THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via Geitner Simmons):

The General's Skirmish With Political Campaigning (Washington Post, 3/12/2003)

Wesley Clark needs you to know something and it can't wait.

"I want to make this very clear," he says. "Some of the information that's out on me says I come from a long line of rabbis." But now he says he's not certain about his lineage. He acknowledges, "I may be incorrect."

As a general rule, interviews don't start this way.... You haven't asked Clark anything, barely said a word beyond small talk, and suddenly the telegenic retired general with an Arkansas drawl is setting the record straight about his peeps back in Minsk....

Could this man become a candidate for president?

"I haven't speculated on the future."...

Why does his name keep coming up?

"Because people are looking for leadership. A lot of people are talking to me."...

In January, Clark ate lunch with Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe. But this was just a coincidence, Clark says. He had planned to have lunch with someone else, a mutual friend who Clark says invited McAuliffe along.

The Democratic chairman is amused by this characterization. In fact, a DNC spokesman says, the lunch was Clark's idea.

McAuliffe doesn't even bother to cover for Clark's lies -- the equivalent, among Democrats, of refusing to give him the time of day. It has to be humbling, traveling all around the country trying to get people to pay attention, and receiving only mockery. Still, if he can build a little momentum, and if an anti-war nominee feels he needs some military gravitas, Clark has an outside shot at a VP nomination. Posted by Paul Jaminet at March 12, 2003 12:51 PM