HE MEANT, "IN THE FUTURE EVERYONE WILL BE FAMOUS FOR 30 SECONDS":

THE CLARK COLLAPSE (Dick Morris, November 11, 2003, NY Post)

OLD soldiers who run for president, to paraphrase MacArthur, never die, they just fade away. Wesley Clark has just faded.

The latest Marist Poll taken at the end of October shows the former general fading from a tie for first place to fifth in the Democratic primary field, dropping to 8 percent of the Democratic vote nationwide, well behind Howard Dean who led at 16 percent of the likely Democratic primary voters.

Other recent polls confirm the same trend. The ABC/Washington Post poll last week shows Clark fading to fourth place and the Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll records a drop in his favorable/unfavor- able ratio from 24-11 at the end of September to 25-19 at the end of October.

Since Clark is not running in Iowa (Jan. 19) and likely not in New Hampshire (Jan. 27) either, he had to keep his national standing intact to have any hope of entering the process on Feb. 3, when five states (Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina) have their primaries.

Clark would need to do very well on that day and in the rest of February, as Tennessee, Virginia and Utah hold their primaries - because on March 2 it will be all over. That's when New York, California, Texas and Ohio all vote.

This is too steep a hill for Clark to climb with fading popularity, limited financial resources and no early primary victories for momentum.

On the other hand, he's at least being mentioned in the press. When's the last time you read about Valerie Palme and Joe Wilson.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 11, 2003 7:21 PM