NY Times: With Tour, Clark Focuses on Southern Votes

With Tour, Clark Focuses on Southern Votes

By EDWARD WYATT

Published: December 29, 2003

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Dec. 28 — The New Hampshire primary is less than a month away, but Gen. Wesley K. Clark will spend the waning days of 2003 far from the North. Instead, he will barnstorm across eight Southern states, even though most of them do not hold their primary elections until well into March and many Democrats expect their presidential nominee to have been chosen by then.

The unusual campaign swing is meant to demonstrate what General Clark's campaign says is his strength in a region where Democrats have not fared too well in recent national elections and thus to portray him as the best alternative to another candidate, Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont.

The decision to look ahead to the general election in November before a single vote has been cast in the primaries is a calculated risk by the Clark campaign, which has been briskly raising money over the last three months and attracting growing crowds at recent stops in Wisconsin and South Carolina.

General Clark is trying to show the party that his national security credentials and experience leading a well-integrated institution make him the most qualified candidate to go toe-to-toe with President Bush in the fall. With five Senate seats being vacated by Democrats in the South, General Clark is also trying to demonstrate that for Southern office-seekers, he would be a strong presence at the top of the ticket.

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Skippy!

Those 5 southern senate seats are nothing to turn our nose up at...that's for sure.

I read one article and about cutting the South out...and man, it was so pathetic, I had to respond:
A route for 2004 that doesn't go through Dixie
story: http://tinyurl.com/2dxpo
Here's my letter:

Dear Mr. Schaller,

I respectfully object to the sentiments expressed in your analysis, a route for 2004 that doesn't go through Dixie. Your last paragraph demonstrates the fallacy of your own analysis when readers are left, after two and one half pages of text, with this "loser of an argument" in where you state: "IF the Democrats can hold the Gore States-- a big "IF", but they have to start somewhere, plus capture newly competitive Arizona's 10 electors, that's exactly 270".

I have always understood that when one strategize, it is usually wise to have Plan A, Plan B, etc... You are offering Plan A only with no backups. Why am I not cheered by this finding?

As a Democrat, I am not willing to partake in your experimental never before tested premise in order to win this historic and all important election. Your first assumption that Howard Dean will be the nominee made your work very difficult indeed. You question whether Democratic Presidential Candidates can compete in the South. That should be changed to your real question, whether Howard Dean can compete in the South. You answer your own question with a two word answer; They can't. That should also be changed to, Dean can't. Maybe that's why Howard Dean as the nominee is not the best strategy for Democrats who want to win the general election.

To be useful to your Democratic readers, your analysis should have included an analysis of various candidate's chances in the south. Could General Wes Clark, the 2nd man in the race win all of the states that Howard Dean might win and some southern states as well? Is it possible that many Democrats do not want to give up on the five Southern Democratic Senate seats that will be at play during the general election? Do Democrats want to give George Bush the advantage of him not having to campaign in the south? would that mean that Bush would be free to concentrate elsewhere, like in some previously won Gore states?

Now if you'd answered those questions, I would have read your work with greater interest. Maybe the real conclusion of your analysis that you altogether left out is that Howard Dean may not be the best candidate if Democrats want to take back the White House. Your article may be useful to the Howard Dean campaign, but it only alarmed me.
Regards,

because most Democrats are not stumping down there. The novelty should get some positive press and no doubt crowd turnout will help. While Dean, Kerry, and co. are stumping in Iowa, Clark will be able to concentrate in NH (and SC). May be a good chance to jump past Kerry before Jan-27th.

:hangover:

Hope he has a successful tour in the south. :)

Wow! Clark gets a straight write-up from NYT? it must be Cristmas or sumpthin!