Thoughts on the Clark Endorsement

Days Until Bush Leaves Office = 492

As I posted earlier today, retired Army general Wes Clark has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. The official campaign announcement can be found here.

The timing of this announcement couldn't have been better managed by Clinton's campaign. Coming as it does after a full week of focus on Iraq in Congress, at the White House, and in the media, the endorsement of a military officer of Clark's stature - he was the former NATO Allied Supreme Commander and commanded the Kosovo war - rides the crest of public attention on both the military and political aspects of U.S. policy. Clark's endorsement sends the message that people who can be relied upon to know what they're talking about view Hillary Clinton as a credible potential Commander in Chief. I can think of only two other retired generals to match Clark's public standing, namely Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf, and I think it's safe to say that neither of them will be coming out with an endorsement of a Democratic candidate for president, so Hillary has probably locked up the high profile military endorsement market with this announcement.

That said, it is never clear what actual electoral muscle these sorts of endorsements deliver. It's not as if legions of Wes Clark clones will suddenly materialize at phone banks and neighborhood canvasses here in Iowa or anywhere else, and Clinton hardly needs help raising money. And Clark's endorsement of John Kerry last time around didn't exactly put Kerry's election in the bag.

But this is a newsworthy development, all the same. As a woman running for president, Hillary Clinton battles a still-pervasive cultural subtext that Commander in Chief is a man's job, and having Wes Clark stand up and say he thinks that Hillary is not only capable, but the most capable candidate to fulfill that role certainly helps her. There's also a nice bit of symmetry to Clark's endorsement, given that Hillary Clinton was a co-chair of Wesley Clark's own presidential campaign in 2004.

Maybe the best thing that can be said about endorsements like today's from Clark is that one would certainly rather have them than not. Just ask any of the other Democratic candidates if they would have liked to have Wes Clark's endorsement, and see what they say.

BREAKING: Wesley Clark Endorses Hillary Clinton

Days Until Bush Leaves Office = 493

Former general Wesley Clark has endorsed New York Senator Hillary Clinton for president.

Speaking to reporters via a conference call, Clark said, "I'm very pleased today to announce my endorsement for Hilary Clinton for President of the United States. I think she'll be a great Commander in Chief  for our men and women in uniform."

General Clark, the former NATO Supreme Commander who oversaw military operations during the Kosovo war, was himself briefly a presidential candidate in the 2004 campaign, before dropping out and eventually endorsing John Kerry.

I'll be back later this afternoon with some thoughts about this development.

Quiet Weekend

Days Until Bush Leaves Office = 717

This is shaping up to be a pretty quiet weekend on the Iowa campaign trail, in marked contrast to last weekend. The Democratic National Committee is holding its winter meeting in D.C. this weekend, so the center of gravity has momentarily shifted in that direction. Among the candidates and potential candidates, Chris Dodd is the leadoff speaker this morning, followed by Barack Obama, Wesley Clark, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich and Hillary Clinton. Tomorrow will be Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, Mike Gravel, and last, though he hopes not least, Tom Vilsack. Vilsack’s speech, along with the others on Saturday, will be broadcast on C-SPAN, which amounts to major national exposure for the former Iowa governor. Still, the 2003 winter meeting was where Howard Dean made his mark before screaming his way out of contention after the 2004 Iowa Caucus, so anything can happen!

And while it’s quiet here in Iowa simply due to a lull in the campaign schedule, think of poor New Hampshire: the Granite State has been hit with news of campaign trip cancellations from not one, but two candidates. Hillary Clinton is canceling a weekend campaign swing there in order to travel to Arkansas for the funeral of Bill’s stepfather, and Joe Biden is canceling his trip on Monday in order to be present for a Senate vote on Iraq.

And, regarding Biden: I’m thinking there are serious questions about how his campaign is being run. First, the whole NY Observer debacle eclipses his campaign launch and puts him off message from day one, and then later the same week someone looks at the calendar and says, “Oops! Better cancel our first campaign trip to New Hampshire!” Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s laudable that Biden is focusing on his day job, especially when it comes to Iraq, which he is also working to make the signature issue of his presidential campaign. But can you imagine a more bungled first week of a campaign than this?

*glancing at Wesley Clark*

Well, okay. Maybe.