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Wesley Clark to Enter Presidential Race

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who boasts a four-star military record but concedes he has gaps to fill on domestic policy, told political advisers Tuesday he will join the presidential race as the 10th Democratic candidate.

The Arkansan immediately displayed his potential to shake up the nomination fight, gathering an impressive lineup of party activists for a strategy session that overshadowed Sen. John Edwards' long-standing plans to formally launch his months-old candidacy.

Senior officials close to Clark said he plans to announce his intentions Wednesday in Little Rock, Ark., at a boys and girls club. He enters the race late, against long odds.

Just four months before the first votes are cast, Clark has no formal organization in key states, little money and a patchwork staff culled from the political organizations of former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore.

However, his team consists of several party heavyweights, who say front-runner Howard Dean is too liberal and prone to mistakes to compete against Bush and see Clark as an alternative to a Democratic field that has stalled. The team could open doors for Clark as he seeks money, a message and an organization.

Clark, 58, also has no political experience - not even a student council election to his credit - and he has never been pressed to produce a domestic agenda. None of this deters Clark or his supporters, who point to his foreign policy credentials and television-tested charisma.

"It's not too late to get in the race," Clark told The Associated Press, adding with a wink and smile, "if I decide to run."

Asked if he was ready to start telling Americans about his position on domestic issues, Clark said, "I'll do my best, but there will be a lot of things that I don't know right away."

"I want to learn," he said. "I've got a whole period of time. I've got to go around America. I want to talk to people about the issues."

The Web site of Draft Clark for President 2004, one of several groups working for him for months, documents Clark's positions on a range of issues. It says he:

- Favors abortion rights and affirmative action.

- Opposes Bush's tax cuts, and would consider suspending some of them.

- Opposes drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"Not only does he bring military experience that President Bush wishes he had, but he also brings an impressive knowledge of domestic issues," Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., said.

Democrats in New Hampshire, Iowa and other early voting states did not close the door on a Clark presidency, but said the compressed primary schedule hurts late-starting candidates.

"While General Clark has something to say, it's going to take boots on the ground in Iowa to make a difference," said Iowa activist Joe Shannahan.

Clark, wounded in the Vietnam War, believes his military service would counter Bush's political advantage as a wartime commander in chief. Clark is a Rhodes scholar, first in his 1966 class at West Point, White House fellow and head of the U.S. Southern Command and NATO commander during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo.

His potential has caught the attention of some lawmakers and at least one important labor leader, Gerald McEntee of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

He also is considered a potential vice presidential pick by his rivals, particular those short on military experience.

The former general, a regular on cable news shows, has been critical of the Iraq war and Bush's postwar efforts - positions that would put him alongside announced candidates Dean, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio as the most vocal anti-war candidates.

Chatty and polite, Clark stopped to talk to AP reporters several times as he left his tiny, brick office on the banks of the Arkansas River. "This is my home," he said when asked if his campaign would be headquartered here.

Clark, who only recently revealed his party affiliation, voted in a Democratic primary in 2002, county records here show, but he didn't always vote. "I remember a couple of times in the military when the ballot either got there late or I wasn't there when the ballot arrived," he said.

Clark's new political team is a potent mix of Clinton-Gore veterans who did not commit to one of the nine other candidates. Advisers include former Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor; former Gore field director Donnie Fowler; Washington attorneys Ron Klain and Bill Oldaker; spokesman Mark Fabiani of California; New Hampshire activist George Bruno; Clinton appointee Vanessa Weaver; and Eli Segal, former head of AmeriCorps.

"There's a lot of talent here," Clark said. "And (there) will be a lot in the future."

Kantor said Clark brings a number of characteristics that Dean lacks "starting with foreign policy, national security experience."

Clark hopes to follow the groundbreaking path of Dean, who emerged as the field's front-runner after recruiting backers through the Internet. Clark is said to have more than $1 million of pledges through draft Clark Web sites, a fraction of what it takes to win.

His candidacy could slow Dean's momentum and undercut Kerry's ability to tout his own Vietnam War record. Aides in rival campaigns vowed close scrutiny of Clark's business associates and public comments about Iraq, some of which have been inconsistent.

Edwards, like Clark, is short on political experience but casts that as an asset.

"I haven't spent most of my life in politics, but I've spent enough time in Washington to know how much we need to change it," Edwards said in Robbins, N.C.

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Associated Press Writers James Jefferson and Caryn Rousseau contributed to this report.

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