Wesley Clark Drops Out

[Vorticity]

According to http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/11/elec04.prez.main/index.html :

FAIRFAX, Virginia (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts scored his first victories in the South with convincing wins in Virginia and Tennessee, expanding his lead on the rest of the Democratic field and knocking retired Gen. Wesley Clark out of the Democratic presidential race.

...

Aides to Clark, who came in third in both Tennessee and Virginia, said the former NATO supreme commander would announce his departure from the race in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas, Wednesday afternoon.

"Gen. Clark has decided to leave the race," said Clark spokesman Matt Bennett. "I think probably the biggest reason is the tremendous momentum that Senator Kerry built coming out of the Iowa and New Hampshire races."

"The mountain got too steep to climb," he said.

Seems a bit sudden to me. I hadn't expected Clark to drop out quite so soon, especially since he won in one state, and Edwards and Dean are staying in.

This stinks of behind-the-scenes wrangling.

Can you say "running mate"?

 

[specious_reasons]

This stinks of behind-the-scenes wrangling.

Can you say "running mate"?

Might be a shrewd move on his part. It seems the current pecking order is Kerry, Edwards and then Clark, and I don't see that changing significantly. He might just be saving his campaign money.

Clark might think his VP chances are better than Edwards, because if it were a Kerry/Edwards ticket, the Democrats might lose 2 Senate seats, rather than one.

 

[corplinx]

Re: Re: Wesley Clark Drops Out

Clark might think his VP chances are better than Edwards, because if it were a Kerry/Edwards ticket, the Democrats might lose 2 Senate seats, rather than one.

Interesting, Edwards is not going to run for his seat again so they lose his seat no matter what.

If Kerry runs and loses, he will still have his senate seat.

Unless he picked Hillary as his running mate, you wouldn't have to worry about losing two seats.

 

[specious_reasons]

Interesting, Edwards is not going to run for his seat again so they lose his seat no matter what.

I didn't know that. It throws off all of my political calculations, then. Good thing I'm not running any campaigns...

 

[Suddenly]

All the more reason to like Clark. He knows when things are over. Kerry stole his "You aren't really going to nominate Dean, are you nuts? How 'bout someone that can make Bush look like a ◊◊◊◊ w/r/t military service" subtext and ran away with it.

Edwards and Dean should stay in for two main reasons. First, Kerry may get hit by a bus or take a Yacht to Bimini or something. Second, the illusion of a contested primary gives the Dems extra media attention, helping their chances. Take one for the team, as it were.

The only reason anyone else stays in is they are just sucking up the media facetime for future use. In a world where fame and name recognition are gold-like in value, there is little surprise that even ol' Denny K will stick around to get on TV as much as possible. They may call it "sticking around to the bitter end" but at some point it is more or less attention whoreing.

 

[Clancie]

I'm so glad that Clark ran. He helped draw more attention to Kerry's combination of governmental experience and his military record. (And also added some badly needed charisma to the race to help get the press and others interested).

Dean's candidacy helped, too, in making Kerry appear to be more in the mainstream, not on the extreme wing of the party.

I think Edwards will be a good VP.

 

[Abdul Alhazred]

I'm so glad that Clark ran. He helped draw more attention to Kerry's combination of governmental experience and his military record. (And also added some badly needed charisma to the race to help get the press and others interested).

Charisma? Wesley Clark? He's downright spooky and vampiric looking. Kerry has much more.

GWB has the most charisma by far of any of them. I hate to say it but it's true.

Take heart. Neither Nixon nor GWB's father ever had any, yet they both won elections. Same for any current European leader other than Tony Blair. Or Ariel Sharon.

All the big dictators of the last century had charisma. To Hell with charisma.

 

[American]

Wesley "Drop-out" Clark. I always knew he was like that. A loser and a slacker too. He's doing the right thing by QUITTING, in my opinion. Hey! Stick to what you're good at...