September 11, 2003
PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE:
Gen. Clark Reportedly Asked to Join Dean (Jim VandeHei and Dan Balz, September 11, 2003, Washington Post)
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has asked retired Army general Wesley Clark to join his campaign, if the former NATO commander does not jump into the race himself next week, and the two men discussed the vice presidency at a weekend meeting in California, sources familiar with the discussions said.Clark, in a telephone interview yesterday, said he did not want to comment about the private meeting. Asked about reports that the two men had discussed a wide range of issues, including his endorsing Dean, joining the campaign, possible roles in a Dean administration and the vice presidency, he said only, "It was a complete tour of the horizon."
Later, an adviser quoted Clark as saying, "I have only one decision to make: Will I seek the presidency?"
It was the fourth time Dean and Clark have met face-to-face to discuss the campaign. No decisions were made at the California meeting because Clark is still considering a run for president. Clark is scheduled to make a speech Sept.19 at the University of Iowa, when many political insiders expect him to announce his intentions.
"Most of our conversations have been around my getting advice on defense, and sometime he asks me about domestic issues," Dean said in an interview yesterday. "This is a guy I like a lot. I think he's certainly going to be on everybody's list if he's not the presidential nominee himself." Dean refused to discuss their private conversations.
While it would represent a gamble for both men to team up so early in the campaign, such a move would rattle an already unpredictable nomination campaign. Dean and Clark have two things in common that if combined could prove formidable among Democratic voters: They both opposed the war in Iraq, and both are generating excitement on the Internet and with grass-roots activists.
Smart move by Dean who needs to establish some street cred on national security and try to appeal to white men, especially in the South (which Clark is theoretically from). Most importantly, it would pre-empt Hillary and give his campaign an air of inevitability. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 11, 2003 12:43 AM
Pre-empt Hillary ? The Clintons can always crank up their dirt-machine and destroy both Clark and Dean. That's their modus operandi. The latest press coverage on Dean suggests that it has already begun.
Posted by: Peter at September 11, 2003 3:23 AMGee....just as predicted by David Cohen on these very pages!
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at September 11, 2003 6:52 AMEarlier thinking was that Clark would be Hillary's VP to boost her security profile. Clark's actions (hooking up with Dean or not) may be a signal of what Hillary is going to do (you'd think he'd rather hook up with Hillary who has a better shot at winning)
Posted by: AWW at September 11, 2003 9:26 AMTell me again how a general who everyone is going to need to be reminded of his great success in battle is going to help the former exec from the Vermont County?
Both do seem to be expert at politics-- one at the local retail level where you move up and out when you are too well known at home to get reelected, the other at the backbiting bureaucratic insider variety whose only redeming feature is that at least he didn't have tenure, too.
Of course, if Clark had his way, not only would have gone to war with Russia over Serbia, but
we'd probably be facing jihadist attacks by our
own time ally; Ayman Al Zawahiri, from his base
in Bosnia