Dead Presidents

I was a huge fan of General Clark and was having a hard time in late-2003/early-2004 deciding between him and Howard Dean. 

There were many obstacles for General Clark.  First of all, he had spent his entire career in the military, so he had to create an entire political identity for the public.  The American people knew him as a soldier and were familiar with his work in Bosnia and Kosovo with NATO, but they didn’t know his political beliefs — until shortly before he ran for President, his party affiliation wasn’t even known.  It’s tough to jump into a race for the Presidency and be a contender when you have no real political identity.

Clark did okay with fundraising, but there were also a ton of candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination in 2004, so any candidates who were not really well-known nationally got lost in the shuffle during debates.  Clark’s other big issue was that he was a high-ranking military leader — he didn’t have a ton of recent experience with being challenged or needing to explain himself.  That made things difficult for him in debates, press conferences, campaign events, and town halls because he wasn’t used to having to find bumper sticker phrases that might go over better than detailed analysis.  He ended up shooting himself in the foot a few times during press availabilities, most infamously with his comments about overcoming the speed of light (I don’t remember what he said exactly), which made him seem a little goofy.

I was a big fan of General Clark, though.  I think he could have been a tough opponent for President Bush.