes from two quotes from the last six months.<\/p>\n

* In September, at a dinner party at the Clintons’ Chappaqua home, one group heard Bill Clinton say<\/a> that the national Democratic Party had “two stars”: his wife and Wesley Clark.<\/p>\n

* In June, months before Clark was even a candidate, Clinton told the AP<\/a> that Clark “has always exceeded in every endeavor,” and said that he’s been impressed with Clark’s entire career, including his service as NATO commander in 1999 when Clinton ordered an air war in Kosovo.<\/p>\n

“While I cannot take sides in the Democratic primary, I believe Wes, if he runs, would make a valuable contribution because he understands America’s security challenges and domestic priorities,” Clinton said way back on June 28. “I believe he would make a good president.”<\/p>\n

Since then, hardly a word either way. I know it’s been “widely reported” that the Clintons are backing Clark, but as Stephen Colbert recently explained<\/a>, that doesn’t make it fact; it makes it fact-esque<\/i>.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I nevertheless believe these rumors help Clark and I doubt his campaign will be going to great lengths to dissuade people from believing the gossip. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if Chris Lehane was running around keeping these rumors alive by sharing them with his contacts.<\/p>\n

Clinton remains the de-facto head of the party. His support would mean more than Al Gore’s, Bill Bradley’s, and Tom Harkin’s endorsements put together. Clark’s already featured Clinton in a recent TV ad<\/a>, so as far as the campaign is concerned, the more people perceive Clark as the “Clinton’s candidate” the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Post, a tabloid-style newspaper with little credibility, caused a bit of a stir yesterday by quoting an unnamed NY Dem activist saying Bill and Hillary Clinton are beginning to work more aggressively to support Wesley Clark’s presidential campaign. I’m not sure if I buy it. The Post article claimed the Clintons support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}