He doesn't have to land a fighter jet on a carrier in front of a hand-picked, adoring crowd to have credibility. Wesley Clark is the rarest of breeds- a career military man who is not a Republican. He can speak on intelligence and security issues with a credibility that none of the rest of the nine Democratic dwarves can begin to approach. But will he run?
By the time you read this, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO forces in Europe may in fact have become the tenth Democratic candidate running for George Bush's job. Alas, we can't say for sure, because Clark and the people around him insist that he won't make a final decision until after Labor Day. And, as befits a military man, "operational security" on this subject has been pretty good. Suffice it to say that whether he runs or not, Wes Clark has already done what is necessary, through countless TV appearances, speaking engagements, and schmoozing with the Democratic political elite, to establish himself as a player—possibly a serious one, in national politics. He's smart, articulate, handsome—and has some serious bones to pick with Bush administration policy. Audiences, small or large, who come to hear him speak invariably come away impressed. In Aspen, Colo., recently, at a conference co-sponsored by FORTUNE full of high-powered types from business and politics, Clark was crisp, erudite, and occasionally humorous as he critiqued Bush's foreign policy. During a panel discussion that included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Paula Dobriansky, a current undersecretary of state, Clark was the one whom people leaned forward in their chairs to hear. "What do you think," an intrigued Larry Summers, the former Clinton Treasury Secretary, later asked a political reporter in attendance, "about Wes Clark?"
Clark is intelligent, erudite, witty, and speaks with the forthrightness of a military commander. No, he's not a bleeding heart in the mold of Dennis Kucinich, but neither is he as bland as John Kerry. OK, so the man isn't George Patton or Dwight Eisenhower, but in our post-9.11 world, where homeland security is Job One, Wesley Clark has a degree of credibility than no other candidate- including Shrub- can claim.
Wesley Clark may not be able to win the Democratic nomination, but he would certainly make the process a hell of a lot more interesting.
